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I know this must be a stupid question to ask, but why does a document writing tool need security updates? Can someone hack in and write documents on your behalf

• cpburns2009 9y ago
  That answer should be no. However, there have been exploits that allow installation of malware by opening a malicious document [1]. [1]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/booby-trapped-word-documents-in-the-wild-exploit-critical-microsoft-0day/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/booby...
• yathern 9y ago
  One fear would be that someone could craft a malicious .docx file that can do any number of things - install keyloggers or adware or ransomware.
• paulmd 9y ago
  Macros are the really obvious one. But generally you need security patches any time you are running untrusted content from the internet. What happens if a malicious document overflows a buffer and gains code execution? This is a particularly big concern with Word since its data format is essentially a direct binary copy of its memory structures. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/02/19/why-are-the-microsoft-office-file-formats-so-complicated-and-some-workarounds/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/02/19/why-are-the-micros...
  • ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    That's mostly the old DOC, XLS, etc. which is a binary file format. DOCX, XLSX, etc. are XML-based, I believe? But yeah, to the parent of yours, Office has a lot of features of embedding and triggering dynamic content, and people are constantly finding creative new ways to infect Office files. Security updates for Office is a critical as security updates for your PC.