Do not allow a mix of policy and user locations for Office Products.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17560	DTOO196 - Office	SV-18659r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
When Microsoft Office Access™ 2007, Excel® 2007, PowerPoint® 2007, and Word 2007 files are opened from trusted locations, all the content in the files is enabled and active. Users are not notified about any potential risks that might be contained in the files, such as unsigned macros, ActiveX controls, or links to content on the Internet. By default, users can specify any location as a trusted location, and a computer can have a combination of user-created, OCT-created, and Group Policy–created trusted locations.

Description

When Microsoft Office Access™ 2007, Excel® 2007, PowerPoint® 2007, and Word 2007 files are opened from trusted locations, all the content in the files is enabled and active. Users are not notified about any potential risks that might be contained in the files, such as unsigned macros, ActiveX controls, or links to content on the Internet. By default, users can specify any location as a trusted location, and a computer can have a combination of user-created, OCT-created, and Group Policy–created trusted locations.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Office System 2007	2014-01-07

Details

Check Text ( C-18861r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” will be set to “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Security\Trusted Locations Criteria: If the value Allow User Locations is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-18861r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” will be set to “Disabled”.

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

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Security\Trusted Locations

Criteria: If the value Allow User Locations is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-17477r1_fix)
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” will be set to “Disabled”. "Note: Group Policy Administrative Templates are available from the www.microsoft.com download site. The MS Office 2007 System (Office12.adm) is included in the AdminTemplates.exe file. This template provides the mechanisms to incorporate Microsoft Office 2007 System policies via the Microsoft Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)." "Note: If the Microsoft Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is not used to incorporate the remediation to this vulnerability the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) may be used to create the registry key and value required."

Fix Text (F-17477r1_fix)

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” will be set to “Disabled”.

"Note: Group Policy Administrative Templates are available from the www.microsoft.com download site. The MS Office 2007 System (Office12.adm) is included in the AdminTemplates.exe file. This template provides the
mechanisms to incorporate Microsoft Office 2007 System policies via the Microsoft Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)."

"Note: If the Microsoft Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is not used to incorporate the remediation to this vulnerability the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) may be used to create the registry key and value required."