how to protect ms word document from editing

CVE-2021-40444) which could only be exploited outside of 'Protected View'. The latter point is not just theoretical: There have been bugs (e.g. Making Your Document Fillable, Not Editable Let’s say, for example, that you have a non-disclosure agreement that you want to send out to an employee that will be joining your company. By disabling them, Office reduces the attack surface. Fortunately, Microsoft Word has a developer tool that lets you protect the text in your document while still allowing people to fill in blanks. These features (like editing, saving and printing) are generally considered 'safe', but, like all software components, they can contain bugs.

You now have to confirm twice before macros can be executed (first to 'Enable Editing', then to 'Run macros') and, more importantly,.

Thus, when opening those files, Office adds an additional layer of security by activating ' Protected View': So, what's the point of 'Protected View'?įiles from 'untrusted' locations (such as e-mail attachments) have a higher probability of containing malware than files from your local documents folder. In its default configuration, all recent versions of Office won't run macros unless the user explicitly tells them to do it.

Macro viruses exploited that fact and used Word and Outlook to spread. 'Protected View' is an extra layer of security for files opened from 'untrusted' locations (such as e-mail attachments).Ī long time ago, MS Office would automatically run macros contained in Office files. Summary: MS Office will try to protect you from macro code even if you don't use 'Protected View'.

How to protect ms word document from editing