OpenOffice & StarOffice Get Infected
June 1, 2006 by Jason Bean
Filed under Computers
Looks like Microsoft isn’t the only virus target in town. Here’s the report from a c/net News.com article. The virus can actually infect both OpenOffice and StarOffice.
“Stardust is a macro virus written for StarOffice, the first one I’ve seen,” the researcher wrote. “Macro viruses usually infect MS Office applications.”
The good news is (if there is good news) that it’s only a proof of concept virus at this time, so there’s no actual damage being inflicted on the applications or computers they’re on.
Source: Stardust Virus Lands On OpenOffice via Digg
A macro virus is certainly possible and predictable. The big difference is that VBScript is built into the Windows OS and therefore those scripts (can) have unfettered access to the entire OS. That’s why they’re dangerous.
Star Basic is not hooked into the OS and therefore even the most destructive Star Office virus can’t do any damage outside of SO.