Title

Disable access to updates, add-ins, and patches on the Office Online Website - Office. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Having access to updates, add-ins, and patches on the Office Online Web site can help users ensure that their computers are up to date and equipped with the latest security patches. However, to ensure that updates are tested and applied in a consistent manner, many organizations prefer to roll out updates using a centralized mechanism such as Microsoft Systems Center or Windows Server Update Services. By default, users are allowed to download updates, add-ins, and patches from the Office Online Web site to keep their 2007 Office applications running smoothly and securely. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as Office Online, allowing users to download updates might cause them to violate these policies.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Tools \ Options \ General \ Web Options “Disable access to updates, add-ins, and patches on the Office Online website” will be set to “Enabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Internet Criteria: If the value DisableDownloadCenterAccess is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Tools \ Options \ General \ Web Options “Disable access to updates, add-ins, and patches on the Office Online website” will be set to “Enabled”. "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-18714r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17588

Group Title:

Expert Comments

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