OpenOffice users have been warned of three vulnerabilities that can crash the productivity suite and allow hackers to gain access to system resources.
The vulnerabilities affect users of OpenOffice versions 2.0.x and 1.1.x, though no known exploits exist, the company said in an advisory issued last week. The company is urging OpenOffice 2.0.x users to upgrade to version 2.0.3, released last week. A patch for OpenOffice 1.1.x will be available soon, the company said.
One vulnerability allows a malicious hacker to use certain Java applets to break into a secure execution environment to access system resources. A workaround for this vulnerability is to disable Java applets from current OpenOffice versions, the company said.
Another vulnerability injects macro code into documents without notification and gives hackers full access to system resources. In the third vulnerability, malformed XML (extensible markup language) documents causes buffer overflows and crash OpenOffice.
The vulnerabilities also affect users of Sun's StarOffice Office Suite versions 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0, according to security vendor Secunia.
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