Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is an app for reading and sending email, managing contacts and organising calendars. 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 microsoft.com.
What it is
Outlook brings email, contacts and calendars from several accounts into one app. It supports Microsoft accounts and other providers, including Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud.
It handles messages, attachments, contacts and appointments in the accounts you add. If you use Microsoft Cloud sync for another provider, a copy of your email, calendar and contacts is stored in Microsoft’s data centres. Microphone access supports dictating emails.
Microsoft distributes the official Mac app through its website and the Mac App Store, and provides security updates. Its cloud features mean that information you manage in Outlook may also be processed outside your Mac.
Who makes it
Microsoft is a technology company founded in 1975 and based in Redmond, Washington. 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 Outlook. Its Mac app shows who signed the copy you have.
Its bundle ID, the name macOS knows it by, is com.microsoft.Outlook. Download it only from microsoft.com or the Mac App Store, not from an ad or a link someone sends you.
Fakes. In February 2026, researchers reported that criminals had hijacked the third-party AgreeTo Outlook add-in to display a fake Microsoft sign-in page and steal credentials. Microsoft removed the add-in from its store.
What it connects to
In normal use, Microsoft Outlook 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 |
|---|---|
outlook.office365.com | Microsoft 365 email service. |
autodiscover-s.outlook.com | Finds email account settings. |
prod-global-autodetect.acompli.net | Detects the email account provider. |
login.microsoftonline.com | Signs in to work and school accounts. |
login.live.com | Signs in to personal Microsoft accounts. |
*.oscs.protection.outlook.com | Checks links through Microsoft Safe Links. |
watson.microsoft.com | Sends 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 |
|---|---|
| Microphone | To turn speech into text when you dictate an email. |
| Location Services | To show weather for your current location in the calendar. |
Security record
Problems with Microsoft Outlook 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’s Mac update 16.114 fixed CVE-2026-70291, an Outlook memory flaw that could let an attacker run code over a network. | ↗ | |
| Outlook for Mac 16.104 fixed CVE-2025-62562, a memory flaw that could let an attacker run code with user interaction. | ↗ | |
| Cisco Talos disclosed a flaw in Outlook for Mac 16.83.3 that let malicious software reuse Outlook’s permissions; Microsoft declined to fix it at disclosure. | ↗ | |
| Microsoft said attackers who stole corporate emails had also accessed some source code and internal systems; its investigation and protective measures were continuing. | ↗ |
References
- Microsoft Outlook for Mac microsoft.com
- Microsoft Outlook — Mac App Store apps.apple.com
- Facts About Microsoft news.microsoft.com
- Deploy Office for Mac from the Mac App Store learn.microsoft.com
- Sync account in Outlook for Mac to Microsoft Cloud support.microsoft.com
- Update Office for Mac automatically support.microsoft.com
- Release notes for Office for Mac learn.microsoft.com
- Network requests in Office for Mac learn.microsoft.com
- Dictate your emails in Outlook support.microsoft.com
- Outlook Calendar location permission report learn.microsoft.com
- Microsoft Store Outlook add-in hijacked to steal 4,000 Microsoft accounts bleepingcomputer.com
- CVE-2026-70291 — Microsoft vulnerability record at NVD nvd.nist.gov
- CVE-2025-62562 — Microsoft vulnerability record at NVD nvd.nist.gov
- Microsoft Outlook for macOS library injection vulnerability talosintelligence.com
- How multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft apps for macOS pave the way to stealing permissions blog.talosintelligence.com
- Update on Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard microsoft.com