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Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 STIG

Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark

  • Disabling of user name and password syntax from being used in URLs must be enforced in PowerPoint.

    The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) standard allows user authentication to be included in URL strings in the form http://username:password@example.com. A malicious user might use this URL syntax to ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • The Internet Explorer Bind to Object functionality must be enabled in PowerPoint.

    Internet Explorer performs a number of safety checks before initializing an ActiveX control. It will not initialize a control if the kill bit for the control is set in the registry, or if the secur...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • The Saved from URL mark must be selected to enforce Internet zone processing in PowerPoint.

    Typically, when Internet Explorer loads a web page from a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share that contains a Mark of the Web (MOTW) comment, indicating the page was saved from a site on the In...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Links that invoke instances of Internet Explorer from within an Office product must be blocked in PowerPoint.

    The Pop-up Blocker feature in Internet Explorer can be used to block most unwanted pop-up and pop-under windows from appearing. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Inte...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • All automatic loading from Trusted Locations must be disabled.

    Trusted locations specified in the Trust Center are used to define file locations assumed to be safe. Content, code, and add-ins are allowed to load from trusted locations with a minimal amount of ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enforce encrypted macros to be scanned in open XML documents must be determined and configured.

    When an Office Open XML document (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is rights-managed, or password-protected, any macros embedded in the document are encrypted along with the rest of the contents. By d...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • The Save commands default file format must be configured.

    When users create new PowerPoint files, PowerPoint 2013 saves them in the new *.pptx format. Ensure this setting is enabled to specify that all new files are created in PowerPoint 2013. If a new ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Warning Bar settings for VBA macros must be configured.

    When users open files containing VBA macros, applications open the files with the macros disabled and displays the Trust Bar with a warning that macros are present and have been disabled. Users may...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Hidden markup options must be visible.

    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 presenta...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Add-on Management functionality must be allowed in PowerPoint.

    Internet Explorer add-ons are pieces of code, run in Internet Explorer, to provide additional functionality. Rogue add-ons may contain viruses or other malicious code. Disabling or not configuring ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Protection from zone elevation must be enforced in PowerPoint.

    Internet Explorer places restrictions on each web page users can use the browser to open. Web pages on a user's local computer have the fewest security restrictions and reside in the Local Machine ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • File Downloads must be configured for proper restrictions in PowerPoint.

    Disabling this setting allows websites to present file download prompts via code without the user specifically initiating the download. User preferences may also allow the download to occur withou...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Configuration for file validation must be enforced.

    Office File Validation helps detect and prevent a kind of exploit known as a file format attack or file fuzzing attack. File format attacks exploit the integrity of a file. They occur when someone ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Attachments opened from Outlook must be in Protected View.

    This policy setting allows for determining if PowerPoint files in Outlook attachments open in Protected View. If enabling this policy setting, Outlook attachments do not open in Protected View. If ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disabling of user name and password syntax from being used in URLs must be enforced in PowerPoint Viewer.

    The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) standard allows user authentication to be included in URL strings in the form http://username:password@example.com. A malicious user might use this URL syntax to ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • File Links that invoke instances of Internet Explorer from within an Office product must be blocked in PowerPoint Viewer.

    The Pop-up Blocker feature in Internet Explorer can be used to block most unwanted pop-up and pop-under windows from appearing. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Inte...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO104 - Disable user name and password

    Group
  • DTOO111 - Enable IE Bind to Object

    Group
  • DTOO117 - Saved from URL

    Group
  • DTOO123-Block Navigation to URL from Office

    Group
  • Navigation to URLs embedded in Office products must be blocked in PowerPoint.

    To protect users from attacks, Internet Explorer usually does not attempt to load malformed URLs. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Internet Explorer spawned by Offic...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO129 - Block Pop-Ups

    Group
  • DTOO131 - Trust Bar Notifications

    Group
  • Trust Bar Notifications for unsigned application add-ins must be blocked.

    If an application is configured to require all add-ins to be signed by a trusted publisher, any unsigned add-ins the application loads will be disabled and the application will display the Trust Ba...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO210 - Block opening of pre-release versions

    Group
  • The opening of pre-release versions of file formats new to PowerPoint 2013 through the Compatibility Pack for Office 2013 and PowerPoint 2013 Converter must be blocked.

    Versions of file formats from pre-release versions of Office applications may introduce bugs found in those pre-release versions of the applications which have been subsequently fixed in the final ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO133-Disable all trusted locations

    Group
  • DTOO142 - Force Scan Encr. Macros in open XML

    Group
  • DTOO134 - Trusted locations on computer

    Group
  • Disallowance of Trusted Locations on the network must be enforced.

    Files located in Trusted Locations and specified in the Trust Center are assumed to be safe. Content, code, and add-ins are allowed to load from Trusted Locations with minimal security and without ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO139 - Save files default format

    Group
  • DTOO146-Disable Trust access to VB Project Macros

    Group
  • Trust access for VBA must be disallowed.

    VSTO projects require access to the Visual Basic for Applications project system in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, even though the projects do not use Visual Basic for Applications. Design-time suppo...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO304 - VBA Macro Warning settings

    Group
  • DTOO290 - Make Hidden marks visible in PowerPoint

    Group
  • DTOO289 - Running programs in PowerPoint

    Group
  • The ability to run programs from a PowerPoint presentation must be disallowed.

    Action buttons can be used to launch external programs from PowerPoint presentations. If a malicious person adds an action button to a presentation that launches a dangerous program, it could signi...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO291 - Linked images

    Group
  • Automatic download of linked images must be disallowed.

    When users insert images into PowerPoint presentations, they can select Link to File instead of Insert. If they do so, the image is represented by a link to a file on disk instead of being embedded...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO126 - Add-on Management

    Group
  • DTOO209 - Zone Elevation Protection

    Group
  • DTOO211 - Restrict ActiveX Install

    Group
  • ActiveX Installs must be configured for proper restriction in PowerPoint.

    Microsoft ActiveX controls allow unmanaged, unprotected code to run on the user computers. ActiveX controls do not run within a protected container in the browser like the other types of HTML or Mi...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO132 - Restrict File Download

    Group
  • DTOO124 - Scripted Window Security

    Group
  • Scripted Window Security must be enforced in PowerPoint.

    Malicious websites often try to confuse or trick users into giving a site permission to perform an action allowing the site to take control of the users' computers in some manner. Disabling or not ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO127 - Add-ins are signed by Trusted Publisher

    Group
  • Add-ins to Office applications must be signed by a Trusted Publisher.

    Office 2013 applications do not check the digital signature on application add-ins before opening them. Disabling or not configuring this setting may allow an application to load a dangerous add-i...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • DTOO119 - Turn off file validation

    Group
  • DTOO110 - Set default file block behavior

    Group

The content of the drawer really is up to you. It could have form fields, definition lists, text lists, labels, charts, progress bars, etc. Spacing recommendation is 24px margins. You can put tabs in here, and can also make the drawer scrollable.

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