Title

The Online Web Part Gallery must be configured for limited access. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Web Part galleries are groupings of Web Parts. There are four Web Part galleries: Closed Web Parts, Site Name Gallery, Server Gallery, and Online Gallery. The Online Gallery is a collection of Microsoft MSNBC Web Parts located on the Internet. Allowing users to access the Online Web Part Gallery causes a significant performance hit on the server, due to the server attempting to connect to the MSNBC online gallery. This could result in a Denial-of-Service. The Online Gallery could contain Web Parts from unknown third parties, which could increase the risk of a malicious code execution attack. Preventing users from accessing the Online Web Part Gallery decreases the system's attack surface.

Check Content

1. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Security. 2. On the Security page, in the General Security list, click Manage web part security. 3. On the Security for Web Part Pages page, for each web application in the Web Application section, perform the following: - Select a web application in the Web Application list. - In the Online Web Part Gallery section, verify the "Prevents users from accessing the Online Web Part Gallery, and helps to improve security and performance" option is selected. 4. Mark as a finding if the "Prevents users from accessing the Online Web Part Gallery, and helps to improve security and performance" option in the Online Web Part Gallery section is not selected.

Fix Text

Enable the "Prevents users from accessing the Online Web Part Gallery, and helps to improve security and performance" option for each web application. 1. In Central Administration, click Security. 2. On the Security page, in the General Security list, click Manage web part security. 3 On the Security for Web Part Pages page, for each web application in the web application section, perform the following: - Select a web application in the Web Application list. - In the Online Web Part Gallery section, select the "Prevents users from accessing the Online Web Part Gallery, and helps to improve security and performance". 4. Click OK.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-37994r2_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-29338

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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