Update of automatic links must be configured to prompt.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17732	DTOO150 - Excel	SV-33434r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
If an Excel workbook contains links to other documents and users are not prompted to approve them, the contents of the workbook might change without the users' knowledge because the linked files have changed. By default, users are prompted to update automatic links.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Excel 2010	2011-09-29

Details

Check Text ( C-33917r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2010 -> Excel Options -> Advanced “Ask to update automatic links” must be set to “Enabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\excel\options\binaryoptions Criteria: If the value fUpdateExt_78_1 is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-33917r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2010 -> Excel Options -> Advanced “Ask to update automatic links” must be set to “Enabled”.

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

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\excel\options\binaryoptions

Criteria: If the value fUpdateExt_78_1 is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-29606r1_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2010 -> Excel Options -> Advanced “Ask to update automatic links” to “Enabled”.