Microsoft Issues Security Updates for Office for Mac 2008 and 2011

Microsoft has issued updates for both Office for Mac 2008 and 2011 to fix a security issue in which opening a malicious HTML email could result in an attacker "[overwriting] the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code" and potentially gain access to information stored on the Mac.

The update to Office for Mac 2011 additionally contains a range of bug fixes:

• Contacts that were created in x500 format did not work in Outlook for Mac
• BCC recipient was missing on Gmail IMAP draft message in Outlook for Mac
• Some contractions were marked as spelling errors in Outlook for Mac
• Shared folders could not open other mailboxes that used Kerberos protocol in Outlook for Mac
• Coordinated Universal Time was not included when you created a calendar event in Outlook for Mac
• Fixes an issue in which OAB was not updated correctly for certain Office 365 users.
• Fixes an issue that occured when you ran a Macro that contained "Applications.Dialogs(xlDialogSaveAs).Show."
• Scrolling when Track Changes default settings are enabled in larger documents crashed Word for Mac
• Transitions had graphic issues during slide shows in PowerPoint for Mac

The 2008 update contains only the security fix. In both cases, you need to be running the most recent version of the software. To check this, go to the Help menu in any Office app and click Check for updates.