Allow Users to demote an EMail Level 1 attachment to Level 2.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-17569	DTOO241 - Outlook	SV-18677r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
Outlook 2007 uses two levels of security to restrict access to files attached to e-mail messages or other items. Files with specific extensions can be categorized as Level 1 (users cannot view the file) or Level 2 (users can open the file after saving it to disk). Users can freely open files of types that are not categorized as Level 1 or Level 2. By default, Outlook does not allow users to demote file types from Level 1 to Level 2. If this setting is Enabled, users can create a list of Level 1 file types to demote to Level 2 by adding the file types to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\12.0\Security\Level1Remove If users can demote Level 1 files to Level 2, they will be able to access potentially dangerous files after saving them to disk, which could allow malicious code to affect their computers or compromise the security of sensitive information.

Description

Outlook 2007 uses two levels of security to restrict access to files attached to e-mail messages or other items. Files with specific extensions can be categorized as Level 1 (users cannot view the file) or Level 2 (users can open the file after saving it to disk). Users can freely open files of types that are not categorized as Level 1 or Level 2. By default, Outlook does not allow users to demote file types from Level 1 to Level 2. If this setting is Enabled, users can create a list of Level 1 file types to demote to Level 2 by adding the file types to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\12.0\Security\Level1Remove If users can demote Level 1 files to Level 2, they will be able to access potentially dangerous files after saving them to disk, which could allow malicious code to affect their computers or compromise the security of sensitive information.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Outlook 2007	2014-10-03

Details

Check Text ( C-18870r1_chk )
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 -> Security -> Security Form Settings -> Attachment Security “Allow users to demote attachments to Level 2” will be set to “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security Criteria: If the value AllowUsersToLowerAttachments is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-18870r1_chk )

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 -> Security -> Security Form Settings -> Attachment Security “Allow users to demote attachments to Level 2” will be set to “Disabled”.

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

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security

Criteria: If the value AllowUsersToLowerAttachments is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-17487r1_fix)
The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 -> Security -> Security Form Settings -> Attachment Security “Allow users to demote attachments to Level 2” will be set to “Disabled”.