Security News > 2022 > May > Zero-Day ‘Follina’ Bug Lays Microsoft Office Open to Attack
A zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Office allows adversaries to run malicious code on targeted systems via a flaw a remote Word template feature.
Noted security researcher Kevin Beaumont dubbed the vulnerability "Follina", explaining the zero day code references the Italy-based area code of Follina - 0438.Beaumont said the flaw is abusing the remote template feature in Microsoft Word and is not dependent on a typical macro-based exploit path, common within Office-based attacks.
There are unconfirmed reports that proof-of-concept code exists and more recent versions of Office are vulnerable to attack.
The MSDT stands for the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool and collects information and reports to Microsoft Support.
Beaumont confirmed that the exploit is currently affecting the Older versions of Microsoft Office 2013 and 2016 and the endpoint detection "Missed execution" of malware.
Another security researcher Didier Stevens said he exploited the Follina bug on a fully patched version of Office 2021, and John Hammond a cybersecurity researcher tweeted the working proof of Follina.
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