Office '08 Update Patches Major Vulnerability in Word and Excel

This page explains how to download the critical update to Office 2008 for Mac that was released yesterday. You can download it manually from Microsoft's website, or go to Help -> Check for Updates in any Office application.

The Microsoft Security Bulletin says:

The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

And an additional bulletin says:

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.