'Critical' patch sent out for Office flaw

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5103267.html

By David Becker 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 5, 2003

Microsoft issued the first major patch for the new version of its
Office software, fixing a flaw that could result in lost work.

The "critical update," released late on Tuesday, applies to three of
the four major applications in Office 2003--the Word word-processing
program, the PowerPoint presentation application and the Excel
spreadsheet software, according to a Microsoft bulletin.

The problem happens when a document created with one of those
applications is opened with an earlier version of Office. If the
document contains graphics elements created using the OfficeArt tool,
the earlier version of Office will misinterpret that part of the
document and add invalid data to the file when it is saved.

An attempt to re-open the file with the Office 2003 application that
created it could result in a corrupted document, missing content or
other errors.

Microsoft released Office 2003 late last month amid considerable
fanfare. Unlike previous updates of the productivity software, which
focused on new tools and features, the major changes in Office 2003
are under the hood. Support for XML-based enterprise systems and Web
services and new digital rights management features are positioned to
turn Office into a broad platform for interacting with business data.

Analysts have predicted that migration to Office 2003 will be slower
than previous Office upgrades, partly because the new connections to
corporate computing resources will make integration more of a
challenge.



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