Microsoft Office is a productivity software suite whose documents, add-ins, and vulnerabilities can expose data and compromise enterprise systems.
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Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, delivered as desktop software and, in many environments, through Microsoft 365 services. Its files are common in business workflows, so Office security advisories, file-format changes, and configuration guidance can affect a broad range of users and systems.
Office documents can carry malicious macros, embedded objects, templates, or links, and vulnerabilities in an application or document parser may enable code execution when a file is opened or previewed. Useful controls include timely patching, restricting macros to trusted, signed sources, using Protected View, and inspecting attachment and download provenance. Cloud use adds security responsibilities around identity, external sharing, delegated application access, and retention of sensitive documents; monitoring sign-ins and sharing events helps distinguish an exploited endpoint from an account or configuration problem.
A "dangerous piece of functionality" has been discovered in Microsoft 365 suite that could be potentially abused by a malicious actor to ransom files stored on SharePoint and OneDrive and launch attacks on cloud infrastructure
Security researchers are warning that threat actors could hijack Office 365 accounts to encrypt for a ransom the files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive services that companies use for cloud-based collaboration, document management and storage. [...]
Microsoft on Tuesday released software updates to fix 60 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a zero-day flaw in all supported Microsoft Office versions on all flavors of Windows that's seen active exploitation for at least two months now. On a lighter note, Microsoft is officially retiring its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser, which turns 27 years old this year.