MS Word Zero-Day Exploit Found

subbers writes "A zero-day flaw in Microsoft Word program is being used in an active exploit by sophisticated hackers in China and Taiwan, according to warnings from anti-virus researchers. The exploit arrives as an ordinary Microsoft Word document attachment to an e-mail and drops a backdoor with rootkit features when the document is opened and the previously unknown vulnerability is triggered. From the article: 'The e-mail was written to look like an internal e-mail, including signature. It was addressed by name to the intended victim and not detected by the anti-virus software.'"

At least it's not open source

[Anonymous Coward]

You know how unreliable OSS is after all...

In related news

[Siberwulf]

Sony announces it will be sending an apology note to users who were infected by their rootkit DRM. The apology will be in .doc format.

real damage?

[gEvil (beta)]

Finnish anti-virus vendor F-Secure said a successful exploit allows the attacker to create, read, write, delete and search for files and directories; access and modify the Registry; manipulate services; start and kill processes; take screenshots; enumerate open windows; create its own application window; and lock, restart or shut down Windows.

Yeah, but can they do any real damage? : p

Ahh Microsoft

[dannyelfman]

I would like to point out that as a pen tester, Microsoft product really *DO* make my job easier.

Patch available

[MarkByers]

Patch available: http://www.openoffice.org/ [openoffice.org]

Re:is Microsoft this fragile?

[Anonymous Coward]

A recent slashdot story asked the question, "Is the internet that fragile?" When I see stories like this, it reminds me and should remind everyone of the other fragile technology(ies), Microsoft and their baggage.

If someone figures out how to put a root kit in a (Porn)MPEG file, the internet would be fucking gone!

Only a taste...

[gerrysteele]

...of things to come. This is the Microsoft Windows Vista teaser trailer :p

Re:This is nonsense!

[PFI_Optix]

It helps not to open infected files :)

When some other OS with some other standard office suite becomes the de facto standard for business AND for home users, we'll see the same sort of security breaches for that particular combination or software. It hasn't been done yet on because there are twenty (or more) times as many Windows machines, and Windows has a larger percentage of careless users.

When Joe Six Pack switches to Linux/Unix/Mac/whatever and MS is the underdog, suddenly they'll be the secure ones.

Incidentally, it's not trolling to point out that I haven't seen a virus since early 2000, and that was because I hated updating W2K on dialup and put it off.

Re:When do we see a patch?

[sbrown123]

Must be another slow news day. I mean, Microsoft exploits are as regular as I am after eating Mexican food.

Re:doesn't affect me

[multipartmixed]

How do you watch flash animations, then?

Re:At least it's not open source

[hey!]

You know how unreliable OSS is after all...

Yes, you never know whether an exploit is going to work on an OSS platform.

Now this is what I call an "Open Document Format"!

[JoshuaJarman]

Now this is what I call an "Open Document Format"!

It is Open, as in open for hackers to drop root kits on your system.
As in grab you ankles open.

It is also Accessable, as other people now have access to your system.

Why does a document need to have the ability to contain code and execute code on your system?
I'd be happy with just formatting features and losing all "fancy garbage" that allows these holes to exist.

Name Change?

[JoshuaJarman]

Maybe they should consider renaming MS Word to MS Access?