Researchers: OpenOffice.org Security 'Insufficient'
With Microsoft's Office suite now being targeted by hackers, researchers at the French Ministry of Defence say users of the OpenOffice.org software may be at even greater risk from computer viruses.
"The general security of OpenOffice is insufficient," the researchers wrote in a paper, In-depth analysis of the viral threats with OpenOffice.org documents.
"This suite is up to now still vulnerable to many potential malware attacks," they wrote.
The paper describes four proof-of-concept viruses that illustrate how maliciously encoded macros and templates could be created to compromise systems running the open-source software.
"The viral hazard attached to OpenOffice.org is at least as high as that for the Microsoft Office suite, and even higher when considering some... aspects," they wrote.
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White Flag
Ouch, bitch slapped by French security (the makers of the Maginot Line).
Somehow I doubt that the OOO dev's are thinking about surrendering.
I guess if you can't ban open source software, bad mouthing it is the next best thing.
Re: White Flag
Hey, it works for Microsoft!
(I'll never forget Steve Ballmer saying open-source is a "cancer", while Bill Gates implied it as "Communist")
The thing about this announcement is that it isn't done by a two bit security company with the intention of bad mouthing open-source. Its the French Ministry of Defence. Don't some Govt depts in Europe plan to switch to open-source? So you'd expect them to help improve the quality of those solutions with their audits and research. They talk about the issue, and even work with the OpenOffice devs into fixing the issues being raised. (This is what you call a community effort into improving software)
Typically, security companies with evil intentions like Kaspersky, will announce some "proof of concept" nonsense that actually doesn't work, but used to scare people into buying security solutions. (Kaspersky has done it to Linux and OpenOffice...In both cases, this year, they used "proof of concept" nonsense).
The only issue I see with the article, is the knob from CyberTrust...Putting his two cents into it. (companies like that deserve to die a horrible death, as open-source users gradually picks up). They know they aren't needed anymore, so they will do anything to keep their business...The security business IS a multi-billion dollar industry.
Using fear is a key weapon in their arsenal of keeping their business alive. Fear is a human factor that is often erradicated with logic and explanation.