( dpa ) - PC and Mac owners are being advised against opening Excel documents from sources they do not trust after a security hole was discovered in Microsoft's spreadsheet software that could allow hackers to make targeted attacks on computers.
The German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn is publicising the hole.
The flaw affects the 2003 Service Pack 2, Viewer 2003, 2002, and 2000 versions for the PC and Excel 2004 for Mac. If a user registered with administrator rights opens one of the rigged Excel files, then the attack can "compromise the entire target system," the BSI notes. No patch to correct the problems has been released to date.