Bugtraq mailing list archives
Microsoft Word documents that "phone" home
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () PRIVACYFOUNDATION ORG>
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 10:52:51 -0400
Hi, The Privacy Foundation has just released an advisory on an issue that we discovered earlier this month in Microsoft Word. We found that it is possible to embedded "Web bugs" in Word documents. The Web bugs allow the author of a document to track via the Internet where a document is being read. The trick could be used to monitor leaks of confidential documents from a organization to outsiders as well as detecting copyright violations. In addition, it is also possible to place Web bugs in individual paragraphs and detect when the text is copied from one Word document to another. The complete advisory is available at the Foundation's Web site: http://www.privacyfoundation.org/advisories/advWordBugs.html A demonstration "bugged" document for Word 97 and Word 2000 has been set up at: http://www.privacycenter.du.edu/demos/bugged.doc We also found that Excel 2000 spreadsheet files and PowerPoint 2000 slideshows can be "bugged" in the same manner. Richard ================================================ Richard M. Smith Chief Technology Officer Privacy Foundation Email: rms () privacyfoundation org http://www.privacyfoundation.org ================================================
Current thread:
- Microsoft Word documents that "phone" home Richard M. Smith (Aug 30)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Microsoft Word documents that "phone" home Microsoft Security Response Center (Aug 31)
- Re: Microsoft Word documents that "phone" home Crooks, James (Aug 31)