WebADI and Report Manager use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros to integrate with Microsoft Office. All VBA macros must be signed with a valid digital certificate. If the certificate is invalid or expired, new Microsoft Office will display a warning in the Message Bar like this:
Older Office versions may display a standalone security notice like this:
The workarounds for handling these security alerts vary depending upon how the end-user’s desktop is configured or centrally managed via Office group policies. For more information about Microsoft Office macro security handling, see:
- Enable or disable macros in Office files – Office Support (Microsoft.com)
What’s new in this patch?
Our last update to Web ADI for EBS 12.1 and 12.2 renewed the digital certificates that were valid to August 2018.
A new SHA-256 digital certificate is now available for EBS 12.1.3 and 12.2.3 (and later 12.2 releases). This new patch will prevent security alert warning messages from being displayed in Microsoft Office. The new digital certificates are valid through February 2020.
There are three different updates available — you should pick the patch that corresponds to your EBS version:
- EBS 12.2.4+ – Patch 27558445:R12.BNE.C
- EBS 12.2.3 – Patch 27558435:R12.BNE.C
- EBS 12.1.3 – Patch 23122190:R12.BNE.B
Known Issues
Office 2007 does not recognize documents that have been digitally signed using SHA-256 certificates. In such cases adding the documents storage location to ‘Trusted Locations’ can be used to avoid this issue. Further information is available through the Microsoft document:
- Can’t digitally sign VBA projects in Office 2007 by using an SHA256 code-signing certificate (Microsoft.com)
References