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Level 2

244 points

MS Office secretly connects to my Mac and scans my activity. How??? Security hole? Exploitable by hackers?

I have a strange problem. All by itself it's not so serious, but it concerns me that it reveals a security hole which can be exploited by hackers.

I may be over-reacting, so any reassurance or explanation would be appreciated.

Here's the situation:

I have a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.6.5. I also have a new MacBook Air also running 10.6.5. I recently used Migration Assistant to move all my applications from the MacBook Pro to the MacBook Air. The migration worked fine with one very troubling exception.

One of the applications that got migrated was MS Office 2008 (MSWord, Excel, etc.). When I just had my MacBook Pro, MS Office worked fine. Also, now, if my MacBook Pro is turned off and I'm just using my Air, MS Office again works fine.

HOWEVER...if I have my MacBook Pro open and running MS Office on it, and then I simultaneously open my Air and try to launch MS Office, I get an error message that says

"Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac cannot start because Microsoft Office is already in use.

An office program is being used by Apple Mac. Your installation exceeds the number of installations permitted by the license agreement."

However, if I then "Quit" MS Office on the Pro, and then try to launch it on the Air, I don't get the error message, and it works as normal. The same thing happens if I switch computers -- if it's running on the Air first, then I can't launch it on the Pro. Basically, only one of the computers can run MS Office at any one time.

Now, the issue about the MS license agreement is not what concerns me -- I guess the version of MS Office I bought back in 2008 was only supposed to be installed on one single computer, and never migrated to a new computer (I eventually plan to use the Air full time and retire the Pro). I'm probably going to get a newer version of MS Office eventually anyway, and also I almost never use both computers at the same time, so I'm not worried about being unable to use MS Office on both computes simultaneously. No, what worries me is this:

How does MS Office on one computer even know that my other computer is running and has MS Office open?

I'm not an expert on networks and sharing and connectivity and all that, so excuse me if I use inaccurate terminology, but...:

Both computers connect via AirPort to a cable modem and thus share the same wifi hotspot to connect to the internet.

But as far as I can tell, the two computers are not "connected" to each other. In the System Preferences for both computers, in the "Sharing" panel, all File Sharing is off. Also, none of the sharing boxes are checked.

Neither computer shows the hard drive of the other on its Desktop. If I wanted to, I could use Finder's "Go" menu, choose "Connect to server," then "Browse," then find the other computer, double-click on it, type in the admin password, and then connect the two computers. But I haven't done that, and MS Office is able to see what the other comoputer is doing, even when they aren't connected in any way (as far as I can tell).

I find this pretty disturbing. How in the world does the MS Office on one computer even know that the other computer exists? Furthermore, how does it know that the other computer is on and running? And lastly and more importantly, how does it know which programs are running on the other computer?

One extra detail: in order to try to diagnose this odd behavior, I installed a program called "Little Snitch" which monitors all network activity and notifies the user whenever any malware programs or other sneaky behind-the-scens apps try to send data over your connection without your knowledge. Little Snitch seems to work great but when I test the problem after installing it, Little Snitch did not even detect or report that MS Office was doing any surreptitious network snooping. So whatever MS Office is doing, it's doing it pretty sneakily.

Here is my worry: Could a hacker somehow exploit this capability of MS Office to monitor activity on my computer without my being aware of it? Or could someone re-adapt this snooping code from MS Office for more nefarious purposes?

Or am I completely misapprehending the situation somehow?

Any reassurance or explanation would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

15" MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Jun 1, 2011 11:29 AM

23 replies

aestival

Level 1

8 points

Sep 23, 2012 2:52 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:

Sorry, I but I have never had a single problem using any version of Office for Mac. And I've had every version all the way back to OS 9. The problems you're having are not typical.

Sorry, but I've been using Macs continuously since 1985 (OS 3.0), and MS Word has been problematic since the original release of Word. I'm glad that your experience has been atypical, assuming you're in a home and/or self-managed environment. Word typically works acceptably in a managed/IT environment, because that's what Microsoft does best.

[incidentally, obviously my problems are not typical -- only a bunch of incompetent boobs would release software where a specific problem is typical]

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,326 points

Sep 23, 2012 2:53 PM in response to aestival

because that's what Microsoft does best.

You are of course aware that Microsoft writes Office for Mac, yes?

aestival

Level 1

8 points

Sep 23, 2012 2:54 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:

because that's what Microsoft does best.

You are of course aware that Microsoft writes Office for Mac, yes?

Painfully aware -- you had a further point?

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,326 points

Sep 23, 2012 3:15 PM in response to aestival

No, just checking to make sure you realize you invalidated your own point that "that's what Microsoft does best." by making it sound like Office for Mac is not developed by Microsoft.

By the way, not at all impressed that you've been using Macs since 1985. I've been using computers since the IBM XT clones came out with DOS 3.1. Have used DOS versions of MS Word, on through Word for Windows and then into the Mac side. No problems with any of them.

Now, what have you tried? As I said, your experience is not typical. 99% of world is not having your problems or MS would be out of business and many, many businesses would not be using Office for Mac or in Windows.

That you can neither copy, paste or print says there is something drastically wrong with your system. Though it could just be your user account. Create a new user account and log into it. Do the problems persist?

aestival

Level 1

8 points

Sep 23, 2012 3:25 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:

No, just checking to make sure you realize you invalidated your own point that "that's what Microsoft does best." by making it sound like Office for Mac is not developed by Microsoft.

By the way, not at all impressed that you've been using Macs since 1985. I've been using computers since the IBM XT clones came out with DOS 3.1. Have used DOS versions of MS Word, on through Word for Windows and then into the Mac side. No problems with any of them.

Now, what have you tried? As I said, your experience is not typical. 99% of world is not having your problems or MS would be out of business and many, many businesses would not be using Office for Mac or in Windows.

That you can neither copy, paste or print says there is something drastically wrong with your system. Though it could just be your user account. Create a new user account and log into it. Do the problems persist?

Well, you've obviously been online long enough to be well-versed in flame-baiting (or whatever the above classes as). Sorry, gave that up a decade ago. Mistook this for an actual discussion (this being 2012 and all).