Steps to Mitigate Office Vulnerabilities

FYI...from the Internet Storm Center:
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?date=2003-09-05
September 5th 2003
"Some of the vulnerabilities announced on Wednesday are easily exploited to execute hostile code without users opening any attachments.
- As patching is tricky, we do provide these steps as a work around. Please do not substitute implementing these steps for patching. However, it may help mitigate problems.
- Proof of concept exploits for the vulnerability have been released to the public. At this point, it is rather likely that this vulnerability will be used as a vector to launch a virus or for targeted network intrusions.
- The basic idea is to change the message format in Exchange to txt or html. (In exchange go to tools, options, mailformat, message format ) If this option is "Microsoft Word" any reply or forward with an infected word document in it can cause word to open the infected document. The default email editor in office XP (EXCHANGE) is Word.

To change which program starts when you open a file:
1 In My Computer or Windows NT Explorer, click the View menu, and then click Options.
2 Click the File Types tab.
3 In the list of file types, click the one you want to change. The settings for that file type are shown in the File Type Details box.
4 Click Edit.
5 In the Actions box, click Open.
6 Click Edit, and then specify the program you want to use to open files that have this extension.

- Choose word documents (and all other word type files)
change from quick view to confirm open after download.

- URL for Office Updates: http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates/ "