Insecure by design: MS Office formats

[ Thanks to Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for this link. ]

"You see, Office, and Windows for that matter, were designed for single-user, non-networked systems. They were not designed for environments with multiple local or remote users. When Microsoft started dealing with a networked computer universe with Windows for Workgroups in 1991, they didn't redesign the system from the bottom up. No, indeed, instead they simply added network functionality, often at a low level, without considering what this meant for security.

"Even when Microsoft added another architecture, the VMS-inspired Windows NT to its operating system mix, the programmers from Redmond insisted on including Windows 2.x and Windows 3.x application compatibility. So it is that this single-user mentality is still Windows' foundation almost 30-years later and with it comes Windows and Office's fundamental insecurity."

Complete Story

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