Posted 05/15/09 at 03:56:40 PM by Paul Lilly

Hackers have targeted everyone from QuickTime users to epilepsy patients, so is anyone really suprised to see them now going after PowerPoint users?

That's the latest word from Microsoft, who noted that Mac users running PowerPoint are also vulnerable (no matter what Justin Long says), although there has been no evidence that hackers have tried to attack the platform. The "critical" vulnerability relies on the intended victim opening an infected PowerPoint file either downloaded from the web or received as an email attachment.

"At that point, the attacker would then have complete control over everything the user's account has permission to do on the system," said Alfred Huger, a senior researcher with Symantec.

Patches have been released for Windows users, but not for Mac computers. However, Microsoft did say it was working on one.

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Posted 04/03/09 at 02:15:14 PM by Paul Lilly

No rest for the weary, especially Windows users. Following the Conficker.c scare that, up to this point, hasn't lived up to the hype, a Microsoft Security Advisory (969136) warns of a newly discovered vulnerability in PowerPoint.

"Microsoft is investigating new reports of a vulnerability in Microsoft Office PowerPoint that could allow remote code execution if user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file," said the advisory. "At this time, we are aware only of limited and targeted attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability."

Microsoft said the vulnerability is caused when PowerPoint accesses an invalid object in memory when parsing a specially crafted PowerPoint file. The security hole makes it possible for attackers to gain the same user rights as the local user.

No fix is currently in place, however Microsoft indicated it may release a patch before the next monthly security update. In the meantime, PowerPoint users are advised not to open or save Office files from un-trusted sources (thanks for that gem, MS!).

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Posted 06/23/08 at 01:38:20 PM by Paul Lilly

Complaints over bandwidth limits and Bittorrent filtering have made it so Comcast can't catch a break in the press, so you'd think the cable giant would be eager to stop shooting itself in the foot. Instead, Comcast is once again making headlines, this time over a PowerPoint presentation created by an account executive and being passed around inside one of its call centers. Read on to see what has customers both laughing and crying at the same time.

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