Hack 85 Stop Hidden Fields in Word from Stealing Your Files and Information
 
Hidden fields in your Word documents can be
used to peer into your PC and even grab your files.
Here's how to prevent that from
happening.
A little-known trick in
Word can let malicious users steal your private information and can
even allow someone to get access to the files on your PC. It does
this by using Word Fields, which are used to insert self-updating
information into Word documents, such as page numbers in a header or
footer. Some fields, though, can be hidden, and, because you
can't see them, you can't tell what
they're doing.
One of these hidden fields, IncludeText, is generally useful; it can
insert Word documents or Excel spreadsheets into other Word
documents. However, the field can also be used maliciously. For
example, let's say someone sends you a document, you
edit it, and then send it back to the person who sent it to you. If
it included a hidden IncludeText field with specific files and their
locations on your hard disk, those files on your hard disk could be
sent back to the document originator without your knowing it.
There are several ways to solve the problem. One is to install a
Microsoft patch that fixes the vulnerability. For more information
and to download it, go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329748.
Another way to solve the problem is to download the free
Hidden File Detector from http://www.wordsite.com/HiddenFileDetector.html.
It adds a new menu item, Detect Hidden Files, to
Word's Tools menu. When you choose it from the menu,
a dialog box alerts you to any documents that have been inserted into
the file by a Word Field that could be functioning as
spyware.
You can also try to solve the problem
yourself by choosing Edit  Links to see if there are links
in your document to files. (If there are none, the Links option will
be grayed out.) If you find them, delete them, and the problem should
be fixed.
9.7.1 See Also
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