Title

Disable Microsoft passport Service for content with restricted permissions - Office. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The Information Rights Management feature of the 2007 Microsoft Office release allows individuals and administrators to specify access permissions to Word 2007 documents, Excel 2007 workbooks, PowerPoint 2007 presentations, and Outlook 2007 e-mail messages. This capability helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, or copied by unauthorized people. Users protect content using digital certificates obtained through Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) or by using a Windows Live ID (formerly Microsoft .NET Passport) account. By default, when a user opens a rights-managed file created with a Windows Live ID, the application connects to a licensing server to verify the user's credentials and to download a license that defines the level of access the user has to the file. If your organization has policies that govern access to external services such as Windows Live ID, this capability could allow users to violate those policies.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Manage Restricted Permissions “Disable Microsoft Passport service for content with restricted permission” 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\DRM Criteria: If the value DisablePassportCertification is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2007 system -> Manage Restricted Permissions “Disable Microsoft Passport service for content with restricted permission” 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-18820r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17662

Group Title:

Expert Comments

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