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Microsoft Warns of PowerPoint Attack
narramissic writes to let us know about yet another PowerPoint flaw, this one affecting PowerPoint 2000, 2002, and 2003, soon after Microsoft issued a record number of patches to fix numerous Office vulnerabilities (among others). The new problem came to light in a blog posting by Microsoft Security Program Manager Alexandra Huft, but the coverage at ITWorld has more detail. Huft writes, "We've been made aware of proof of concept code published publicly affecting Microsoft Office 2003 PowerPoint," and goes on to say that Microsoft is not aware of any attacks that exploit the bug.
That has got to be one of the funniest headlines I've seen in a LOOOONG time.
Stock up on milk and bread! Get out the hand-crank radio! The autoshapes are approaching fast! Run! For the love of God, RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I left my wallet in El Sigundo!
Well, if nothing else, college classes would get a little more interesting if the prefessor's slideshow suddenly turned into a stag reel...
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
Do you storm out and tell them they are all idiots for using a presentation software package to make a presentation and run to your desk to be first post on Slashdot?
... I've seen plenty of presentations where the content has been so obscured by all the bells and whistles the user has added. While they're fixing the bug, maybe Microsoft can add a 'View Presentation in Minimalist Mode' option to Powerpoint.
When I was an intern at a company that was in a competition with other companies to get business from lockheed they sent out a CD with power point slides on it that showed how our company rated against other companies. They had "scrubbed" the presentation so that we didn't know who anyone was except for our own company. There were many Excel graphs in the slides. It turns out that not only were the graphs embedded in the slides but the entire spreadsheets to make them were too. This allowed me to find the code to un-scramble which companies were which. I am not sure if this was/still is an "exploit", but at least something that every one should be aware of.
GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Really? You just walk out? Where do you work? What's your position in the company?
Joe, is that you?
"Bossman" Steve here.
Quit whining on slashdot and get back in the meeting immediately .
What's your position in the company?
Waitress?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I don't use PowerPoint. When I go to a meeting, which is often, I immediately leave the room if someone decides to bore me with stupid phrases in 12-centimetre type.
...then it doesn't matter what software I'm using, I'm wasting resources. PowerPoint has a lot of functionality that can be used to enhance presentations but most people don't use it. So they could really just use a word processor or slideshow program to do practically the same thing.
To be fair, that's not PowerPoint's fault; it's a lack of presentation skill that seems to pervade the business culture today. If I am talking finances and I have a $2000 laptop and a $4500 projector displaying this on the screen:
Finances
- income
- spending
If you want bash PowerPoint (and I realize that wasn't necessarily the parent's goal), try this: the interface STINKS. I haven't used OpenOffice or StarOffice, but if they are trying to emulate PowerPoint's interface, then I won't bother.
<fanboi>I'm a Mac user and Keynote is much, MUCH more elegant to use... and can even import and export PowerPoint files.</fanboi>
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
And this is, I think, the first PC virus to attach into Meat Space, as it were.
The way this works is that a compromised Powerpoint presentation is played to a room-full a victims. The speaker is first affected, speaking in a very monotone voice, rapidly clicking through the compromised slides of bullet-points and pie-charts. Within 10 minutes, all the victims are asleep.
I swear. I've seen this happen!! NO URBAN LEGEND! Check SNOPES!!!!!!
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Your pitiful FlipChart-fu is no match for my mighty PowerPoint Attack!
Ceci n'est pas un post.
Microsoft Warns of PowerPoint Attack
We have these at work all the time. I call them "meetings"...
I am an intelligent man and I demand an intelligent medium by which to be educated.
What does that even mean? I suppose when you run a meeting you put everything together in a video presentation using Macromedia Director that link to sources. After the meeting you give everyone a CD copy so they can view it at their desk. Sure it takes you a month and a budget to get your 15 minute presentation together, but damn its so intelligent.
Can I bum a sig?
UML diagrams make baby jesus cry.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.