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MS Excel Users Susceptible To New Vulnerability

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the safer-and-safer dept.

nandemoari writes "Microsoft has warned users that yet another critical vulnerability has been found in its popular Office spreadsheet program Excel. The flaw could allow remote hackers to open and run malicious code on an unsuspecting user's computer through an infected spreadsheet file. Products affected include Office 2000, Office 2002, Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2004 for Mac, Office 2008 for Mac, and the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac."

4 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Leave it to Microsoft... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... to create a vulnerability on my Mac.

  2. And people wonder why... by Indy1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I choose to use open office, even though I get M$ office free through work.

    --
    Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
    1. Re:And people wonder why... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem with OO.o is while Writer can take the place of Word for most folks, unless you work in an office that needs those little functions that Word does that Witer don't, according to everyone I've talked to that uses spreadsheets Calc is a freaking bad joke compared to Excel.

      Now since I am not a spreadsheet user I can't give you a nice bulletpoint list, although I'm sure there are plenty here who could, but I have worked with enough SOHOs and SMBs to know that there is NO WAY in hell to replace Excel with Calc. They simply aren't in the same league. Maybe now that they seem to have Writer down they will devote the resources to bringing Calc up to par, but with this economy that is doubtful.

      So while I am glad you have the ability to switch, I'm willing to bet you do the vast majority of work in Writer and NOT in Calc. That is why I give OO.o free to my home customers but not to my business ones. Because for home users OO.o is a quite capable MS Office replacement. Businesses? Not so much.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  3. And we all know that the "From" field in emails... by cpu_fusion · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... is a reliable indicator of who sent the email... ;-)