Document metadata for password protected files must be protected.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17768	DTOO188	SV-52725r2_rule		Medium

Description
When an Office Open XML document is protected with a password and saved, any metadata associated with the document is encrypted along with the rest of the document's contents. If this configuration is changed, potentially sensitive information such as the document author and hyperlink references could be exposed to unauthorized people.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Office System 2013 STIG	2017-01-04

Details

Check Text ( C-47053r3_chk )
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings "Protect document metadata for password protected files" is set to "Enabled". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following hive: HKEY_Users For every users profile hive under HKEY_Users, navigate to the following key: \Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\security If the value “OpenXMLEncryptProperty” is REG_DWORD = 1 for every user profile hive, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-47053r3_chk )

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings "Protect document metadata for password protected files" is set to "Enabled".

Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following hive:
HKEY_Users

For every users profile hive under HKEY_Users, navigate to the following key:
\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\security

If the value “OpenXMLEncryptProperty” is REG_DWORD = 1 for every user profile hive, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-45650r1_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 -> Security Settings "Protect document metadata for password protected files" to "Enabled".