Article first published: 18/8/2012
How is MS12-060 affecting Office / Excel running VBA ?
An "Unspecified Automation Error" is displayed while running VBA code from an Excel workbook or Add-in, which worked normally until now. Tracing the problem down to a code line in VB editor is a pointless exercise, as the issue is triggered by recent Microsoft Windows update activity.
Unfortunately, there are known issues with the MS12-60 security update. Windows Common Control-based embedded ActiveX controls may fail to load within pre-existing Office documents and Excel workbooks, within third-party Add-in applications and when you insert new controls in developer mode.
What is MS12-060 ?
MS12-060 is Microsoft issued critical security update addressing a potential remote code execution vulnerability in MSCOMCTL.OCX, the binary included with a number of Microsoft products to provide a set of common ActiveX controls.
Why is this Security Update critical ?
MS12-060 is on the list of high priority updates in August 2012, because Microsoft is aware of very limited, targeted attacks taking advantage of CVE-2012-1856 and expect to see new attacks taking advantage of this vulnerability in days ahead. Deploying MS12-060 will address the vulnerability and will protect against attacks. (Please read a related article from Symantec here)
How is MS12-060 affecting Office / Excel running VBA ?
An "Unspecified Automation Error" is displayed while running VBA code from an Excel workbook or Add-in, which worked normally until now. Tracing the problem down to a code line in VB editor is a pointless exercise, as the issue is triggered by recent Microsoft Windows update activity.
Unfortunately, there are known issues with the MS12-60 security update. Windows Common Control-based embedded ActiveX controls may fail to load within pre-existing Office documents and Excel workbooks, within third-party Add-in applications and when you insert new controls in developer mode.
What is MS12-060 ?
MS12-060 is Microsoft issued critical security update addressing a potential remote code execution vulnerability in MSCOMCTL.OCX, the binary included with a number of Microsoft products to provide a set of common ActiveX controls.
Why is this Security Update critical ?
MS12-060 is on the list of high priority updates in August 2012, because Microsoft is aware of very limited, targeted attacks taking advantage of CVE-2012-1856 and expect to see new attacks taking advantage of this vulnerability in days ahead. Deploying MS12-060 will address the vulnerability and will protect against attacks. (Please read a related article from Symantec here)
Update history in Windows 7 after applying MS12-060 (KB2597986)
Caution:
Once applied, this update cannot be removed to address the aforementioned issues with Office documents.
Please read the following Microsoft articles for instructions about how to fix the problem in Office / Excel:
MS12-060: Description of the security update for Office 2010: August 14, 2012
"Unspecified Automation Error" after applying MS12-060 (updated 8/17)
Once applied, this update cannot be removed to address the aforementioned issues with Office documents.
Please read the following Microsoft articles for instructions about how to fix the problem in Office / Excel:
MS12-060: Description of the security update for Office 2010: August 14, 2012
"Unspecified Automation Error" after applying MS12-060 (updated 8/17)
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