| V-17187 | Medium | Trust Bar Notifications for unsigned application add-ins must be blocked. | If an application is configured to require all add-ins to be signed by a trusted publisher, any unsigned add-ins the application loads will be disabled and the application will display the Trust... |
| V-17184 | Medium | Links that invoke instances of Internet Explorer from within an Office product must be blocked. | The "Pop-up Blocker" feature in Internet Explorer can be used to block most unwanted pop-up and pop-under windows from appearing. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of... |
| V-17183 | Medium | Navigation to URLs embedded in Office products must be blocked. | To protect users from attacks, Internet Explorer usually does not attempt to load malformed URLs. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Internet Explorer spawned by... |
| V-17652 | Medium | Automatic republish to web pages must be disallowed. | If users choose to publish Excel data to a static web page and enable the AutoRepublish feature, Excel saves a copy of the data to the web page every time the user saves the workbook. If the page... |
| V-17732 | Medium | The Update of automatic links setting must be configured to prompt user before allowing links to be updated. | 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... |
| V-17744 | Medium | The AutoRepublish warning alert must be provided. | AutoRepublish is a feature in Excel allowing workbooks to be automatically republished to the World Wide Web each time the workbook is saved. A number of changes might need to be made to allow the... |
| V-17621 | Medium | File types must be configured to provide mismatch warnings | Excel can load files with extensions that do not match the files' type. For example, if a comma-separated values (CSV) file named example.csv is renamed example.xls, Excel can properly load it as... |
| V-26608 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 4 workbooks must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26609 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 4 worksheets must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-17521 | Medium | The Save commands default file format must be configured. | When users create new Excel files, Excel 2013 saves them in the new *.xlsx format. Ensure this setting is enabled to specify all new files are created in Excel 2013. If a new file is created in an... |
| V-17520 | Medium | Disallowance of trusted locations on the network must be enforced. | Files located in trusted locations and specified in the Trust Center are typically assumed to be safe. Content, code, and add-ins are allowed to load from trusted locations with minimal security... |
| V-17522 | Medium | Trust access for VBA must be disallowed. | VSTO projects require access to the Visual Basic for Applications project system in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, even though the projects do not use Visual Basic for Applications. Design-time... |
| V-17173 | Medium | Disabling of user name and password syntax from being used in URLs must be enforced. | The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) standard allows user authentication to be included in URL strings in the form http://username:password@example.com. A malicious user might use this URL syntax to... |
| V-17174 | Medium | Internet Explorer Bind to Object functionality must be enabled. | Internet Explorer performs a number of safety checks before initializing an ActiveX control. It will not initialize a control if the kill bit for the control is set in the registry, or if the... |
| V-17175 | Medium | The Saved from URL mark must be selected to enforce Internet zone processing. | Typically, when Internet Explorer loads a web page from a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share that contains a Mark of the Web (MOTW) comment, indicating the page was saved from a site on the... |
| V-26598 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 2 worksheets must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26599 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 3 macrosheets and add-in files must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-17545 | Medium | Warning Bar settings for VBA macros must be configured. | When users open files containing VBA macros, applications open the files with the macros disabled and displays the Trust Bar with a warning that macros are present and have been disabled. Users... |
| V-26592 | Medium | Configuration for file validation must be enforced. | Office File Validation helps detect and prevent a kind of exploit known as a file format attack or file fuzzing attack. File format attacks exploit the integrity of a file. They occur when someone... |
| V-26595 | Medium | Open/Save actions for dBase III / IV files must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26596 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Dif and Sylk files must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26597 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 2 macrosheets and add-in files must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26607 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 4 macrosheets and add-in files must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-17804 | Medium | Macro storage must be in personal macro workbooks. | The Record Macro dialog box includes a drop-down menu allowing users to choose whether to store the new macro in the current workbook, a new workbook, or their personal macro workbook... |
| V-17751 | Medium | The loading of images from web pages must not be allowed. | When users open web pages in Excel, Excel loads any graphics included in the pages, regardless of whether or not they were originally created in Excel. Allowing Excel to load graphics created in... |
| V-17650 | Medium | Internet links and Network UNCs created as embedded hyperlinks must be prevented. | When users type a string of characters, Excel recognizes as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path to a resource on the Internet or a local network, Excel will... |
| V-17322 | Medium | The opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to Excel 2013 through the Compatibility Pack for Office 2013 and Excel 2013 Converter must be blocked. | By default, users are prompted to update automatic links. |
| V-26612 | Medium | Blocking as default file block opening behavior must be enforced. | Users can open, view, or edit a large number of file types in Office 2013. Some file types are safer than others, as some could allow malicious code to become active on user computers or the... |
| V-26611 | Medium | Actions for Excel 95-97 workbooks and templates must be configured to edit in Protected View. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26610 | Medium | Actions for Excel 95 workbooks must be configured to edit in Protected View. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-26617 | Medium | Excel attachments opened from Outlook must be in Protected View. | This policy setting allows for determining whether Excel files in Outlook attachments open in Protected View. If enabling this policy setting, Outlook attachments do not open in Protected View. If... |
| V-26616 | Medium | Document behavior if file validation fails must be set. | This policy key controls how Office documents should be handled when failing file validation. By requiring such documents to be opened in Protected View, any potentially malicious code would be... |
| V-26615 | Medium | Files in unsafe locations must be opened in Protected View. | This policy setting determines whether files located in unsafe locations will open in Protected View. If unsafe locations have not been specified, only the "Downloaded Program Files" and... |
| V-26614 | Medium | Files from the Internet zone must be opened in Protected View. | This policy setting allows for determining if files downloaded from the Internet zone open in Protected View. If enabling this policy setting, files downloaded from the Internet zone do not open... |
| V-26589 | Medium | Add-ins to Office applications must be signed by a Trusted Publisher. | Office 2013 applications do not, by default, check the digital signature on application add-ins before opening them. Disabling or not configuring this setting may allow an application to load a... |
| V-26588 | Medium | Scripted Window Security must be enforced. | Malicious websites often try to confuse or trick users into giving a site permission to perform an action allowing the site to take control of the users' computers in some manner. Disabling or not... |
| V-17473 | Medium | The scanning of encrypted macros in open XML documents must be enforced. | When an Office Open XML document (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is rights-managed, or password-protected, any macros embedded in the document are encrypted along with the rest of the contents. By... |
| V-17471 | Medium | All automatic loading from trusted locations must be disabled. | Trusted locations specified in the Trust Center are used to define file locations assumed to be safe. Content, code, and add-ins are allowed to load from trusted locations with a minimal amount of... |
| V-26601 | Medium | Open/Save actions for Excel 3 worksheets must be blocked. | This setting specifies whether users can open, view, edit, or save files saved in the specified format. Enabling block of the specified format mitigates zero-day security attacks (which are... |
| V-41346 | Medium | Corrupt workbook options must be disallowed. | This setting controls whether Excel presents users with a list of data extraction options before beginning an Open and Repair operation when users choose to open a corrupt workbook in repair or... |
| V-41344 | Medium | WEBSERVICE functions must be disabled. | The WEBSERVICE function option, when used in an Excel spreadsheet, returns data from a web service on the Internet or Intranet. If allowed to be used, security is significantly reduced by allowing... |
| V-26587 | Medium | File downloads must be configured for proper restrictions. | Disabling this setting allows websites to present file download prompts via code without the user specifically initiating the download. User preferences may also allow the download to occur... |
| V-26586 | Medium | ActiveX Installs must be configured for proper restriction. | Microsoft ActiveX controls allow unmanaged, unprotected code to run on the user computers. ActiveX controls do not run within a protected container in the browser like the other types of HTML or... |
| V-26585 | Medium | Protection from zone elevation must be enforced. | Internet Explorer places restrictions on each web page users can use the browser to open. Web pages on a user's local computer have the fewest security restrictions and reside in the Local Machine... |
| V-26584 | Medium | Add-on Management functionality must be allowed. | Internet Explorer add-ons are pieces of code, run in Internet Explorer, to provide additional functionality. Rogue add-ons may contain viruses or other malicious code. Disabling or not configuring... |
| V-26613 | Low | Open/Save actions for web pages and Excel 2003 XML spreadsheets must be blocked. | This policy setting allows for determining whether users can open, view, edit, or save Excel files with the format specified by the title |
