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Our Blogs Core Dump Mac PowerPoint flaw goes unpatched
Our Blogs Core Dump Mac PowerPoint flaw goes unpatched | Mac PowerPoint flaw goes unpatched |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Thursday, 14 May 2009 | |
  
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Trouble is, only the Windows versions of PowerPoint have been fixed. According to a statement provided by Microsoft's Security Response Center, "we have released the updates for one product line (all versions of Microsoft Office for Windows) so that the majority of our customers can protect their systems. We are able to do this because the updates were ready within the predictable release cycle for the entire product line. Updates for the additional products (Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, Microsoft Works 8.5 and Microsoft Works 9.0) will be released when testing is complete and we can ensure high quality." Microsoft was caught between a rock and a hard place with this one. Given that one of the vulnerabilities is already being attacked in PowerPoint for Windows, the company needed to get an update to it customers. But we know from experience that malware writers use Microsoft patches to determine the nature of vulnerabilities, so there's now more potential for a successful attack on the Mac versions. The good news is that the 'in the wild' vulnerability does not apply to PowerPoint for Mac. The bad news is that there are 13 other vulnerabilities in the bulletin, and we know the Mac version is prone to at least one of them. So if any PowerPoint files show up in my inbox in the next few weeks, I'm going to be particularly careful about checking that they did come from someone I know and trust. |
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