Title

A mix of policy and user locations for Office Products must be disallowed. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

When Microsoft Office 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

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Security Settings >> Trust Center "Allow mix of policy and user locations" is set to "Disabled". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\security\trusted locations If the value “Allow User Locations” is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 -> Security Settings -> Trust Center "Allow mix of policy and user locations" to "Disabled".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-52745r4_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17560

Group Title: DTOO196 - Mix of Policy and User Locations

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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