Title

Disallowance of Trusted Locations on the network must be enforced. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Files located in Trusted Locations and specified in the Trust Center are assumed to be safe. Content, code, and add-ins are allowed to load from Trusted Locations with minimal security and without prompting the user for permission. By default, users can specify Trusted Locations on network shares, or in other remote locations not under their direct control, by selecting the “Allow Trusted Locations on my network” (not recommended) check box in the Trusted Locations section of the Trust Center. If a dangerous file is opened from a trusted location, it will not be subject to typical security measures and could affect users' computers or data.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2010 -> Excel Options -> Security -> Trust Center -> Trusted Locations “Allow Trusted Locations on the network" must be set to “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\excel\security\trusted locations Criteria: If the value AllowNetworkLocations is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2010 -> Excel Options -> Security -> Trust Center -> Trusted Locations “Allow Trusted Locations on the network" to “Disabled”.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-33446r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17520

Group Title: DTOO134 - Trusted locations on computer

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.