Re: Serious Microsoft File Association Bug

["Michael R. Batchelor" <michaelb () ind-info com>]

> Normally, when you open a file of an unknown type, it will
> prompt you for an application to use to open the file.
> This does not prove true for Microsoft Office documents.
> If you rename an Office document to an unknown extension,
> Windows will still use the Office application to open the file.
[...]
> Someone with malicious intent could create a macro virus
> embedded in an Office document, then rename the file with
> a .VIR extension.  Since most anti-virus software have an
> exclusion of .VI* this file would never be scanned by Norton.


I was able to duplicate this on NT 4.0 SP4, Office 97 SR-2,
NAV 5.0 definitions 7/17/00 and another system W98 4.10.2222A,
 Word 2000 9.0.2720, NAV 4.0 definitions 7/17/00 so long as
the extension was *NOT* .vir.

It worked with .viq and .via, but .vir is recognized as
a Norton extension and prompts for a program to open it.

Still, the ordinary exclusion is .vi?, so the macro would
have executed.

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