Microsoft today announced the launch of Guard for Office in a public preview to protect business users from threats that use malicious attachments as a means of attack.
Application Guard for Office (also known as Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office) is designed to prevent files downloaded from untrusted sources from acquisition trusted access resources by opening them inside an isolated sandbox.
This sandbox will automatically prevent malicious files from exploiting vulnerabilities, downloading other malicious tools, or any malicious behavior.
Disable by defaultchoice in supported environments
Office malware is one of the most common files used by hackers to develop malware, such as ransomware, RATs, data theft trojans, and malware downloads.
The "Office Application Protection" feature works with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft 365 και θα είναι απενεργοποιημένη από προεπιλογή για πελάτες με εταιρικά προγράμματα security Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5.
For administrators to enable it, endpoints are required to run Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, version 2004 (20H1), with cumulative update KB4566782 and the Application Guard activation package for Office applications installed.
Microsoft Defender ATP integration
"Office Application Protection is a limited feature that isolates unreliable documents from accessing trusted corporate resources, user IDs, and computer files," explains Microsoft.
"As a result, if a user tries to access an unauthorized feature, for example by importing an image from a local file into the disk, it will fail and a question like the one below will appear.
The Application Guard for Office is integrated with the Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat corporate security platform, providing monitoring of any malicious activity.
Microsoft provides detailed instructions on how to deploy and configure Application Guard for Office.
More details on installing - https://t.co/3V0D1NmoKz
- Tom Gallagher (@secbughunter) August 24