3 ms·

From Wikipedia article on the sylk format which the exploit uses. > The format was introduced in the 1980s and has not evolved since 1986[2]. So over 34 years

From Wikipedia article on the sylk format which the exploit uses. > The format was introduced in the 1980s and has not evolved since 1986[2]. So over 34 years old.

deathanatos 6y ago
Likewise, the macro format XLM — which the article notes is a predecessor to VBA (at which point I'm going, "VBA had a predecessor? but VBA is ancient — its still supported?!") — XML was introduced in 1987, 33 years ago. VBA wouldn't happen until 1993. Absolutely incredible.
- Beldin 6y ago
  If with "VBA" you mean Visual Basic for Applications, it had (AFAIK) several ancestors from the BASIC family including Visual Basic and Quick Basic. Probably GW BASIC and its ancestors count as well.
  - taejo 6y ago
    deathanatos seems to be referring to predecessors as a document macro system, not ancestors as a programming language
- flomo 6y ago
  I used some early versions of Excel and am completely shocked the legacy macros still work. Article if you want to do some Win32 programming in XLM. https://outflank.nl/blog/2018/10/06/old-school-evil-excel-4-0-macros-xlm/ https://outflank.nl/blog/2018/10/06/old-school-evil-excel-4-...
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  > VBA is ancient — its still supported?! VBA is well supported actually. The community is completely insular and they sometimes complain that they are second to C#, but there is support for the newest .net runtime. Kudos to Microsoft on this one (or not, depending on your opinion). The language changed a lot of course.
  - deathanatos 6y ago
    That it referred to XLM — that it is both older than VBA and still supported is quite surprising to me. (Given that VBA is no spring chicken.)
- sukilot 6y ago
  Lots of languages are ancient, supported and have predecessor. C++, Perl, Python. JavaScript.
  - deathanatos 6y ago
    All of those except C++ are younger than XLM. (And C++ has seen — comparatively — regular updates. XLM has faded into obscurity.)
- keithalewis 6y ago
  If you (are crazy enough to) do XLM programming then you will need this: https://github.com/xlladdins/xll/blob/master/docs/Excel4Macros/README.md https://github.com/xlladdins/xll/blob/master/docs/Excel4Macr...
simonh 6y ago
To be fair, it's mostly a relatively simple text based variation of CSV that also encodes some cell formatting instructions. As a lowest common denominator spreadsheet data interchange format, keeping it stable is largely the point. You can think of it as a spreadsheet equivalent of GNU Recutils format.

From Wikipedia article on the sylk format which the exploit uses. > The format was introduced in the 1980s and has not evolved since 1986[2]. So over 34 years old.

deathanatos 6y ago

Likewise, the macro format XLM — which the article notes is a predecessor to VBA (at which point I'm going, "VBA had a predecessor? but VBA is ancient — its still supported?!") — XML was introduced in 1987, 33 years ago. VBA wouldn't happen until 1993. Absolutely incredible.

Beldin 6y ago
If with "VBA" you mean Visual Basic for Applications, it had (AFAIK) several ancestors from the BASIC family including Visual Basic and Quick Basic. Probably GW BASIC and its ancestors count as well.
- taejo 6y ago
  deathanatos seems to be referring to predecessors as a document macro system, not ancestors as a programming language
flomo 6y ago
I used some early versions of Excel and am completely shocked the legacy macros still work. Article if you want to do some Win32 programming in XLM. https://outflank.nl/blog/2018/10/06/old-school-evil-excel-4-0-macros-xlm/ https://outflank.nl/blog/2018/10/06/old-school-evil-excel-4-...
raxxorrax 6y ago
> VBA is ancient — its still supported?! VBA is well supported actually. The community is completely insular and they sometimes complain that they are second to C#, but there is support for the newest .net runtime. Kudos to Microsoft on this one (or not, depending on your opinion). The language changed a lot of course.
- deathanatos 6y ago
  That it referred to XLM — that it is both older than VBA and still supported is quite surprising to me. (Given that VBA is no spring chicken.)
sukilot 6y ago
Lots of languages are ancient, supported and have predecessor. C++, Perl, Python. JavaScript.
- deathanatos 6y ago
  All of those except C++ are younger than XLM. (And C++ has seen — comparatively — regular updates. XLM has faded into obscurity.)
keithalewis 6y ago
If you (are crazy enough to) do XLM programming then you will need this: https://github.com/xlladdins/xll/blob/master/docs/Excel4Macros/README.md https://github.com/xlladdins/xll/blob/master/docs/Excel4Macr...

simonh 6y ago

To be fair, it's mostly a relatively simple text based variation of CSV that also encodes some cell formatting instructions. As a lowest common denominator spreadsheet data interchange format, keeping it stable is largely the point. You can think of it as a spreadsheet equivalent of GNU Recutils format.