Office 2019 opening new Word 2019 blocked

[dagar74]

Twice in the last 9 days Malwarebytes has blocked opening Word 2019 from the Task Bar Icon on the first attempt that day. The rest of the day it starts OK. This just started and I haven't had this problem since installing Office Home and Student 2019. I had seen different Exploit Protection problems more than a year ago with Home and Student 2016.

To prevent this from happening, I added C:\ProgramFiles\Microsoft Office to the Allow list. I also went to Settings > Security > Exploit Protection > Advanced settings > Application behavior protection and unchecked “Office WMI abuse prevention”. I am including the Log Details below and the Word warning on next try to open. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

-Log Details-

Protection Event Date: 9/1/21

Protection Event Time: 12:44 PM

Log File: 089a6542-0b5d-11ec-9d4f-3c7c3f4f157a.json

-Software Information-

Version: 4.4.5.130

Components Version: 1.0.1430

Update Package Version: 1.0.44507

License: Premium

-System Information-

OS: Windows 10 (Build 19043.1165)

CPU: x64

File System: NTFS

User: System

-Exploit Details-

File: 0

(No malicious items detected)

Exploit: 1

Malware.Exploit.Agent.Generic, ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe, Blocked, 0, 392684, 0.0.0, ,

-Exploit Data-

Affected Application: Microsoft Office Word

Protection Layer: Application Behavior Protection

Protection Technique: Exploit Office WMI abuse blocked

File Name: ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe

URL:

(end)

Thanks for any additional actions to take.

[Porthos]

38 minutes ago, dagar74 said:

Thanks for any additional actions to take.

Try unchecking this one box in the advanced section of exploit protection. And restart the computer and try again.

[overclockable]

18 hours ago, dagar74 said:

Twice in the last 9 days Malwarebytes has blocked opening Word 2019 from the Task Bar Icon on the first attempt that day. The rest of the day it starts OK.

This is exactly how my MB flagged RTP as well. I opened a recent Excel file via right clicking the shortcut in the Start menu. I had this 10 minutes ago and ¬10 days ago, when another user already flagged this, giving me comfort that I'm not the only one. I only had this issue when opening an Excel file for the first time (then and now), and in this 10 day period I've opened files in various ways and have not had this problem. It's interesting that it resurfaced now all of a sudden. I should not that I did not turn off any advanced settings, as I prefer to err on the side of protection.