Title

Online content options must be configured for offline content availability. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The Office 2013 Help system automatically searches MicrosoftOffice.com for content when a computer is connected to the Internet. Users can change this default by clearing the Search Microsoft Office.com for Help content when I'm connected to the Internet check box in the Privacy Options section of the Trust Center. If an organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as Office.com, allowing the Help system to download content might cause users to violate these policies.

Check Content

Note: This check is Not Applicable when the use of Office 365 is against the specific DoD instance of O365. The use of Offline Content for Non-DoD instances of O365 is prohibited and it must not allow for personal account synchronization. All non-DoD instances are subject to this requirement. Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Tools >> Options >> General >> Service Options... >> Online Content "Online content options" is set to "Enabled: Do not allow Office to connect to the internet". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\internet If the value 'UseOnlineContent' is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Tools >> Options >> General >> Service Options... >> Online Content "Online content options" to "Enabled: Do not allow Office to connect to the internet".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-228532r508020_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-228532

Group Title: SRG-APP-000141

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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