Title

Automation Security to enforce macro level security in Office documents must be configured. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

When a separate program is used to launch Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, or Word 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

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings "Automation Security" is set to "Enabled (Use application macro security level)". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security If the value "AutomationSecurity" is REG_DWORD =2, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 -> Security Settings "Automation Security" to "Enabled (Use application macro security level)".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-228545r557514_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-228545

Group Title: SRG-APP-000210

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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