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

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-228518	DTOO196	SV-228518r508020_rule		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 2013 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-25

Details

Check Text ( C-30751r498832_chk )
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings >> Trust Center "Allow mix of policy and user locations" is set to "Disabled". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\security\trusted locations If the value 'Allow User Locations' is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-30751r498832_chk )

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings >> Trust Center "Allow mix of policy and user locations" is set to "Disabled".

Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\security\trusted locations

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

Fix Text (F-30736r498833_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 -> Security Settings -> Trust Center "Allow mix of policy and user locations" to "Disabled".