Microsoft says safe mode way to go for vulnerable Word

Stan Beer
Thursday, 25 May 2006 19:13

Your IT - Home IT

With a fix for the newly discovered critical Microsoft Word vulnerability still three weeks away, Microsoft has advised users to run the wordprocessor in safe mode, which prevents the application user options from being changed.

Worries about Microsoft Word attachments in emails surfaced three days ago with the news that hackers have begun to exploit a zero-day vulnerability in Word 2003 using a new Trojan horse virus. Opening an email attachment that looks like a word document actually opens an executable Trojan horse program which in turn gives a hacker access to the user's system.

Microsoft says that users can verify that are running in safe mode by looking for the phrase in the title bar.

Some security experts have questioned why Microsoft is waiting until mid-June to release the much needed security patch for Word 2003. However, there is talk Microsoft may release it sooner. The obvious conclusion is that the task isn't trivial.