Cybernews claims Euro-Office, a European open-source alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Docs, remains heavily dependent on Russian-origin OnlyOffice code, raising questions about software trust, transparency and digital sovereignty.
Euro-Office, an open-source office suite launched as a European alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Docs, is facing scrutiny after a Cybernews analysis claimed the project remains heavily dependent on Russian-origin OnlyOffice code despite formally splitting from the platform in March 2026.
According to the report, Euro-Office forked from OnlyOffice version 9.3.1 and continues importing selected code changes from the original project. Researchers found thousands of shared code fingerprints between the two codebases and said Euro-Office has added only 184 changes of its own while importing around 370 OnlyOffice-origin changes into its server-side service.
Cybernews claims that 98.6% of Euro-Office’s document engine and 99.2% of its live-service component originated from developers working in Russian time zones, with European-authored contributions accounting for roughly 0.5%.
The researchers also raised security concerns over network-facing components. “One of the biggest issues is that the code pulls an Android bundle from an unknown cloud resource, which raises security concerns about what is in it, who owns it, and if it can be changed at any time,” they said.
Euro-Office developers described the fork as a “last resort” driven by technical and geopolitical concerns, adding that they are reviewing, cleaning and opening the codebase to improve transparency and trust.
The controversy highlights broader open-source challenges around software supply-chain trust, code provenance, digital sovereignty, governance transparency and the security auditing of inherited codebases.
