Patch Tuesday brings Office updates

The May 'Patch Tuesday' release fixes 14 different flaws in various versions of Office and PowerPoint for both MacOS X and Windows systems.

The vulnerabilities in Office 2000 systems have been given Microsoft's highest security rating of 'critical'. All other versions of Office and PowerPoint are being considered at a lower 'important' risk rating.

The company has been acknowledging unpatched security flaws in PowerPoint since early April, and the vulnerabilities were a topic of discussion at last month's RSA security conference.

Among the patched flaws are holes which could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on all of the affected versions of Office and PowerPoint. McAfee Avert Labs research and communication director David Marcus noted that Office files have been a popular method of infection as of late.

"Vulnerabilities in Office applications have been a favorite attack method among cybercrooks, especially in stealthy attacks that seek to steal high-value intellectual property," said Marcus.

"Trojan horse attacks often use rigged Office files that exploit vulnerabilities in the productivity suite."