Payloads in Word/PDF documents: Is this still a thing?

I read about this being used to hack computers recently. Are most computers still vulnerable to this?

Payload=malicious file that could potentially create a backdoor that runs in the document when you enable macros (most people are not cognizant of this possibility).

An article I read tested this successfully on a Windows machine running Outlook that defaulted to Adobe to read the PDF.

I noticed in GMail that docs and PDFs aren't opened on the computer, but read in a window. Does this prevent payload execution?

Anyways, I'd like to know if this is still a thing and why? Why can't Adobe or Microsoft build their applications to not allow this?

submitted by /u/anon314159265358p
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from hacking: security in practice https://ift.tt/3nLwDDa

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