| V-17184 | Medium | Links that invoke instances of Internet Explorer from within an Office product must be blocked. | The Pop-up Blocker feature in Internet Explorer can be used to block most unwanted pop-up and pop-under windows from appearing. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of... |
| V-17183 | Medium | Navigation to URLs embedded in Office products must be blocked. | To protect users from attacks, Internet Explorer usually does not attempt to load malformed URLs. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Internet Explorer spawned by... |
| V-26633 | Medium | Outlook Rich Text options must be set for converting to plain text format.
| Outlook automatically converts RTF formatted messages that are sent over the Internet to HTML format, so that the message formatting is maintained and attachments are received.
This setting... |
| V-17573 | Medium | Object Model Prompt behavior for Meeting and Task Responses must be configured. | If an untrusted application programmatically responds to tasks or meeting requests, that application could impersonate a user response to the tasks or meeting requests with false information. By... |
| V-17675 | Medium | Outlook Object Model scripts must be disallowed to run for public folders. | In Outlook, folders can be associated with custom forms or folder home pages that include scripts that access the Outlook object model. These scripts can add functionality to the folders and items... |
| V-17777 | Medium | Upload method for publishing calendars to Office Online must be restricted. | When users publish their calendar to Microsoft Office Online using the Microsoft Office Outlook Calendar Sharing Service, Outlook updates the calendars online at regular intervals unless they... |
| V-17674 | Medium | Folders in non-default stores, set as folder home pages, must be disallowed. | Outlook allows users to designate Web pages as home pages for personal or public folders. When a user clicks on a folder, Outlook displays the home page the user has assigned to it. Although this... |
| V-17763 | Medium | Publishing calendars to Office Online must be prevented. | Outlook users can share their calendars with selected others by publishing them to the Microsoft Office Outlook Calendar Sharing Service. Users can control who can view their calendar and at what... |
| V-17601 | Medium | The prompt to display level 1 attachments must be disallowed when closing an item. | To protect users from viruses and other harmful files, Outlook uses two levels of security, designated Level 1 and Level 2, to restrict access to files attached to email messages or other items.... |
| V-17602 | Medium | The prompt to display level 1 attachments must be disallowed when sending an item. | To protect users from viruses and other harmful files, Outlook 2013 uses two levels of security, designated Level 1 and Level 2, to restrict access to files attached to e-mail messages or other... |
| V-17760 | Medium | Outlook Security Mode must be configured to use Group Policy settings. | If users can configure security themselves, they might choose levels of security that leave their computers vulnerable to attack. By default, Outlook users can configure security for themselves,... |
| V-17587 | Medium | The remember password for internet e-mail accounts must be disabled. | As a security precaution, password caching for email Internet protocols such as POP3 or IMAP may lead to password discovery and eventually to data loss. An attacker that is able to access the... |
| V-17766 | Medium | Users customizing attachment security settings must be prevented. | All installed trusted COM addins can be trusted. Exchange settings for the addins still override if present and this option is selected. |
| V-26625 | Medium | Outlook 2013 application must be prevented from loading any custom user interface (UI) code. | This policy setting controls whether Office 2013 applications load any custom user interface (UI) code included with a document or template. Office 2013 allows developers to extend the UI with... |
| V-17803 | Medium | Warning about invalid signatures must be enforced. | If users open email messages that include invalid digital signatures, Outlook displays a warning dialog box. Users can decide whether they want to be warned about invalid signatures in the future.... |
| V-17734 | Medium | Outlook must be configured to force authentication when connecting to an Exchange server. | Exchange Server supports the Kerberos authentication protocol and NTLM for authentication. The Kerberos protocol is the more secure authentication method and is supported on Windows 2000 Server... |
| V-17733 | Medium | Attachments using generated name for secure temporary folders must be configured. | The Secure Temporary Files folder is used to store attachments when they are opened in email. By default, Outlook generates a random name for the Secure Temporary Files folder and saves it in the... |
| V-17572 | Medium | Object Model Prompt behavior for programmatic access of user address data must be configured. | If an untrusted application accesses the recipient fields, the application could gain access to sensitive data and potentially change that data. This could result in mail being sent to the wrong... |
| V-17615 | Medium | RPC encryption between Outlook and Exchange server must be enforced. | The remote procedure call (RPC) communication channel between an Outlook client computer and an Exchange server is not encrypted. If a malicious individual is able to eavesdrop on the network... |
| V-17624 | Medium | Junk Mail UI must be configured. | The Junk E-mail Filter in Outlook is designed to intercept the most obvious junk email, or spam, and send it to users' Junk E-mail folders. The filter evaluates each incoming message based on... |
| V-26702 | Medium | Check e-mail addresses against addresses of certificates being used must be disallowed.
| This policy setting controls whether Outlook verifies the user's email address with the address associated with the certificate used for signing. |
| V-17570 | Medium | Object Model Prompt behavior for accessing User Property Formula must be configured. | A custom form in Outlook could be used to gain access to sensitive address book data and potentially to change that data. By default, when a user tries to bind an address information field to a... |
| V-17173 | Medium | Disabling of user name and password syntax from being used in URLs must be enforced. | The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) standard allows user authentication to be included in URL strings in the form http://username:password@example.com. A malicious user might use this URL syntax to... |
| V-17574 | Medium | Object Model Prompt for programmatic email send behavior must be configured. | If an untrusted application programmatically sends email, that application could send mail that includes malicious code, impersonate a user, or launch a denial of service attack by sending a large... |
| V-17174 | Medium | The Internet Explorer Bind to Object functionality must be enabled. | Internet Explorer performs a number of safety checks before initializing an ActiveX control. It will not initialize a control if the kill bit for the control is set in the registry, or if the... |
| V-17175 | Medium | The Saved from URL mark must be selected to enforce Internet zone processing. | Typically, when Internet Explorer loads a web page from a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share that contains a Mark of the Web (MOTW) comment, indicating the page was saved from a site on the... |
| V-17778 | Medium | Retrieving of CRL data must be set for online action. | This policy setting controls how Outlook retrieves Certificate Revocation Lists to verify the validity of certificates. Certificate revocation lists (CRLs) are lists of digital certificates that... |
| V-17546 | Medium | Access restriction settings for published calendars must be configured. | Users can share their calendars with others by publishing them to the Microsoft Office Online Calendar Sharing Services and to a server that supports the World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and... |
| V-17562 | Medium | Scripts in One-Off Outlook forms must be disallowed. | Malicious code can be included within Outlook forms, and such code could be executed when users open the form. By default, Outlook does not run scripts in forms in which the script and the layout... |
| V-17564 | Medium | IE Trusted Zones assumed trusted must be blocked. | Malicious users can send HTML email messages with embedded Web beacons, which are pictures and other content from external servers that can be used to track whether specific recipients open the... |
| V-17787 | Medium | Run in FIPS compliant mode must be enforced. | Outlook can run in a mode that complies with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), a set of standards published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for use by... |
| V-17566 | Medium | The Add-In Trust Level must be configured. | Under normal circumstances the installed COM add-ins are applications that have been approved and intentionally deployed by the organization and therefore they should not pose a security threat. ... |
| V-17569 | Medium | Action to demote an EMail Level 1 attachment to Level 2 must be configured. | Outlook uses two levels of security to restrict access to files attached to email messages or other items. Files with specific extensions can be categorized as Level 1 (users cannot view the file)... |
| V-17568 | Medium | Object Model Prompt behavior for programmatic address books must be configured. | If an untrusted application accesses the address book, the application could gain access to sensitive data and potentially change that data. By default, when an untrusted application attempts to... |
| V-17755 | Medium | Message formats must be set to use SMime. | Email typically travels over open networks and is passed from server to server. Messages are therefore vulnerable to interception, and attackers might read or alter their contents. It is therefore... |
| V-17807 | Medium | Trust EMail from senders in receivers contact list must be enforced. | Email addresses in users' Contacts list are treated as safe senders for purposes of filtering junk email. If this configuration is changed, email from users' Contacts might be misclassified as... |
| V-17571 | Medium | Object Model Prompt behavior for the SaveAs method must be configured. | If an untrusted application uses the Save As command to programmatically save an item, the application could add malicious data to a user's inbox, a public folder, or an address book. By default,... |
| V-17678 | Medium | Internet calendar integration in Outlook must be disabled. | The Internet Calendar feature in Outlook enables users to publish calendars online (using the webcal:// protocol) and subscribe to calendars that others have published. When users subscribe to an... |
| V-17634 | Medium | Intranet with Safe Zones for automatic picture downloads must be configured. | Malicious email senders can send HTML email messages with embedded Web beacons, which are pictures and other content from external servers that can be used to track whether recipients open the... |
| V-26635 | Medium | Outlook must be configured not to prompt users to choose security settings if default settings fail.
| This policy prompts the user to choose security settings if default settings fail, but allowing users to select their own security settings would result in inconsistent enforcement in the... |
| V-17771 | Medium | Read signed email as plain text must be enforced. | Outlook can display email messages and other items in three formats: plain text, Rich Text Format (RTF), and HTML. By default, Outlook displays digitally signed email messages in the format they... |
| V-26637 | Medium | Replies or forwards to signed/encrypted messages must be signed/encrypted. | This setting controls whether replies and forwards to signed/encrypted mail should also be signed/encrypted. |
| V-26636 | Medium | Outlook minimum encryption key length settings must be set.
| This setting allows the minimum key length for an encrypted email message to be configured. |
| V-17774 | Medium | Level 1 file extensions must be blocked and not removed. | Malicious code is often spread through e-mail. Some viruses have the ability to send copies of themselves to other people in the victim's Address Book or Contacts list, and such potentially... |
| V-17775 | Medium | Level 2 file extensions must be blocked and not removed. | Malicious code is often spread through email. Some viruses have the ability to send copies of themselves to other people in the victim's Address Book or Contacts list, and such potentially harmful... |
| V-17776 | Medium | Level of calendar details that a user can publish must be restricted. | Outlook users can share their calendars with selected others by publishing them to the Microsoft Office Outlook Calendar Sharing Service. Users can choose from three levels of detail:
*... |
| V-26632 | Medium | Automatically downloading enclosures on RSS must be disallowed.
| This policy setting controls Outlook's ability to automatically download enclosures on RSS items. |
| V-17806 | Medium | RSS feed synchronization with Common Feed List must be disallowed. | The Common Feed list is a hierarchical set of RSS feeds to which clients such as Outlook 2013, the Feeds list in Internet Explorer, and the Feed Headlines Sidebar gadget in Windows Vista can... |
| V-17753 | Medium | Outlook must be enforced as the default email, calendar, and contacts program. | Outlook is made the default program for email, contacts, and calendar services when it is installed, although users can designate other programs as the default programs for these services. If... |
| V-17802 | Medium | Custom Outlook Object Model (OOM) action execution prompts must be configured. | Custom actions add functionality to Outlook that can be triggered as part of a rule. Among other possible features, custom actions can be created that reply to messages in ways that circumvent the... |
| V-17630 | Medium | Internet with Safe Zones for Picture Download must be disabled. | Malicious email senders can send HTML email messages with embedded Web beacons, which are pictures and other content from external servers that can be used to track whether recipients open the... |
| V-17610 | Medium | Disabling download full text of articles as HTML must be configured. | Many RSS feeds use messages that contain a brief summary of a larger message or an article with a link to the full content. Users can configure Outlook to automatically download the linked content... |
| V-17944 | Medium | User Entries to Server List must be disallowed. | If users are able to manually enter the addresses of servers that are not approved by the organization, they could use servers that do not meet your organization's information security... |
| V-17770 | Medium | Read EMail as plain text must be enforced. | Outlook can display email messages and other items in three formats: plain text, Rich Text Format (RTF), and HTML. By default, Outlook displays email messages in whatever format they were received in. |
| V-17613 | Medium | Hyperlinks in suspected phishing email messages must be disallowed. | Outlook's Junk E-mail Filter evaluates each incoming message for possible spam or phishing content. Suspicious message detection is always turned on. By default, Outlook handles suspicious... |
| V-17738 | Medium | Automatic download of Internet Calendar appointment attachments must be disallowed. | Files attached to Internet Calendar appointments could contain malicious code that could be used to compromise a computer. By default, Outlook does not download attachments when retrieving... |
| V-17575 | Medium | Trusted add-ins behavior for email must be configured. | The Outlook object model includes entry points to access Outlook data, save data to specified locations, and send email messages, all of which can be used by malicious application developers. To... |
| V-17808 | Medium | RSS Feeds must be disallowed. | Users can subscribe to RSS feeds from within Outlook and read RSS items like email messages. If an organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as RSS feeds, allowing... |
| V-17739 | Medium | Automatic download content for email in Safe Senders list must be disallowed. | Malicious email senders can send HTML email messages with embedded Web beacons, or pictures and other content from external servers that can be used to track whether specific recipients have... |
| V-26634 | Medium | Default message format must be set to use Plain Text.
| Outlook uses HTML as the default email format. HTML format poses a security risk by embedding information into the email itself, which could allow for release of sensitive information. If a user... |
| V-17671 | Medium | The ability to display level 1 attachments must be disallowed. | To protect users from viruses and other harmful files, Outlook uses two levels of security, designated Level 1 and Level 2, to restrict access to files attached to email messages or other items.... |
| V-17558 | Medium | Recipients of sent email must be unable to be added to the safe senders list. | Users could send email messages to request that they be taken off a mailing list. If the email recipient is then automatically added to the Safe Senders List, future e mail messages from that... |
| V-17673 | Medium | The ability to add signatures to email messages must be allowed. | Outlook users can create and use signatures in email messages. Users can add signatures to messages manually, and can also configure Outlook to automatically append signatures to new messages, to... |
| V-17672 | Medium | External content and pictures in HTML email must be displayed. | Malicious email senders can send HTML email messages with embedded Web beacons, which are pictures and other content from external servers that can be used to track whether specific recipients... |
| V-17756 | Medium | Missing Root Certificates warning must be enforced. | When Outlook accesses a certificate, it validates that it can trust the certificate by examining the root certificate of the issuing CA. If the root certificate can be trusted, then certificates... |
| V-17761 | Medium | Plain Text Options for outbound email must be configured. | If outgoing mail is formatted in certain ways, for example, if attachments are encoded in UUENCODE format, attackers might manipulate the messages for their own purposes. If UUENCODE formatting is... |
| V-17676 | Medium | Outlook Object Model scripts must be disallowed to run for shared folders. | In Outlook, folders can be associated with custom forms or folder home pages that include scripts that access the Outlook object model. These scripts can add functionality to the folders and items... |
| V-41492 | Medium | The use of the weather bar in Outlook must be disabled | The Weather Bar in Outlook displays weather conditions and forecast for a geographic location. By default, Outlook uses weather data provided by MSN Weather. The Weather Bar supports third-party... |
| V-41493 | Medium | Text in Outlook that represents Internet and network paths must not be automatically turned into hyperlinks. | 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... |
| V-17470 | Medium | Permit download of content from safe zones must be configured. | By default, Outlook automatically downloads content from sites that are considered "safe," as defined in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box in Internet Explorer. This... |
| V-26588 | Medium | Scripted Window Security must be enforced. | Malicious websites often try to confuse or trick users into giving a site permission to perform an action allowing the site to take control of the users' computers in some manner. Disabling or not... |
| V-17790 | Medium | S/Mime interoperability with external clients for message handling must be configured. | In some situations, administrators might wish to use an external program, such as an add-in, to handle S/MIME message decryption. If your organization works with encrypted messages that the... |
| V-17798 | Medium | Always warn on untrusted macros must be enforced. | To protect users from dangerous code, the Outlook default configuration disables all macros that are not trusted, including unsigned macros, macros with expired or invalid signatures, and macros... |
| V-17800 | Medium | Send all signed messages as clear signed messages must be configured. | When users sign email messages with their signing certificate and send them, Outlook uses the sender's private key to encrypt the digital signature but sends the messages as clear text, unless... |
| V-17812 | Medium | Dragging Unicode email messages to file system must be disallowed. | When users drag email messages from Outlook to a Windows Explorer window or to their Desktop, Outlook creates an .msg file using the native character encoding format for the configured locale (the... |
| V-26586 | Medium | ActiveX installs must be configured for proper restrictions. | Microsoft ActiveX controls allow unmanaged, unprotected code to run on the user computers. ActiveX controls do not run within a protected container in the browser like the other types of HTML or... |
| V-17762 | Medium | Publishing to a Web Distributed and Authoring (DAV) server must be prevented. | Outlook users can share their calendars with others by publishing them to a server that supports the World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol. Unlike the Microsoft... |
| V-17795 | Medium | Automatic sending s/Mime receipt requests must be disallowed. | Incoming signed or encrypted messages might include S/MIME receipt requests. S/MIME receipts provide confirmation that messages are received unaltered, and can include information about who opened... |
| V-26587 | Medium | File Downloads must be configured for proper restrictions. | Disabling this setting allows websites to present file download prompts via code without the user specifically initiating the download. User preferences may also allow the download to occur... |
| V-17559 | Medium | ActiveX One-Off forms must be configured. | Third-party ActiveX controls are not allowed to run in one-off forms in Outlook. This behavior can be changed so that Safe Controls (Microsoft Forms 2.0 controls and the Outlook Recipient and Body... |
| V-26585 | Medium | Protection from zone elevation must be enforced. | Internet Explorer places restrictions on each web page users can use the browser to open. Web pages on a user's local computer have the fewest security restrictions and reside in the Local Machine... |
| V-26584 | Medium | Add-on Management functionality must be allowed. | Internet Explorer add-ons are pieces of code, run in Internet Explorer, to provide additional functionality. Rogue add-ons may contain viruses or other malicious code. Disabling or not configuring... |
