Microsoft has issued a security advisory concerning a vulnerability in Microsoft Word.

Affected software versions include Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Word 2004 v. X for Mac.

Best advice until the flaw is patched is to not open any Word documents sent by email.

Microsoft also states that “In order for this attack to be carried out, a user must first open a malicious Word file attached to an e-mail or otherwise provided to them by an attacker.”

The full advisory can be read here.

Another option is to open any suspicious Word attachments using Microsoft’s Word Viewer which is not subject to the exploit. A free copy of Word Viewer 2003 can be found here.

[tags]security, advisory, word, flaw, exploit, microsoft, word viewer[/tags]