Microsoft issues update for Office 2008 for Mac

Microsoft has released Office 2008 12.0.1 for Mac OS X, a new update to the productivity suite that fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2008 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. The new release also fixes an issue that could give a local user who does not have administrator permissions access Office 2008 program files. This issue occurs when the non-administrative user account was assigned User ID (uid) 502. This issue affects only computers that have more than one local user account, and primarily affects environments, such as public computer labs and workplace networks, where access to program files is restricted.

With regard to individual applications, this update fixes an issue that causes Word 2008 to quit unexpectedly when you try to start it. The issue occurs when Word 2008 tries to import settings from earlier versions of Word that might have been installed on your computer. Also resolved is an issue that could cause Word 2008 to quit unexpectedly when you check spelling and grammar. This includes an issue that occurs when a user who does not have administrator permissions tries to check grammar in Italian or tries to use an Italian keyboard.

Office 2008 12.0.1 also fixes several issues that cause Excel 2008 to quit unexpectedly. Additionally, this update improves overall stability during regular use such as copying and pasting data. It also eliminates and issue where a copied range of data in Excel 2008 to paste incorrectly into a Word 2008 document when you link the pasted data to the source data. This update also fixes an issue that occurs when a chart is copied from Excel into a Word document or into a PowerPoint presentation. The issue prevents the chart from updating when its source data changes.

Performance is improved when you open PowerPoint 2008, and the update fixes an issue for users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that causes problems and potential data loss when you save a PowerPoint Presentation to a network volume that uses the SMB protocol.

Finally, this update fixes an issue for users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that prevents notification sounds such as New mail sound and Send mail sound from playing when you use Entourage 2008.

The new release is available as a free download from Microsoft's site.

Filed under: security, software
Other story tags: Microsoft, Mac OS X, update, Office 2008, productivity suite, permissions