Microsoft apologizes from Office users

I blogged earlier that Microsoft blocks some old format format in Office 2003 SP3 because of insecurity.

Now David LeBlanc from Microsoft Office team has replied to that in his blog

"In the KB article we stated that it was the file formats that were insecure, but this is actually not correct. A file format (with some exceptions, like .hlp files) isn't insecure – it's the code that reads the format that's more or less secure. The parsers we use for these older formats aren't as robust as the code we've written more recently, which is part of our decision to disable them by default"

"Some of the formats blocked are from products built by companies other than Microsoft, and we apologize for implying that there were any problems in those companies file formats."

Microsoft offers now .reg files for easier changing of security settings, links can be found from that blog.

LeBlanc states also that:

"we're not removing support – we're making the default safer. If you're among the users who do need to be opening these formats, we will continue to support you."

Office 2003 SP3 blocks old file formats

Office 2003 SP3 upgrade removes supports for old Word-, Excel-, 1-2-3-, Quattro- and Corel Draw - file formats.

That can cause troubles in companies which have a lot of old file formats in their systems.

Microsoft said that those file formats will be blocked by default because they are less secure than new ones and can that's why cause a risk to user.

Wired magazine thinks in its blog that Microsoft maybe doesn't want to fix Office but takes off file formats with probable leak advantages.

Microsoft has released a solution which requires registry editing.

Source: Wired