Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for detecting macro viruses. The method includes: if a data file processing program has already performed an opening operation on a target data file but has not yet performed a loading operation on a content of the target data file, calling a macro virus detecting module registered previously as a plug-in of the data file processing program; detecting the target data file by using the macro virus detecting module. Applying the embodiment of the present disclosure, the macro virus detecting module may identify the format of all data files and may perform the internal analysis of the data files, thus improving the coverage of the detected data files.