Security Sift

Introduction Earlier this month I came across a post by the team at SensePost outlining their macro-less code execution technique using the antiquated DDE feature of Microsoft Word. As you may be aware, this feature has existed in Office for many years and was even written about over 15 years ago as a potential threat vector. Old or not, as we continue to put up obstacles in front of malicious actors…

Over the past 6 months, it seems we’ve been experiencing a resurgence of macro-based malware, possibly because it’s such a simple and proven means of delivering a phishing payload to large organizations. If you’re performing a penetration test against an organization and you have reason to believe untrusted macro execution is enabled, they can also be a good means to test user awareness and gain a foothold via social engineering. Regardless of their popularity,…