Critical Patch Available for Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft has released a patch for a zero-day PowerPoint vulnerability that has been exploited in the wild. A Windows version of the patch is available, the Mac version should be out soon.
From Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-017
This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability and several privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office PowerPoint that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
Security Research and Defense reports an old PowerPoint 4 converter has been pulled reducing the attack surface. It's good to see old, nearly unnecessary code pruned. This is a good example to remember during code reviews when we are evaluating our own code.
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