Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2007 through the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system and Excel 2007 Converter

Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2007 through the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system and Excel 2007 Converter - System

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17322	DTOO210 - Excel	SV-18558r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats enables users of Microsoft Word 2000, Word 2002, and Office Word 2003 to open files saved in the Office Open XML format used by Word 2007. Word Open XML files usually have the following extensions: • .docx • .docm • .dotx • .dotm • .xml By default, the Compatibility Pack does not open files that were saved in pre-release versions of the new Office Open XML format, which underwent some minor changes prior to the final release of Word 2007. If this configuration is changed, through a registry modification or by some other mechanism, users with the Compatibility Pack installed can open files saved by some pre-release versions of Word, but not by others, which can lead to inconsistent file opening functionality.

Description

The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats enables users of Microsoft Word 2000, Word 2002, and Office Word 2003 to open files saved in the Office Open XML format used by Word 2007. Word Open XML files usually have the following extensions: • .docx • .docm • .dotx • .dotm • .xml By default, the Compatibility Pack does not open files that were saved in pre-release versions of the new Office Open XML format, which underwent some minor changes prior to the final release of Word 2007. If this configuration is changed, through a registry modification or by some other mechanism, users with the Compatibility Pack installed can open files saved by some pre-release versions of Word, but not by others, which can lead to inconsistent file opening functionality.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Excel 2007	2014-01-07

Details

Check Text ( C-18827r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Office 2007 Converters “Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2007 through the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system and Excel 2007 Converter” will be set to “Enabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Security\FileOpenBlock Criteria: If the value Excel12BetaFilesFromConverters is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-18827r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Office 2007 Converters “Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2007 through the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system and Excel 2007 Converter” will be set to “Enabled”.

Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key:

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Security\FileOpenBlock

Criteria: If the value Excel12BetaFilesFromConverters is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-17425r1_fix)
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Office 2007 Converters “Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2007 through the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system and Excel 2007 Converter” will be set to “Enabled”.