Text in Outlook that represents Internet and network paths must not be automatically turned into hyperlinks.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-41493	DTOO425	SV-54069r1_rule		Medium

Description
The ability of Outlook to automatically turn text that represents Internet and network paths into hyperlinks would allow users to click on those hyperlinks in email message and access malicious or otherwise harmful websites.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Outlook 2013 STIG	2014-01-06

Details

Check Text ( C-48009r1_chk )
Verify the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Outlook 2013 -> Outlook Options -> "Internet and network path into hyperlinks" is set to "Disabled". Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\software\policies\Microsoft\office\15.0\outlook\options\autoformat Criteria: If the value pgrfafo_25_1 is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Check Text ( C-48009r1_chk )

Verify the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Outlook 2013 -> Outlook Options -> "Internet and network path into hyperlinks" is set to "Disabled".

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

HKCU\software\policies\Microsoft\office\15.0\outlook\options\autoformat

Criteria: If the value pgrfafo_25_1 is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-46949r1_fix)
Set the policy User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Outlook 2013 -> Outlook Options -> "Internet and network path into hyperlinks" must be set to "Disabled".