MOICE is Nice
Microsoft have released MOICE, the Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment, a tool designed to migrate existing Office 2003 documents to the OpenXML format supported by recent versions of Microsoft Office. As the name suggests, this process takes place in an isolated environment, effectively neutralising any malware within the documents being converted.
This may not be as avhievable as the name of the tool suggests. If it is being used to convert a malicious document, then MOICE may:
- Fail to convert the file
- Create a safe version
- Crash
If the isolation environment properly robust, then a malicious data file should not cause MOICE to crash.
Even more critical for end users, and what may prevent MOICE from reaching a critical mass, is that it strips macros and VBA scripts from Office files as they are converted. While this might make many people happy, a lot of companies rely upon their specially-scripted spreadsheets and documents to make them money. Killing this capability will not be supported by many people.
Available for free from Microsoft, the tool should be an essential part of any administrator's toolbox.
26 May 2007
Social bookmark this page at eKstreme.
Alternatively, Bookmark or Share via AddThis
Do you like how we cover Information Security news? How about checking out our company services, delivered the same way our news is.
Let our Free OS X Screen Saver deliver the latest security alerts and commentary to your desktop when you're not at your system.
Comments will soon be available for registered users.
Subscribe to our feed.