Title

Hidden markup options must be visible. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

PowerPoint presentations that are saved in standard or HTML format can contain a flag indicating whether markup (comments or ink annotations) in the presentation should be visible when the presentation is open. PowerPoint ignores this flag when opening a file, and always displays any markup present in the file. In addition, when saving a file, PowerPoint sets the flag to display markup when the presentation is next opened. If this default configuration is changed, PowerPoint sets the flag according to the state of the Show Markup option on the Review tab of the Ribbon when it saves presentations in standard or HTML format. In addition, PowerPoint enables or disables the Show Markup option according to the way the flag is set when it opens files, which means that a presentation saved with hidden markup is opened with the markup still hidden. If a file is saved with hidden markup, users might inadvertently distribute sensitive comments or information to others via the presentation file.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 -> PowerPoint Options -> Security “Make hidden markup visible” must be set to “Enabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\powerpoint\options Criteria: If the value MarkupOpenSave is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 -> PowerPoint Options -> Security “Make hidden markup visible” to “Enabled”.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-33600r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17752

Group Title: DTOO290 - Make Hidden marks visible in PowerPoint

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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