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Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0171 Experts warn of .doc attacks:
Security experts at the Infosecurity Europe 2007 conference are warning of hack attacks and data theft being made easier by the use of hidden executables and a high-tech variant on the microdot spying technique.
The first attack involves planting an executale malware file in a WORD document. When the document is opened it crashes the system and the malware is automatically loaded when the computer reboots. "It is a cunning technique because antivirus software does not detect this kind of attack," said Pete Simpson, ThreatLab active manager at Clearswift. "A lot of legacy WORD code is ripe for this kind of attack. It is the attack vector of choice for hostile intelligence agencies and professional criminals.
The second technique is a variant of the traditional spying method of microdotting, where information is photographed and reduced to the size of a dot and pasted into a document. The new technique is similar, but uses text boxes in WORD documents. Sensitive information can be pasted into a text box and then the box is reduced and placed in the document to resemble a punctuation mark.
(www.pcauthority.com.au 27APR07)
Last Modified: Sunday, 06-May-2007 09:54:48 EDT