WARNING: Microsoft Word Is Under A Hack Attack: Do Not Open Documents Named '.RTF'

Microsoft Corp. on Monday issued an emergency security warning saying that hackers have found a way to booby-trap certain common Word files with the .rtf extension.

This is the worst kind of attack. A hacker who manages to get you to open a booby-trapped file can gain control of your computer. From there, the hacker can do all kinds of things. For instance, the hacker can turn your computer into a so-called zombie by putting it on an illegal botnet. That means hackers can use your computer as part of a bigger network of computers to do all kinds of illegal things — like send spam, spread viruses, and commit fraud.

Microsoft is recommending that you block all .rtf documents from your computer. It released a free tool that will set that up for you.

Here's a link for the tool

Link To Article

Not much else to say. I was surprised to learn that even previewing something can infect your computer. Best tool is common sense, but it's easy to slip up considering how much mail we get.

Thank you so much for the warning...

reply to post by Domo1


I noticed that if you let them fix the problem for you, you also agree to let them get other information from your computer. No thanks!

reply to post by tinker9917


Anytime, thanks for replying. Would prefer replies to stars and flags so this stays visible.

reply to post by Domo1


Pinging this thread.... I haven't "allowed" microsoft to fix it for me just yet, but I will be on top of all documents I open...

reply to post by jhn7537


I sort of figure that everything on my computers/phone is already being monitored and that the companies probably already have all my information so I don't particularly care about giving them more, but that's just me.

I won't be using the fix on the PC either more out of laziness than anything. I only use the thing for gaming anyway. For everything else Mac's where it's at.

I was glad to see this here. I received and interesting phone call this afternoon by someone who said they were trying to fix my microsoft. He was walking me through things to do on my computer and was telling me it was extremely urgent. He wanted me to download something that looked a little iffy and I told him I had to go. He will call back tomorrow and talk to the hubby. He seemed genuinely panicky about the gravity of the situation (lots of error and warning signals in the events bar) and that made me very nervous.
I want to be a trusting person, but who can you trust? Hopefully the link you provided cleaned up my computer.
Thanks again OP!

rjbaggins
reply to post by Domo1

 

I noticed that if you let them fix the problem for you, you also agree to let them get other information from your computer. No thanks!

They didn't ask me of that... maybe they already have my info lol...

reply to post by frayedknot


Danger Will Robinson DANGER !!!

"I received six phone calls about this Windows support scam," said ... Callers pose as computer support technicians, often from Microsoft itself ...
Fake Windows tech support calls continue to plague consumers ...

Let me Google that for you...

reply to post by frayedknot


Steer clear of such idiotic phone calls, they have one intent and that is to destroy and not to help................. there's a clear explaination on youtube where the guy involved lets us hear the said phone while he plays a sort of lead on to prove how wrong it all is..... I will try and find the youtube program for you to see.

reply to post by Murgatroid


Thanks for the info! Haha, after reading a bit of what I/googled, it was exactly what that call was about from some unidentified Indian man. Thank you for the warning! I am glad my instincts were kicking in and I hung up. I will temper that gullible trusting side in the future.

reply to post by frayedknot


www.youtube.com...

Here is the said youtube

frayedknot
I received and interesting phone call this afternoon by someone who said they were trying to fix my microsoft. He was walking me through things to do on my computer and was telling me it was extremely urgent. He wanted me to download something

So if someone just rings you up do you do what they tell you to?
If you were walking down the street and some random told you to do something would you just do it?

Of course it is a scam!

reply to post by steaming

Ahhh yeah I forgot about that as well...

Need a good laugh?

Search YouTube for: Scamming the scammers.

Example:

reply to post by steaming


Very similar conversation, but he didn't get as far as the sales pitch with me.
Thank you for all of your advice guys!

I didn't mean to stray away from your topic!

I get these scam calls at least once a week.

The only time Microsoft will ever call you is if you called them first and agreed to a call back if they can not resolve your problems right away.

reply to post by frayedknot


Good. There is almost 0 chance anyone legit is going to just randomly call you, especially over something like that. Same with e-mail. Be wary of e-mail. If car companies don't call you with recalls software companies certainly aren't going to.

I kept getting the most annoying call for awhile. Pick up the phone (local number but kept changing) and was greeted by a blasting foghorn. A few seconds later "Hello this is your Captain". That's as far as I got before raging and hanging up.

reply to post by steaming


Thanks for that YT clip .lol ..That same guy kept calling me for two weeks .What a pain in the but he was ..unbelievable ...

Are you using MSoutlook to read your email ?
if yes, are you using msword 2010 as default composer
if yes - download
..
..

ironic to see MS thanking Google staff for finding the exploit. I guess Google is the new evil ?

Acknowledgments Microsoft thanks the following for working with us to help protect customers:
Drew Hintz, Shane Huntley, and Matty Pellegrino of the Google Security Team for reporting the Word RTF Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2014-1761)

Notice the CVE number ? Thats just for 2014 up to March, pretty much 40 vulnerabilities reported, per day. I wonder what else is there to exploit.

thanks for the warning