14 DAY TRIAL // OpenOffice, the freeware alternative for the famous Microsoft Office, might be the wrong decision for the ones that are looking for a cheaper replacement for the software giant's suite. Not only that OpenOffice doesn't include all the features owned by Microsoft Office, but it is also vulnerable to attacks, allowing an attacker to compromise an affected system. Security company Secunia rated the flaw as highly critical, sustaining that OpenOffice is vulnerable due to the engine that handles the RTF files implemented into the suite.
"A vulnerability has been reported in OpenOffice, which can potentially be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system. The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the parsing of RTF files and can be exploited to cause a heap based buffer overflow via a specially crafted RTF file. Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code," Secunia sustained in the security notification.
Although it was not confirmed, it seems that the only solution to avoid the exploitation of the vulnerability is to refuse opening untrusted RTF files that might harm your computer.
OpenOffice has always been regarded as the best Office suite alternative for the famous solution provided by the Redmond company, also the produce of the Windows operating system. The application is installed on millions of computers and available on several platforms: Windows, Linux and since last week on Mac OS X. As you might know, it provides almost the same interface as the Microsoft tool, but with a huge difference: it is free for unlimited use so you're not required to pay for the solution, no matter how long you're going to use it.
Moreover, it bundles all the tools required to open the files created with the Microsoft Office suite such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations and many others. If you want to download the latest version of OpenOffice, you can take it from Softpedia.