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PowerPoint ZeroDay Vulnerability Exploited
whitehatlurker writes to mention a WashingtonPost.com article about another unpatched flaw with Microsoft Office. The bug, part of the PowerPoint software, has already been used in the wild, and may be connected to an industrial espionage case. From the article: "This undocumented flaw does not appear to have been addressed in any of the 13 security updates Microsoft shipped this week to mend a variety of problems in Office software. As Security Fix and others have noted, some of the work Microsoft has done in hardening the security of the Windows operating system has forced the bad guys to look for lower-hanging fruit in applications that run on top of Windows, so we may see more Office flaws under attack."
Hastily written karma whoring frist prost on Slashdot? Say it ain't so!
"[...] people [...] won't switch unless the alternative is 100% in every way, shape, and form 'compatible' with [...] Office"
Exactly. This is why we need to get these security vulnerabilities in MS Office to work in OpenOffice, ASAP. It's all about compatibility, baby.
Seriously, though, I don't agree with the quote. Of course people want compatibility. But they also want security. Using MS office is a tradeoff: more compatibility, less security. When the tradeoff gets less comfortable, rational people will reconsider their options.
Now I have an excuse for all those stupid sales presentations I've skipped. :-)
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I, too, have become so much safer since I turned off my antivirus software and instead relied on good old, tried-and-tested intuition to detect malicious software and vulnerabilities.
He he, "PowerPoint"! When will you people give up and use LaTeX/Beamer like everyone else?!