LibreOffice, a free Microsoft Office equivalent, is now available in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 PCs and tablets. What's worrying is that the publisher of the app doesn't appear to be LibreOffice itself, but a third party, who has even priced the program at $2.99.
LibreOffice is a free office suite developed by The Document Foundation. However, the app was released to the Microsoft Store by an account named .Net on July 7, allowing users to download the app for free or purchase it for $2.99. While the product description states that the money goes to the LibreOffice team, it is possible that the .Net user has no connection to the team, and does not share the profits.
Secnews contacted The Document Foundation, the company behind LibreOffice, to confirm who is behind the application in question. We received a response that the issue will be investigated by their team, and they will update us.
But is this the original LibreOffice?
At first glance, everything indicates that it is the authentic application, but we cannot know if it has been distorted in any way, not apparent to the user.
To convert the application to the compatible format that the program needs to be in order to be registered in the Microsoft Store, Microsoft's Desktop Bridge was used. Through the Desktop Bridge, developers can make their programs compatible with many systems, as it uses the UWP (Universal Windows Platform) which acts as a "wrapper" of the executable file.
