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Re: Winword Macro Viruses: unsafe to use Word as a viewer?
Microsoft's macro virus detection tool, when loaded, first checks to
see if you have any macro viruses (and removes them), and then every
time you load up Word the tool is loaded automatically (although it can
be disabled) in your normal.dot (I think). But, when word is invoked
with a file, such as when Netscape calls it as an external viewer, I do
not know if Word first loads the normal.dot or whether it just loads
the file. If it's the latter then the virus may not be blocked. Also,
the CIAC statement mentioned that the DMV macro virus was also found on
Excel, but the Microsoft patch was only for Word.
Anyway, due t the fact that new viruses may surface which are not
caught by the exisitng Word macro virus tool, it would be inadvisable
to configure Word as an external viewer for web browsing.
===================================
In reply to: Prentiss Riddle <riddle@is.rice.edu> at Internet-USA
In reference to CIAC Information Bulletin G-10a, "Winword Macro
Viruses":
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/bulletins/g-10a.shtml
I assume that this problem makes it inadvisable to configure Word or
Excel as an external viewer in conjunction with a web browser (i.e.,
don't configure Netscape to automatically fire up Word or Excel when
you download a Word or Excel file).
Unless, that is, one could figure out how to automatically invoke the
Microsoft macro virus detection tool (as recommended by the CIAC
advisory) before invoking Word or Excel. Has anyone tried this? Is
the Microsoft macro virus checker an add-on to Word or a separate
application?