Microsoft to boost Office 2003, 2007 security

From InfoWorld: Microsoft said on Tuesday that it would backport an Office 2010 security feature to the older and more widely used Office 2003 and Office 2007 early next year.

Dubbed Office File Validation (OVE), the technology validates older, pre-XML file formats for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher, then opens those that don't conform to the documented format -- rigged files containing an exploit, for example -- in a special "sandbox" within Office 2010 called Protected View.

That sandbox lets users view the contents of a document, but disables most editing functions to prevent malware that may be embedded in the file from executing.

OVE debuted in early builds of Office 2010, which launched last June.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it would bring some parts of OVE to Office 2003 and Office 2007 in the first quarter of 2011.

"It will be an optional update for those platforms, but we'll make a big push to urge customers to download it," Jerry Bryant, a group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), told Computerworld on Tuesday.

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