How to Fix It When Microsoft Word Is Not Responding

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To help counter this threat, we are releasing a new feature in Office that blocks macros from loading in certain high-risk scenarios. Macro-based malware continues its rise. We featured macro-based malware in our Threat Intelligence report last year , but infections are still increasing. Despite periodic lulls, infections for the top 20 most detected macro-based malware were high over the past three months.

Note these are detections and not necessarily successful infections. To learn more about Advanced Threat Protection and other security features in Office , check out this blog and video. Previous versions of Office include a warning when opening documents that contain macros, but malware authors have become more resilient in their social engineering tactics, luring users to enable macros in good faith and ending up infected. This feature:. This feature can be controlled via Group Policy and configured per application.

It enables enterprise administrators to block macros from running in Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents that come from the Internet. This includes scenarios such as the following:. Claudia is an enterprise administrator at Contoso. After a rash of macro-based malware attacks targeting her organization, she learns of this new feature in Office and has rolled out a Group Policy update to all Office clients on the network.

Stewart is a cybercriminal looking to attack and penetrate the Contoso network. He launches his attack campaign against Contoso by targeting James, an employee there. James receives an email from Stewart in his inbox that has an attached Word document. When James opens the Word document, it opens in Protected View.

It is a sandboxed environment that lets a user read the contents of a document. Macros and all other active content are disabled within Protected View, and so James is protected from such attacks so long as he chooses to stay in Protected View. James follows the instructions in the document, and exits Protected View as he believes that will provide him with access to contents of the document. James is then confronted with a strong notification from Word that macros have been blocked in this document by his enterprise administrator.

There is no way for him to enable the macro from within the document. He quickly closes the document and notifies his IT team about his suspicions. This feature relies on the security zone information that Windows uses to specify trust associated with a specific location. For example, if the location where the file originates from is considered the Internet zone by Windows, then macros are disabled in the document.

For example, to enable this setting for Word:. For enterprise administrators, turn on mitigations in Office that can help shield you from macro based threats, including this new macro-blocking feature. If your enterprise does not have any workflows that involve the use of macros, disable them completely. This is the most comprehensive mitigation that you can implement today. More info for end-users: Learn how to enable or disable macros in Office files. More info for admins and IT professionals: Learn about security and compliance in Office Related blog entry: Machine learning vs.

Questions, concerns, or insights on this story? Skip to main content. Office client applications now integrate with AMSI , enabling antivirus and other security solutions to scan macros and other scripts at runtime to check for malicious behavior.

This is part of our continued efforts to tackle entire classes of threats. Macro-based malware infection is still increasing Macro-based malware continues its rise. This feature: Allows an enterprise to selectively scope macro use to a set of trusted workflows. Block easy access to enable macros in scenarios considered high risk. Provide end users with a different and stricter notification so it is easier for them to distinguish a high-risk situation against a normal workflow.

This includes scenarios such as the following: Documents downloaded from Internet websites or consumer storage providers like OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. NOTES: The macro will not be blocked under the following conditions: When the file is opened from the OneDrive location of the user signed into the client, i.

Documents attached to emails that have been sent from outside the organization where the organization uses the Outlook client and Exchange servers for email Documents opened from public shares hosted on the Internet such as files downloaded from file-sharing sites.

Open the Block macros from running in Office files from the Internet setting to configure and enable it. More info for end-users: Learn how to enable or disable macros in Office files More info for admins and IT professionals: Learn about security and compliance in Office Related blog entry: Machine learning vs.

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