Sophos cloud endpoint: Multiple users getting "Caller Check Exploit Prevented in Microsoft Excel" when using custom spreadsheets

Question

I need a resolution for this false positive that does not completely whitelist Excel. 
 This is directly relevant to the following thread: 
 https://community.sophos.com/intercept/f/information/82464/microsoft-power-query-for-excel---false-flagging-by-intercept-crashes-excel 
 This was supposed to be resolved by the end of November. 
 We need a resolution now.

Rick Cahoon · Answer

On Office 2016, 64 bit, the error does not happen, at least on the limited amount of machines that we have running 64 bit. Everyone on 32 bit Office has the issue. There are considerations that you need to know about when running 64 bit. See this article: 
 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Choose-between-the-64-bit-or-32-bit-version-of-Office-2dee7807-8f95-4d0c-b5fe-6c6f49b8d261?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US 
 
 -Rick

Kwame Ahenkorah · Answer

Hi, 
 Has anyone considered creating a new Application Control policy, adding Microsoft Office suite and Excel as allowed applications? 
 This seemed to work for me. 
 It is just a stop-gap solution until a fix is issued by Sophos. 
 
 Thanks, 
 Kwame