COMMAND

    Word

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    Word for Win32 and Mac

PROBLEM

    Following  is  based  on  a  Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-028.
    Word, like other members of the Office product family, provides  a
    security mechanism  that requires  user's approval  to run macros.
    By design, anytime a document is opened the user would be notified
    if  the  document  contains  macros.  In  addition, this mechanism
    checks secondary  documents that  the original  document links to,
    such as templates, and warn if any of those contain macros.   This
    feature  works  by  scanning  the  document  or  template  for the
    presence of macros, alerting the user of their presence, and  then
    asking the user if he wants to allow the macros to run.

    By embedding  a macro  in a  template, and  providing another user
    with an RTF document that links  to it, an attacker could cause  a
    macro to run automatically when the RTF document was opened.   The
    macro would be able to take any action that the user herself could
    take.   This  could  include  disabling  the  user's Word security
    settings  so  that  subsequently-opened  Word  documents  would no
    longer be checked for macros.

    The vulnerability only  affects Word.   Other Office products  are
    not affected.  The vulnerability does not occur when opening  Word
    documents, only  when opening  RTF documents,  and even  then only
    when the RTF document is linked to a template.

SOLUTION

    A patch is available to  fix this vulnerability.  Please  read the
    Security Bulletin

        http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-028.asp

    for information on obtaining this patch.