Title

Enable Automation Security to enforce macro level security in Office documents (Cat II impact)

Discussion

By default, when a separate program is used to launch Microsoft Office Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, or Word 2007 programmatically, any macros can run in the programmatically opened application without being blocked. This functionality could allow an attacker to use automation to run malicious code in Excel, PowerPoint, or Word.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings “Automation Security” will be set to “Enabled (Use application macro security level)”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security Criteria: If the value AutomationSecurity is REG_DWORD = 2, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings “Automation Security” will be set to “Enabled (Use application macro security level)”. "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-18924r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17741

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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