Text written by Peter C. Norton at 10:16 PM 3/30/99 -0500:
>
>Really? I thought that others here had said that there was a loophole
>when you received documents that were somehow trusted. I don't know
>how that works, though.
The only version of that I've heard of is: Word and other Office apps have
a "most-recently-used" (MRU) files list at the bottom of the File menu. If
you open a document off the MRU, it applies the same settings as last time
you opened it (enable auto macros or disable them).
This is not a problem unless you're sharing files with someone else who's
infected. If you open the file, knowing that it's okay (because, for
example, you just created it, auto macros included) and say "enable the
macros", then close it, then your pal across the office network who's just
gotten a copy of Melissa (or any other MS Office macro virus) opens the
thing and makes some changes, then you're screwed the next time you open
the sucker.
>Offices do set up documents with macros. Automated crud from HR and
>finance related things, in my experience. A document for filing
>expense reports with a table that adds things automaticly and prompts
>for missing fields is one that I've seen. It's the standard at one
>office that just seems to keep getting hit by virii. If that document
>got infected and sent around they'd lose *days* of IS time.
I'm not saying people never use these features -- our office has an Excel
spreadsheet exactly like what you describe -- just that it's rare enough
that most people probably don't just hit "enable macros" without thinking
about it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kai MacTane
System Administrator
Online Partners.com, Inc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>From the Jargon File: (v4.0.0, 25 Jul 1996)
die horribly /v./
The software equivalent of crash and burn, and the preferred emphatic
form of die. "The converter choked on an FF in its input and died
horribly".
