Automation Security to enforce macro level security in Office documents must be configured.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-228545	DTOO193	SV-228545r557514_rule		Medium

Description
When a separate program is used to launch Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, or Word programmatically, any macros can run in the programmatically opened application without being blocked. This functionality could allow an attacker to use automation to run malicious code in Excel, PowerPoint, or Word.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Office System 2013 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-25

Details

Check Text ( C-30778r557513_chk )
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings "Automation Security" is set to "Enabled (Use application macro security level)". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security If the value "AutomationSecurity" is REG_DWORD =2, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-30763r498914_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 -> Security Settings "Automation Security" to "Enabled (Use application macro security level)".