What is a Word Macro Virus and How are they Spread?
Word (as well as the other Microsoft Office packages) include a programming language which is a variant of Basic. Programs are called macros and are stored in document templates. The macro feature is very powerful and is one of the reasons for the popularity of Microsoft Office. Macros are saved in templates that are either specific to a group of documents or, when saved in the special template normal.dot, are available to all documents. Some macros have special names are and operate as described below. This feature is very powerful and very useful but is exploited by virus writers. Macro Operates AutoExec When you start Word AutoNew Each time you create a new document AutoOpen Each time you open an existing document AutoClose Each time you close a document AutoExit When you quit Word A further feature of the macro language is that macros can be copied and moved between templates. Since all installations of Word have a normal.dot template (and the tools to allow a macro to find the pre
