OpenOffice 'discovers' security

Although Microsoft's Office suite is suffering a "fierce" battle from hackers, open source OpenOffice.org is no more secure.

Even, according to the recommendations of experts at the French Ministry of Defense, the software also puts users at risk of higher computer virus attacks.

" In general, the security level of OpenOffice is not enough. A thorough analysis, we see potential deadly threats within this software. OpenOffice is really weak against malware ."

Source: Infotech In their research, experts analyzed four "theoretical" viruses that could take down computer systems using open-source office software. "The risk associated with OpenOffice.org is at least on par with Microsoft Office, even higher if considered in some respects ."

Much of the problem lies in the basic design of the software. For example, OpenOffice.org does not thoroughly check the software it runs. And because of the versatility of a free open source software suite, hackers have a myriad of ways to create malicious macro code.

For its part, OpenOffice.org has overcome a software bug pointed out by French experts. The two sides are also discussing how to improve the overall security of this open source software suite.

" The real flaw in programming logic has been fixed. The remaining errors are all in theory, " said Louis Suarez Potts, community director of OpenOffice.org. many security patches, and Suarez Potts recommends that users upgrade to the latest version.

Research results of the French Ministry of Defense show that open source projects have a lot of work to do for security, senior information security expert Russ Cooper of Cybertrust said.

" If these types of vulnerabilities are removed from within Microsoft Office, make sure it is immediately posted to the front page. Perhaps the security people of OpenOffice have ignored what Microsoft has experienced ."

Obviously, Cooper wants to recall a series of recently discovered serious errors of Microsoft Office that were exploited by hackers. Many malicious scripts were installed inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents attached to emails and sent to very specific goals.

Trong Cam