On Sun, Apr 09, 2000 at 11:22:02PM +0200, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
-> On Sun, Apr 09, 2000 at 14:57 -0500, Pj wrote:
-> > Sheldon
-> >
-> > I just read something on one of the securtiy sites that a virus can
-> > cause files to *grow.* Unfotunately I forgot where I saw the info or the
-> > name/type of the virus.
-> > .. Pj
Correct, even in the case of Word macro viruses.
-> >
-> > Sheldon Lee Wen wrote:
-> >
-> > > Yes, I have used word for large files
-> > > and I've used it since msword version 6.0
-> > > ......snip............
-> > >
-> > > I've had msword for some reason grow
-> > > the file size without reason. Once the file size
-> > > grew to 63MB. I had to cut and paste everything
-> > > to a new file (and then spend hours reformatting)
-> > > and the size went down to ~20MB.
-> > >........snip...................
-> > >
->
-> It might have been a virus but there is a much more direct
-> reason:
-> During editing a Word doc Word doesn't erase parts you erase and
-> replaces them with the new text. It just adds the new text and
-> hides the old. If you look at a doc which has been edited
-> several times you'll see all the old contents in it (if you look
-> at it with a "normal" editor. That behaviour caused some
-> embarrassing moments.
->
-> Imagine you send a doc containing some prizes with refunds. Now
-> you just edit that document and send it to another customer with
-> less refunds. The second customer knows about Word and opens the
-> doc in the old NC editor. Great!
->
-> I learned some nice stuff about a former boss's opinions
-> regarding his employees that way.
->
-> But we all do not need to worry. Or is there a Word user on this
-> list? ;-)
This is a known problem with Word. The workaround -- other than not using
Word -- is to turn off fast saves. A fast save simply copies the memory
image to disk, holes and old data and all.
It also saves memory which has been allocated but not used. This means
that it saves whatever happened to be in that memory before Word got ahold
of it, so it is very insecure.
The "slow" save compacts the data before saving it, eliminating the
unsecure data.
--
-- C^2
No windows were crashed in the making of this email.
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