Related Resources:
Macro Viruses Reading Material Recent Outbreaks Tips for Safety
Definition:
Macro viruses are written in languages (i.e. Visual Basic) supported by some products, most notably Microsoft® Office suites and most commonly Word and Excel. Macros are actually mini-programs embedded in the document, and thus have many of the same rights and abilities as the user who is logged on to the system. Macro viruses are one of the more common forms of infection, replaced only recently by Internet worms in terms of prevalency. As with any virus, the effect can be a benign annoyance to loss of critical data. Though Microsoft® has made several improvements designed to hamper the spread of macro viruses, the threat continues to plague users. Macro viruses generally spread by first infecting the global template, (i.e. Normal.dot in Word), in turn infecting other documents as they are accessed. Exact methods can vary, with some macro viruses only infecting currently open documents.
Related Terms
• Trojan
• Worm
• Virus
In-The-Wild
Check out the in-the-wild list to see what threats antivirus vendors have reported.
Resources to learn more about macro viruses and what you can do to help prevent them from infecting your system.
Read articles on the prevalency of macro viruses and steps you can take to avoid them.
With Internet worms comprising the largest threat today, keep informed of recent outbreaks not yet published on the Wildlist.
Articles designed to assist you in defending your system for viruses, with some specific pointers from Sophos to defend against macro infectors.
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Macro Virus
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