Mailsploit: January is definitely a month full of security flaws, with the Meltdown and Spectre fiasco being the biggest so far. Microsoft has its own vulnerabilities to address, including a major flaw in Office for Mac.
Also known as Mailsploit, the vulnerability exists in Microsoft Outlook for Mac as part of the 2016 version of the productivity suite for Apple systems. It is listed as CVE-2018-0819.
Microsoft says that this vulnerability has been publicly disclosed and is fairly difficult to exploit. That doesn't mean users and IT administrators should delay patching it, as a successful attack could allow malicious users to send fake emails in a phishing tactic.
The irony of the matter, of course, is that Microsoft has not yet updated the Office 2016 for Mac release notes to confirm the existence of security updates for this vulnerability. In fact, if someone tries to click on the link to download the security patch, they are taken to a page that has been updated since December 12, 2017.
On the other hand, Microsoft Office for Mac users who want to deploy the latest patches can use the Microsoft AutoUpdate engine in Office by following these simple steps: Help > Check for Updates .
It's worth noting that the vulnerability does not affect Microsoft Office on other platforms or older versions of the productivity suite, although various tweaks and improvements for the software are also part of the Patch Tuesday rollout.
