Pre-release versions of file formats new to Office Products must be blocked.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17322	DTOO210 - Excel	SV-33448r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Excel 2010 File Formats installed can open Office Open XML files saved with pre-release versions of Excel 2010. Excel Open XML files usually have the following extensions: .xlsx, .xlsm, .xltx, .xltm, .xlam.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Excel 2010	2014-01-07

Details

Check Text ( C-33931r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2010 -> Office 2010 Converters “Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2010 through the Compatibility Pack for Office 2010 and Excel 2010 Converter” 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\security\fileblock Criteria: If the value Excel12BetaFilesFromConverters is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-33931r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2010 -> Office 2010 Converters “Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2010 through the Compatibility Pack for Office 2010 and Excel 2010 Converter” 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\security\fileblock

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

Fix Text (F-29620r1_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2010 -> Office 2010 Converters “Block opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2010 through the Compatibility Pack for Office 2010 and Excel 2010 Converter” to “Enabled”.