outlook preview panel and viruses

[ssphoenix]

I've heard rumor that using preview panel will activate viruses. I hope this is just a rumor.

Thanks

 

[Guest_imported]

This may help

There is a difference between exchange 5.5 standard and enterprise (not only the x.400 pack), standard still only supports 16GB, check your event viewer application log and look for event 1217 (Information Store with unlimited storage capacity enable)
if you see this its enterprise edition.

 

[Zelandakh]

Using the preview panel can be set as the same as opening the email (not the attachment) so you can set off viruses activated by opening emails.

In tools options there is a flag to mark emails as read when you click off them. Remove this so that selecting another email does not mark the previous one as read and you are ok.

 

[ssphoenix]

Zelandakh,

I've been researching this issue quite a bit lately. I could not find anything regarding Outlook2000 or 97. It is true, Outlook express is vulnerable since it uses a combination of IE4 or 5 (which ever is installed) security settings to allow HTML scripting. And even then you get that message box "Some software (ActiveX controls) on this page might be unsafe bla bla..."

One thing I know for sure in outlook 2000 scripts will never run in the preview pane and there are no settings to change that. So I don't see how you can trigger a virus just by previewing.

Thanks for reading and hope you can put an end to my frustration.

Thanks

 

[TheOtherKiwi]

Outlook 2000 can not run HTML in the preview (previous versions do) so it is a little more secure from that point of view, however this is no substitute for good virus protection software. There are also hacks around that let you quarantine dodgy apps like BAT, VBS, EXE etc extensions and this gives a message to the user to back off! Still, I prefer not receiving them in the first place!

 

[ssphoenix]

My original question was should we use the preview pane in Outlook 97/2000? Rumors has it that just buy using the preview pane, it's possible to trigger viruses. Imagine getting 50-100 emails a day and trying to open all of them because some say preview pane is dangerous to use.

I said that it is not possible because of my findings. Of course there are many ways to trigger a virus to spread but outlook preview pane is not one of them. The preview pane in Outlook express can trigger the bubbleboy virus but not 2000.

Thanks

 

[rickebridges]

Actually, the preview pane in Outlook 97/98 can trigger a virus. Thus far, this has been an issue with messages containing web content (ActiveX controls and/or HTML), and Office macros. Of course, if neither IE or Office is installed there's nothing to worry about. For more information you might try:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-020.asp

or

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/confirm.htm

Supposedly, Outlook 2000 does not have the same vulnerabilities.