So you think your Microsoft software is up to date?

IF YOU READ the reports of the latest wave of security-related errors in various Microsoft products you probably scurried off to WindowsUpdate to get your installation up to date. If you had had your second cup of coffee that morning, you were probably awake enough to remember to also scoot off to the Office page to check for updates there too. So, assuming you could find your original Office installation CDs, necessary to perform the updates, you're probably feeling somewhat pleased with yourself. Assuming your virus software is up to date, no malware or emals can have their wicked way with your computer!

Unfortunately that may not be true. Doubts have emerged as to the effectiveness of Microsoft's fix for various Internet Explorer problems. That is an 'old' problem from August 20, but there also seems to be a problem with the more recent fix for a problem with the Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer. This rather obscure piece of software is a plug-in for the Vole's Internet Explorer software. It is designed to let you place Access databases on your website. With the help of this little virtual gadget, the users of your website are able to browse the Access database even if they don't have Access installed.

All very clever, at least if you are in the habit of putting entire databases on your web pages. Unfortunately the snapshot viewer doesn't check its input data very carefully, assuming that it is dealing with a regular Access database. If instead it is dealing with a handcrafted piece of malware it gets so confused that pretty soon it's running evil program code from the dark side of the net, rather than those blessed Volish lines it was supposed to be running. That malware can then get up to the usual dirty tricks like formatting your hard disk or helping an evil hacker to take over the world from the relative comfort of his damp basement.

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