Disable the Office client from polling the Sharepoint server for published links.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17670	DTOO208 - Office	SV-18836r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
By default, users of 2007 Office applications can see and use links to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server sites from those applications. Administrators configure published links to Office applications during initial deployment, and can add or change links as part of regular operations. These links appear on the My SharePoint Sites tab of the Open, Save, and Save As dialog boxes when opening and saving documents from these applications. Links can be targeted so that they only appear to users who are members of particular audiences. If a malicious person gains access to the list of published links, they could modify the links to point to unapproved sites, which could make sensitive data vulnerable to exposure.

Description

By default, users of 2007 Office applications can see and use links to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server sites from those applications. Administrators configure published links to Office applications during initial deployment, and can add or change links as part of regular operations. These links appear on the My SharePoint Sites tab of the Open, Save, and Save As dialog boxes when opening and saving documents from these applications. Links can be targeted so that they only appear to users who are members of particular audiences. If a malicious person gains access to the list of published links, they could modify the links to point to unapproved sites, which could make sensitive data vulnerable to exposure.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Office System 2007	2015-10-02

Details

Check Text ( C-18941r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Server Settings “Disable the Office client from polling the Office server for published links” will be set to “Enabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Portal Criteria: If the value LinkPublishingDisabled is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-18941r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Server Settings “Disable the Office client from polling the Office server for published links” will be set to “Enabled”.

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

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Portal

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

Fix Text (F-17568r1_fix)
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Server Settings “Disable the Office client from polling the Office server for published links” will be set to “Enabled”. "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-17568r1_fix)

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Server Settings “Disable the Office client from polling the Office server for published links” will be set to “Enabled”.

"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."