Title

Do not allow a mix of policy and user locations for Office Products. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

When Microsoft Office Access™ 2007, Excel® 2007, PowerPoint® 2007, and Word 2007 files are opened from trusted locations, all the content in the files is enabled and active. Users are not notified about any potential risks that might be contained in the files, such as unsigned macros, ActiveX controls, or links to content on the Internet. By default, users can specify any location as a trusted location, and a computer can have a combination of user-created, OCT-created, and Group Policy–created trusted locations.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Security Settings -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” 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\Trusted Locations Criteria: If the value Allow User Locations 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 -> Trust Center “Allow mix of policy and user locations” 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-18659r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17560

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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