Do not Load pictures from web pates not created in Excel

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17751	DTOO152 - Excel	SV-18941r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
By default, when users open Web pages in Excel 2007, Excel loads any graphics that are included in the pages, regardless of whether they were originally created in Excel. Allowing Excel to load graphics created in other programs can make Excel vulnerable to possible future zero-day attacks that use graphic files as an attack vector. If such an event occurs, this setting can be used to mitigate the vulnerability.

Description

By default, when users open Web pages in Excel 2007, Excel loads any graphics that are included in the pages, regardless of whether they were originally created in Excel. Allowing Excel to load graphics created in other programs can make Excel vulnerable to possible future zero-day attacks that use graphic files as an attack vector. If such an event occurs, this setting can be used to mitigate the vulnerability.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Excel 2007	2014-01-07

Details

Check Text ( C-19013r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office Excel 2007 -> Excel Options -> Advanced -> Web Options -> General “Load pictures from Web pages not created in Excel” will be set to “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Internet Criteria: If the value DoNotLoadPictures is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-19013r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office Excel 2007 -> Excel Options -> Advanced -> Web Options -> General “Load pictures from Web pages not created in Excel” will be set to “Disabled”.

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

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Internet

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

Fix Text (F-17650r1_fix)
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office Excel 2007 -> Excel Options -> Advanced -> Web Options -> General “Load pictures from Web pages not created in Excel” will be set to “Disabled”.