Microsoft To Block Internet Macros By Default in Five Office Applications

In one of the most impactful changes made in recent years, Microsoft has announced today that it will block by default the execution of VBA macro scripts inside five Office applications. From a report: Starting with early April 2022, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and Word users will not be able to enable macro scripts inside untrusted documents that they downloaded from the internet. The change, which security researchers have been requesting for years, is expected to put a serious roadblock for malware gangs, which have relied on tricking users into enabling the execution of a macro script as a way to install malware on their systems. In these attacks, users typically receive a document via email or which they are instructed to download from an internet website. When they open the file, the attacker typically leaves a message instructing the user to enable the execution of the macro script. While users with some technical and cybersecurity knowledge may be able to recognize this as a lure to get infected with malware, many day-to-day Office users are still unaware of this technique and end up following the provided instructions, effectively infecting themselves with malware.

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