Title

Configure the "Disable Password to Open UI" for password secured documents. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

If 2007 Office users add passwords to documents, other users can be prevented from opening the documents. This capability can provide an extra level of protection to documents that are already protected by access control lists, or provide a means of securing documents that are not protected by file-level security. By default, users can add passwords to Excel 2007 workbooks, PowerPoint 2007 presentations, and Word 2007 documents from the Save or Save As dialog box by clicking Tools, clicking General Options, and entering appropriate passwords to open or modify the documents. If this configuration is changed, users will not be able to enter passwords in the General Options dialog box, which means they will not be able to password protect documents.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings “Disable password to open UI” will be set to “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Security Criteria: If the value DisablePasswordUI is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings “Disable password to open UI” will be set to “Disabled”. "Note: Group Policy Administrative Templates are available from the www.microsoft.com download site. The MS Office 2007 System (Office12.adm) is included in the AdminTemplates.exe file. This template provides the mechanisms to incorporate Microsoft Office 2007 System policies via the Microsoft Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)." "Note: If the Microsoft Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is not used to incorporate the remediation to this vulnerability the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) may be used to create the registry key and value required."

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-18826r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17665

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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