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Microsoft Hides PowerPoint Bug Info

As said by a security researcher, Microsoft may have intentionally did not reveal information about a new unpatched weakness in the PowerPoint program. Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. had warned the public of a new unpatched weakness in PowerPoint, the presentations program of Microsoft Office. Symantec issued an alert to the users of its DeepSight risk system, in which was said that a Trojan horse "PPDropper.f" is being used to use the bug from a distance. A virus researcher Craig Schmugar, together with McAfee`s Avert Labs, reported the weakness on the blog of the research team. Schmugar said in an interview that PowerPoint 2002 (the one in Office XP) and PowerPoint 2003 are the ones that are vulnerable.

The McAfee antivirus has found two different threats, which are parts of the same bug. PowerPoint, just as Microsoft Office Word and Excel, was patched this summer against active viruses. It has been attacked, however, by a document in a PowerPoint format that was sent to a narrow number of users. According to Symantec the document, which activates the bug, is called "FinalPresentationF05.ppt" or "2006-Jane.ppt".

But the most important thing, as Schmugar said, is the fact that Microsoft knew about the problem, but did not share the information with security experts. And that is understandable, somehow, since Microsoft had entered the security market this year and started to compete with other security companies.