A mix of policy and user locations for Office Products must be disallowed.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17560	DTOO196 - Office System	SV-33470r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
When Microsoft Office 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 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 2010	2012-06-22

Details

Check Text ( C-33953r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2010 -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” must be set to “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\common\security\trusted locations Criteria: If the value Allow User Locations is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-33953r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2010 -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” must be set to “Disabled”.

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

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\common\security\trusted locations

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

Fix Text (F-29642r1_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2010 -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” to “Disabled”.