US-CERT is reporting that they’re aware of reports of another unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000 and are recommending the following precautions until a fix is released by Microsoft or it these reports are dismissed:
- Do not open or save untrusted Word documents or attachments from unsolicited email messages.
- Disable automatic opening of Microsoft Office documents, as specified in the Office Document Open Confirmation Tool document.
- Do not rely on file name extensions as a secure way to filter against malicious files.
Personally, I never open any email attachment unless I’m expecting it and even then, not until I have scanned it with my freshly updated copy of NOD32 Anti-Virus and Trojan Hunter. Its amazing how often business documents I am expecting are infected with worms. Even documents I get from lawyers which almost always have notices appended to their email stating the attachment was scanned by Norton, McAfee, or other email gateway anti-virus scanners. You cannot rely on others for your computers security, be proactive by always trusting BUT confirming.
[tags]Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Word, Security[/tags]