Microsoft Office Word saying Malware.Exploit.Generic

[Bates]

I have started to have problems saving a Word Doc. Every time I try and save a file, Malwarebytes gives me an alert saying; then its shuts word down

Threat

Malware.Exploit.Generic

Application

Microsoft Office Word

Technique

Exploit payload macro process blocked 

Word has been ok up until a few days ago. I hope you are able to help

 

Regards,

Karl

[Malwarebytes]

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[Porthos]

4 minutes ago, Bates said:

I hope you are able to help

Do 2 things,

Be sure penetration setting is off. And in the second screenshot reset each section to default.

 

[Bates]

Hi, thanks for the update and information. I have adjusted as your recommendation and it looks like this has solved the issue. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it continues to be ok. It's strange that this started to happen, especially as I haven't adjusted any of the settings, could this have happened when I updated Malewarebytes?

 

Regards,

 

Karl   

[Porthos]

54 minutes ago, Bates said:

It's strange that this started to happen, especially as I haven't adjusted any of the settings, could this have happened when I updated Malewarebytes?

I do not have an answer to that. It did not happen to everyone.

Glad I was able to assist. Be safe.

[exile360]

Was the setting for penetration testing enabled when you visited settings, or was it already off?  I'm just wondering if the issue was caused by that component or by the settings under Advanced settings for Exploit Protection.

[deeirving]

On 10/15/2020 at 1:48 PM, Porthos said:

Do 2 things,

Be sure penetration setting is off. And in the second screenshot reset each section to default.

 

 

I was having this same problem and this worked for me! Thanks! 

[Porthos]

7 minutes ago, deeirving said:

 

I was having this same problem and this worked for me! Thanks! 

Glad it worked for you. If you have any other issues please post.

[JaCo_BRZ]

I'm rather curious how this fix works at all.  I had a system doing this, and the Block penetration attacks was already unchecked and the settings under "Application Behavior Protection" were the same before resetting to default as they were afterwards. Yet, before resetting the defaults the Quicksave macro on Word will trigger a response from Malwarebytes preventing the save, but after resetting it there was no exploit detection triggered.

[Porthos]

1 minute ago, JaCo_BRZ said:

Yet, before resetting the defaults the Quicksave macro on Word will trigger a response from Malwarebytes preventing the save, but after resetting it there was no exploit detection triggered.

It is a known issue on some systems.

[exile360]

5 hours ago, JaCo_BRZ said:

I'm rather curious how this fix works at all.  I had a system doing this, and the Block penetration attacks was already unchecked and the settings under "Application Behavior Protection" were the same before resetting to default as they were afterwards. Yet, before resetting the defaults the Quicksave macro on Word will trigger a response from Malwarebytes preventing the save, but after resetting it there was no exploit detection triggered.

I believe it's caused by some sort of corruption in the configuration files that causes the program to not use the settings displayed in the UI, so even though the setting causing the detection should be off by default and even appears to be off when you look in the UI, it is actually enabled which results in the detections/blocks.  Restoring defaults corrects this so that it actually loads the proper default settings as reflected in the UI.