Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel creates and edits spreadsheets for calculations, budgets, lists, charts and data analysis. It’s made by Microsoft, based in the United States.
Criminals have used its name in fake downloads or scams, so get it only from apps.apple.com.
What it is
People use Excel for family budgets, school projects and work records. It organises information in tables, calculates totals and draws charts. People can also share spreadsheets and edit them together.
Excel reads and changes the files you open or grant it access to. Some online features send relevant content, such as selected cell text or search terms, to Microsoft for processing. Office also sends diagnostic data, with privacy controls available in its settings.
Excel is distributed by Microsoft and through the Mac App Store. Keep it updated and take its macro warnings seriously. Macros are small programs inside documents and can contain malicious code.
Who makes it
Microsoft is a US technology company founded in 1975 that makes software, devices and cloud services. Its legal name is Microsoft Corporation. Its website is microsoft.com.
Microsoft makes other software with flaws that attackers have used. Its page in Companies lists them.
Is it the real one?
Every Mac app carries a signature from the developer who made it. Apple checks who the developer is before handing out the certificate, and macOS refuses to open an app whose signature has been tampered with.
HARD hasn’t yet recorded the signature on a real copy of Microsoft Excel. Its Mac app shows who signed the copy you have.
Its bundle ID, the name macOS knows it by, is com.microsoft.Excel. Download it only from apps.apple.com or the Mac App Store, not from an ad or a link someone sends you.
Fakes. In February 2026, Bitdefender reported malicious Google ads impersonating Microsoft Office and other Mac software. They led to Evernote pages that told people to run a Terminal command which installed MacSync information-stealing malware.
What it connects to
In normal use, Microsoft Excel talks to these places on the internet. A firewall that asks before apps connect, like the one in HARD’s Mac app, will show them.
| Address | Why |
|---|---|
login.live.com | Personal Microsoft account sign-in. |
login.microsoftonline.com | Work or school account sign-in. |
ols.officeapps.live.com | Office licence activation. |
officeclient.microsoft.com | Office service configuration. |
templateservice.office.com | Online spreadsheet templates. |
ocws.officeapps.live.com | Locating cloud document storage. |
res.public.onecdn.static.microsoft | Update checks and downloads through Microsoft AutoUpdate. |
watson.microsoft.com | Crash reports. |
What it can see
macOS asks you before an app can use these. You can change them any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
| Permission | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Files & Folders | To open and save spreadsheets in protected folders; macros may also request access to additional files. |
| Contacts | To look up people when assigning access to a rights-managed workbook. |
| Photos | To browse photos for insertion into a spreadsheet. |
| Automation | Some add-ins, including think-cell, request control of Mail to send email. |
Security record
Problems with Microsoft Excel or Microsoft in the last three years, newest first. Keeping the app up to date covers the ones that were fixed.
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft fixed CVE-2026-100209, a flaw that could let an attacker run code through Excel, in Office for Mac version 16.114. | ↗ | |
| Cisco Talos reported that malicious software could reuse Excel’s existing Mac permissions through CVE-2024-43106; Excel remained vulnerable when the report was published. | ↗ |
References
- Microsoft Excel — Mac App Store apps.apple.com
- Facts About Microsoft news.microsoft.com
- Microsoft Excel — official product page microsoft.com
- Deploy Office for Mac from the Mac App Store learn.microsoft.com
- Network requests in Office for Mac learn.microsoft.com
- Connected experiences and your content learn.microsoft.com
- Use preferences to manage privacy controls for Office for Mac learn.microsoft.com
- Enable or disable macros in Microsoft 365 for Mac support.microsoft.com
- Request access to multiple files learn.microsoft.com
- Controlling app access to files in macOS support.apple.com
- Restrict access to workbooks with Information Rights Management in Excel support.microsoft.com
- Insert pictures support.microsoft.com
- think-cell is not authorised to send mail think-cell.com
- Release notes for Office for Mac learn.microsoft.com
- Microsoft’s CVE-2026-100209 record raw.githubusercontent.com
- Microsoft Excel for macOS library injection vulnerability talos.talosintelligence.com
- How multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft apps for macOS pave the way to stealing permissions blog.talosintelligence.com
- Hijacked Google Ads push fake Office downloads to Mac users via Evernote pages bitdefender.com