Can someone explain me why Microsoft Excel 2012 is telling me that accepting automatically every macros is dangerous, I mean how can they be dangerous, for my worksheets, for my entire computer ?
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2 Answers
Excel macros are written VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Those scripts can (potentially) gain access to your operating system, and file system: deleting files, uploading data, downloading spyware etc. That's why you have to be sure you trust the script source before allowing it to run.
answered May 2, 2013 at 20:10
Macros written with malicious intent could harm your computer, the same way any malware could.
Here's an article from Boston College on the subject. From the article:
ABOUT MACROS AND MACRO VIRUSES
A macro is a series of program commands or instructions designed to simplify repetitive tasks within a program in the Microsoft Office suite (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). Any operating system can receive a macro virus, even Macs, as long as you have Microsoft Office installed on it. A macro virus is a virus that is created by using the built-in macro programming language, designed to execute as soon as the file is opened. It attaches itself to a document file and waits until an application like Microsoft Word opens it.
