For those who think that the "binary blob" situation is exactly the same with ODF as OOXML, please read the following:

ODF is a comprehensive document that provides detailed specifications from the high level document content down to the smallest elements of scalable vector graphics. There are some "standard" mime object types that are supported, such as PNG and JPEG, but other embedded formats must be installed using plug-ins which have to be authenticated by the user and by the system at installation time, and cannot be installed by the content. Furthermore, the installed content can easily be identified as trustworthy or not, and can be restricted in it's capabilities.

OpenXML on the other hand, is a high-level specification which describes the high level envelopes used to embed binary objects which are included in the content. The content itself contains the binary code which can call any function in any Microsoft library and has all permissions of the person opening the document. If a user account is set up as "Administrator", then the application can mess with the registry, create, download, and hide files, can execute applications in those files, can install any number of new viruses, and generally wreak havoc on the system.

I'll leave it to others to document the exact details (as I said, I'm busy these days), but I'm sure anyone who tries to publish those vulnerabilities will probably find themselves getting the same treatment that Tracy Reed of Ultraviolet.org got when he tried to publish his warnings about ActiveX controls back in 1996. Microsoft got a court injunction against him, and forced him to take down the content, claiming that it was being used to encourage hacking, and was damaging the Microsoft brand.

Over the last 10 years, we've seen these very same techniques, documented back in 1997, used widely to spread viruses including Melissa, Nimda, Sky, BugBear, and about 250,000 other viruses, worms, and malware, not including spy-ware and other "Microsoft Authorized" invasions of our privacy.

I got a couple of docx documents and had trouble getting them to open, even with the plug-in for Office XP. Next thing I know, I get a notice from my registry auditor that I have 1300 new registry errors. And suddenly, my PC is churning the disk-drive and the network connection at 3:00 AM (I'm getting old and have to get up), and the network shows that I'm uploading something at full speed, even though my computer is supposedly sleeping.

It isn't a back-up program that I'm running.

I would encourage COLA readers and OSS advocates to explore this in more detail.

get someone with Office 2007 to send you a docx file. unzip it using pkzip or winzip or unzip.

look at the binary files.

replace one binary object with another.

zip up the document,

see if your office-2007 user can read the "enhanced" document.

For those of you with OLE programming skills, create an OLE object that creates a file, and e-mails that file to you using smtp.

Send a document with this new ole object embedded (along with the others) and see if you get an e-mail.

I haven't tried this, and I don't know if it will work. I'm not sure how hard it would be to make it work. I just think it might be an interesting project worth investigating, especially if you are considering the migration of a few thousand users to Vista and Office 2007.

I'd love to see what the results turn out to be. After all, if it's that easy to take control of a recipient's machine just by sending them a "trusted" Word, Excel, or PowerPoint attachment, just think how much chaos a really aggressive malicious hacker, with a goal of obtaining marketable information about your business, could do.

Contributed by Rex Ballard.