Roaming settings must be stored locally and not synchronized to the Microsoft Office roaming settings web service.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-40884	DTOO414	SV-53216r3_rule		Medium

Description
Microsoft Office includes the ability to roam settings for specific Office features amongst devices by storing this data in the cloud. This data includes user activity such as the list of most recently used documents as well as user preferences such as the Office theme. This policy setting controls whether this data is allowed to be stored in the cloud. If this policy setting is enabled, roaming settings are only stored locally and not synchronized to the Microsoft Office roaming settings web service. If this policy setting is disabled or not configured, roaming settings are synchronized with the Microsoft Office roaming settings web service and users can access their data from other devices. Existing data in the cloud is not affected by this policy.

Description

Microsoft Office includes the ability to roam settings for specific Office features amongst devices by storing this data in the cloud. This data includes user activity such as the list of most recently used documents as well as user preferences such as the Office theme. This policy setting controls whether this data is allowed to be stored in the cloud. If this policy setting is enabled, roaming settings are only stored locally and not synchronized to the Microsoft Office roaming settings web service. If this policy setting is disabled or not configured, roaming settings are synchronized with the Microsoft Office roaming settings web service and users can access their data from other devices. Existing data in the cloud is not affected by this policy.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Office System 2013 STIG	2018-09-05

Details

Check Text ( C-47523r3_chk )
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Services >> "Disable Roaming Office User Settings" 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\roaming If the value “roamingsettingsdisabled” for every user profile hive is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-47523r3_chk )

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Services >> "Disable Roaming Office User Settings" 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\roaming

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

Fix Text (F-46143r2_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Services >> "Disable Roaming Office User Settings" to "Enabled".