Microsoft advises users to switch Word to ’safe mode’ – Computerworld.com

Conputerworld.com Security is reporting on a Trojan that recently appeared which can exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Word.

“The good news is that it doesn’t seem to be very widespread,” said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with U.K. antivirus company Sophos PLC. “There have been very, very few reports.”

Researchers at F-Secure Corp. and Trend Micro Corp. also said the number of reported incidents remained low. Trend Micro rates the Trojan as “low risk” because, while the potential for damage is high, the impact so far has been small, said David Sancho, a senior antivirus engineer.

The Trojan surfaced last Thursday and arrives buried in a Word file attached to an e-mail message (see “E-mail attacks target unpatched Word hole” ). It secretly installs software on a user’s PC that could be used to execute remote commands, download other malware or monitor keystrokes and gather passwords, among other mischief.

Using safe mode in Word won’t fix the vulnerability but it will prevent the Trojan from exploiting it. Microsoft plans to release a patch for this vulnerability, which affects Word XP and 2003, with its next regular update on June 13th.

Read the full story from Computerworld Security