Title

Inclusion of document properties for PDF and XPS output must be disallowed. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

This policy setting controls whether document metadata can be saved in PDF and XPS documents. If you enable this policy setting, document properties metadata is not exported to PDF and XPS files. If you disable this policy setting, document properties metadata will always be saved with PDF and XPS files, and users will not be able to override this configuration. If you do not configure this policy setting, if the Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for Microsoft Office Programs add-in is installed, document properties are saved as metadata when users save files using the PDF or XPS or Publish as PDF or XPS commands in Access, Excel, InfoPath, PowerPoint, and Word, unless the "Document properties" option is unchecked in the Options dialog.

Check Content

Verify the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2016 -> Microsoft Save As PDF and XPS add-ins "Disable inclusion of document properties in PDF and XPS output" is set to "Enabled". Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\common\fixedformat Criteria: If the value DisableFixedFormatDocProperties is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2016 -> Microsoft Save As PDF and XPS add-ins "Disable inclusion of document properties in PDF and XPS output" to "Enabled".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-238036r879887_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-238036

Group Title: SRG-APP-000516

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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