Pavel JanÃk wrote: > From: Andrew Bernstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 19:23:35 -0400 > > > It has come to my attention that a virus has been made that can > > infect both OpenOffice.org and Star Office in the form of a Star > > Basic macro. The story where I read this is below: > > > > http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6078475.html?tag=nl.e589 > > Well, no. After reading this URL, you'll be informed that someone *thinks* > there is a "virus" that can ... bla bla ... > > We haven't seen the virus, there is no known vulnerability that this virus > can misuse. > > As with every macro, you are warned that you will run it. If you accept the > warning and thus the risk, you decided to RUN the program. > > If you actually RUN any program you do not trust, you are lost, but this is > general issue, does not affect OOo, does not affect StarOffice.
Thanks Pavel, you say it: if you don't want to get a macro virus, don't execute macros you don't know or you got from people you don't trust. OOo by default will not execute any macro in a document without asking for permission. IMHO this is the only working protection against macro viruses. So the only "concept" that this alleged virus can prove is that a macro gets executed when the users allow it. Wow, great stuff. BTW: the code of this "virus" is rubbish: the only code that could do anything that might look harmful is commented out and if you reenable it it doesn't compile or run. Besides that there is another syntax error in the macro that prevents it from running on most OOo and SO versions. So over all this "virus" does not create a new situation: we already know and never denied that it is possible to write malicious code with OOo Basic. And because we know this the only macros that are allowed to be executed without explicit permission are those that are part of the OOo installation or have been created by the user itself. All other macros (that usually come with documents - how else?) need user permission for execution. If anybody is concerned about macro viruses in OOo there is one single means against it: switch off macro execution and "seal" this setting in the administrator level of your installation. Best regards, Mathias -- Mathias Bauer - OpenOffice.org Application Framework Project Lead Please reply to the list only, [EMAIL PROTECTED] is a spam sink. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
