Title: RTF document linked to template can run macros without
warning
Date: 21 May 2001
Software: Microsoft Word for Windows and Word for the Mac
Impact: Run Macros without warning
Bulletin: MS01-028

Microsoft encourages customers to review the Security Bulletin at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-028.asp.

Issue:

Word, like other members of the Office product family, provides a
security mechanism that requires user's approval to run macros. By
design, anytime a document is opened the user would be notified if
the
document contains macros. In addition, this mechanism checks
secondary
documents that the original document links to, such as templates, and
warn if any of those contain macros. This feature works by scanning
the
document or template for the presence of macros, alerting the user of
their presence, and then asking the user if he wants to allow the
macros to run.

By embedding a macro in a template, and providing another user with
an
RTF document that links to it, an attacker could cause a macro to run
automatically when the RTF document was opened. The macro would be
able
to take any action that the user herself could take. This could
include
disabling the user's Word security settings so that
subsequently-opened
Word documents would no longer be checked for macros.

Mitigating Factors:

• The vulnerability only affects Word. Other Office products are not
  affected.
• The vulnerability does not occur when opening Word documents, only
  when opening RTF documents, and even then only when the RTF
  document
  is linked to a template.

Patch Availability:

• A patch is available to fix this vulnerability. Please read the
  Security Bulletin
  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-028.asp
  for information on obtaining this patch.

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