It only seems like Microsoft releases a fix a day for one of its products. Here are some of the recent ones:
There is a new patch for Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, and 2002. This fixes a security hole that may allow an evildoer to run their own code on your computer via a spreadsheet. This happens because of the way Excel checks the spreadsheet before doing a macro. A fix for each version of Excel is available from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-050.asp. Microsoft credits Kazuyuki Housaka with finding this problem for them.
The fix from that security bulletin will also take care of a bug in the way that Microsoft Word 97, 2000, and XP checks the length of macro names in a document. This bug opens up a security hole that might allow a malicious user to run their own code on your computer, if you try to open a specially-constructed Word document.
In the continuing saga of Microsoft Security Bulletin 03-043, Microsoft made two changes last week. This bulletin, about a bug in the Windows Messenger service that could allow attackers to run code on your system, was released 10/15/03 and then revised twice in October, once to include fix information and once to address an additional issue. The bulletin was then revised 11/13/2003, because it had the wrong file version for the Windows XP update. It was then revised 11/14/03 because the Windows XP update was putting some files in the wrong spot. To get the patch of the patch, go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-043.asp.
If you are running Microsoft Outlook 2002 on a Windows XP computer, you may have problems attaching a Microsoft Office document to an online meeting request. After attaching in Outlook and clicking Send, you may see this error message
The document entered into the Office Document field is not associated with an Office application that supports collaboration. Please associate the document type with an Office application, enter a new document, or clear this field.
Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack. If you need the fix right away, you can contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 821291. Note that you may get charged for this call.
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