Skip to content
ATO Pathways
Log In
Overview
Search
Catalogs
SCAP
OSCAL
Catalogs
Profiles
Resources
Documents
Publishers
References
Knowledge Base
Platform Documentation
Compliance Dictionary
Platform Changelog
About
Catalogs
XCCDF
Microsoft Office System 2010 STIG
Profiles
I - Mission Critical Public
I - Mission Critical Public
An XCCDF Profile
Details
Items
Prose
37 rules organized in 37 groups
DTOO196 - Mix of Policy and User Locations
1 Rule
A mix of policy and user locations for Office Products must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
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.
DTOO212 - Control Blogging
1 Rule
Blogging entries created from inside Office products must be configured for Sharepoint only.
Medium Severity
The blogging feature in Office products enables users to compose blog entries and post them to their blogs directly from Office, without using any additional software. By default, users can post blog entries to any compatible blogging service provider, including Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, a SharePoint or Community Server site, and others. If your organization has policies that govern the posting of blog entries, allowing users to access the blogging feature in Office might enable them to violate those policies.
DTOO200 - Allow users to read with browsers
1 Rule
Office must be configured to not allow read with browsers.
Medium Severity
The Windows Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer provides a way for users who do not use the 2010 Office release to view, but not alter, files with restricted permissions. By default, IRM-enabled files are saved in a format that cannot be viewed by using the Windows Rights Management Add-on. If this setting is enabled, an embedded rights-managed HTML version of the content is saved with each IRM-enabled file, which can be viewed in Internet Explorer using the add-on. This configuration increases the size of rights-managed files, in some cases significantly.
DTOO177-Disable Updates from Office Online Site
1 Rule
Access to updates, add-ins, and patches on Office.com must be disabled.
Medium Severity
Having access to updates, add-ins, and patches on the Office Online Web site can help users ensure computers are up to date and equipped with the latest security patches. However, to ensure updates are tested and applied in a consistent manner, many organizations prefer to roll out updates using a centralized mechanism such as Microsoft Systems Center or Windows Server Update Services. By default, users are allowed to download updates, add-ins, and patches from the Office Online Web site to keep their Office applications running smoothly and securely. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as Office Online, allowing users to download updates might cause them to violate these policies.
DTOO186 - Trust Bar Notifications
1 Rule
Trust Bar notifications for Security messages must be enforced.
Medium Severity
The Message Bar in Office applications is used to identify security issues, such as unsigned macros or potentially unsafe add-ins. When such issues are detected, the application disables the unsafe feature or content and displays the Message Bar at the top of the active window. The Message Bar informs the users about the nature of the security issue and, in some cases, provides the users with an option to enable the potentially unsafe feature or content, which could harm the user's computer. By default, if an Office application detects a security issue, the Message Bar is displayed. However, this configuration can be modified by users in the Trust Center.
DTOO207 - Document Info Beaconing UI
1 Rule
Document Information panel Beaconing must show UI.
Medium Severity
For controlling whether users see a security warning when they open custom Document Information Panels that contain a Web beaconing threat. Web beacons can be used to contact an external server when users open forms. Information could be gathered by the form, or information entered by users could be sent to an external server and cause them to be vulnerable to additional attacks.
DTOO184 - Cust. Experience Improvement Program
1 Rule
The Customer Experience Improvement Program for Office must be disabled.
Medium Severity
When users choose to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), Office applications automatically send information to Microsoft about how the applications are used. This information is combined with other CEIP data to help Microsoft solve problems and to improve the products and features customers use most often. This feature does not collect users' names, addresses, or any other identifying information except the IP address that is used to send the data. By default, users have the opportunity to opt into participation in the CEIP the first time they run an Office application. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as the CEIP, allowing users to opt in to the program might cause them to violate these policies.
DTOO190 - Encr. type for Password Protected files
1 Rule
The encryption type for password protected Office 97 thru Office 2003 must be set.
Medium Severity
If unencrypted files are intercepted, sensitive information in the files can be compromised. To protect information confidentiality, Microsoft Office application files can be encrypted and password protected. Only users who know the correct password will be able to decrypt such files.
DTOO189 - Encryption Type for Pwd Protected files
1 Rule
The encryption type for password protected Open XML files must be set.
Medium Severity
If unencrypted files are intercepted, sensitive information in the files can be compromised. To protect information confidentiality, Office application files can be encrypted and password protected. Only users who know the correct password will be able to decrypt such files.
DTOO182 - Improve Proofing Tools
1 Rule
The Help Improve Proofing Tools feature for Office must be configured.
Medium Severity
The Help Improve Proofing Tools feature collects data about use of the Proofing Tools, such as additions to the custom dictionary, and sends it to Microsoft. After about six months, the feature stops sending data to Microsoft and deletes the data collection file from the user's computer. Although this feature does not intentionally collect personal information, some of the content sent could include items that were marked as spelling or grammar errors, such as proper names and account numbers. However, any numbers such as account numbers, street addresses, and phone numbers are converted to zeroes when the data is collected. Microsoft uses this information solely to improve the effectiveness of the Office Proofing Tools, not to identify users. By default, this feature is enabled, if users choose to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as the CEIP, allowing the use of the Help Improve Proofing Tools feature might cause them to violate these policies.
DTOO194 - Hyperlink warnings for Office
1 Rule
Hyperlink warnings for Office must be configured for use.
Medium Severity
Unsafe hyperlinks are links that might pose a security risk if users click them. Clicking an unsafe link could compromise the security of sensitive information or harm the computer. Links that Office considers unsafe include links to executable files, TIFF files, and Microsoft Document Imaging (MDI) files. Other unsafe links are those using protocols considered to be unsafe, including msn, nntp, mms, outlook, and stssync.
DTOO206 - Incl. Doc. properties for PDF and XPS
1 Rule
Inclusion of document properties for PDF and XPS output must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
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 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Word 2010, unless the Document properties option is unchecked in the Options dialog box. If this metadata contains sensitive information, saving it with the file could compromise security.
DTOO198 - Internet Fax Feature
1 Rule
The Internet Fax Feature must be disabled.
Medium Severity
Excel, PowerPoint, and Word users can use the Internet Fax feature to send documents to fax recipients through an Internet fax service provider. If your organization has policies that govern the time, place, or manner in which faxes are sent, this feature could help users evade those policies. By default, Office users can use the Internet Fax feature.
DTOO202 - Microsoft Passport Service
1 Rule
Microsoft passport Service for content must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
This controls whether users can open protected content created with a Windows Live ID (formerly Microsoft .NET Passport) authenticated account. If your organization has policies that govern access to external services such as Windows Live ID, this capability could allow users to violate those policies.
DTOO183 - Opt-In Wizard on first run use
1 Rule
The Opt-In Wizard must be disabled.
Medium Severity
The Opt-in Wizard displays the first time users run a 2010 Microsoft Office application, which allows them to opt into Internet–based services that will help improve their Office experience, such as Microsoft Update, the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Office Diagnostics, and Online Help. If your organization has policies that govern the use of such external resources, allowing users to opt in to these services might cause them to violate the policies.
DTOO195 - Disable Password to Open UI
1 Rule
Passwords for secured documents must be enforced.
Medium Severity
If 2010 Office users add passwords to documents, other users can be prevented from opening the documents. This capability can provide an extra level of protection to documents already protected by access control lists, or provide a means of securing documents not protected by file-level security. By default, users can add passwords to Excel 2010 workbooks, PowerPoint 2010 presentations, and Word 2010 documents from the Save or Save As dialog box by clicking Tools, clicking General Options, and entering appropriate passwords to open or modify the documents. If this configuration is changed, users will not be able to enter passwords in the General Options dialog box, which means they will not be able to password protect documents.
DTOO197 - Document Manifests
1 Rule
Smart Documents use of Manifests in Office must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
An XML expansion pack is the group of files that constitutes a Smart Document in Excel and Word. You package one or more components that provide the logic needed for a Smart Document by using an XML expansion pack. These components can include any type of file, including XML schemas, Extensible Stylesheet Language Transforms (XSLTs), dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), and image files, as well as additional XML files, HTML files, Word files, Excel files, and text files. The key component to building an XML expansion pack is creating an XML expansion pack manifest file. By creating this file, you specify the locations of all files that make up the XML expansion pack, as well as information that instructs 2007 Office how to set up the files for your Smart Document. The XML expansion pack can also contain information about how to set up some files, such as how to install and register a COM object required by the XML expansion pack. XML expansion packs can be used to initialize and load malicious code, which might affect the stability of a computer and lead to data loss. Office applications can load an XML expansion pack manifest file with a Smart Document.
DTOO208 - Office client polling from Office Server
1 Rule
Office client polling of Sharepoint servers published links must be disabled.
Medium Severity
Users of Office applications can see and use links to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server sites from those applications. Administrators configure published links to Office applications during initial deployment, and can add or change links as part of regular operations. These links appear on the My SharePoint Sites tab of the Open, Save, and Save As dialog boxes when opening and saving documents from these applications. Links can be targeted so that they only appear to users who are members of particular audiences. If a malicious person gains access to the list of published links, they could modify the links to point to unapproved sites, which could make sensitive data vulnerable to exposure.
DTOO201 - Connection permissions verification
1 Rule
Connection verification of permissions must be enforced.
Medium Severity
Users are not required to connect to the network to verify permissions. If users do not need their licenses confirmed when attempting to open Office documents, they might be able to access documents after their licenses have been revoked. Also, it is not possible to log the usage of files with restricted permissions if users' licenses are not confirmed.
DTOO185 - Do not receive Automatic small updates
1 Rule
Automatic receiving of small updates to improve reliability must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
Office Diagnostics is used to improve the user experience by periodically downloading a small file to the computer with updated help information about specific problems. If Office Diagnostics is enabled, it collects information about specific errors and the IP address of the computer. When new help information is available, that help information is downloaded to the computer that experienced the related problems. Office Diagnostics does not transmit any personally identifiable information to Microsoft other than the IP address of the computer requesting the update. By default, users have the opportunity to opt into receiving updates from Office Diagnostics the first time they run a 2010 Office application. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as Office Diagnostics, allowing users to opt in to this feature might cause them to violate these policies.
DTOO193 - Automation Security
1 Rule
Automation Security to enforce macro level security in Office documents must be configured.
Medium Severity
When a separate program is used to launch Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, or Word programmatically, any macros can run in the programmatically opened application without being blocked. This functionality could allow an attacker to use automation to run malicious code in Excel, PowerPoint, or Word.
DTOO203 - Legacy Format signatures
1 Rule
Legacy format signatures must be enabled.
Medium Severity
Office applications use the XML–based XMLDSIG format to attach digital signatures to documents, including Office 97-2003 binary documents. XMLDSIG signatures are not recognized by Office 2003 applications or previous versions. If an Office user opens an Excel, PowerPoint, or Word binary document with an XMLDSIG signature attached, the signature will be lost.
DTOO192 - Load controls for forms3
1 Rule
Load controls in forms3 must be disabled from loading.
Medium Severity
ActiveX controls are Component Object Model (COM) objects and have unrestricted access to users' computers. ActiveX controls can access the local file system and change the registry settings of the operating system. If a malicious user repurposes an ActiveX control to take over a user's computer, the effect could be significant. To help improve security, ActiveX developers can mark controls as Safe For Initialization (SFI), which means that the developer states that the controls are safe to open and run and not capable of causing harm to any computers. If a control is not marked SFI, the control could adversely affect a computer—or it's possible the developers did not test the control in all situations and are not sure whether their control might be compromised at some future date. SFI controls run in safe mode, which limits their access to the computer. For example, a worksheet control can both read and write files when it is in unsafe mode, but perhaps only read from files when it is in safe mode. This functionality allows the control to be used in very powerful ways when safety wasn't important, but the control would still be safe for use in a Web page. If a control is not marked as SFI, it is marked Unsafe For Initialization (UFI), which means that it is capable of affecting a user's computer. If UFI ActiveX controls are loaded, they are always loaded in unsafe mode.
DTOO179 - Open as Read/Write when browsing
1 Rule
Documents must be configured to not open as Read Write when browsing.
Medium Severity
Office document on a Web server using Internet Explorer, the appropriate application opens the file in read-only mode. However, if the default configuration is changed, the document is opened as read/write. Users could potentially make changes to documents and resave them in situations where the Web server security is not configured to prevent such changes.
DTOO199 - Permissions on managed content
1 Rule
Changing permissions on rights managed content for users must be enforced.
Medium Severity
This setting controls whether Office 2010 users can change permissions for content that is protected with Information Rights Management (IRM). The Information Rights Management feature of Office 2010 allows individuals and administrators to specify access permissions to Word documents, Excel workbooks, PowerPoint presentations, InfoPath templates and forms, and Outlook e-mail messages. This functionality helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, or copied by unauthorized people.
DTOO178 - Uploads to Office Online
1 Rule
Upload of document templates to Office Online must be prevented.
Medium Severity
Office users can share Excel, PowerPoint, and Word templates they create with other Microsoft Office users around the world by uploading them to the community area of the Microsoft Office Online Web site. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as Office Online, allowing users to upload templates might enable them to violate those policies.
DTOO188 - Protect document metadata
1 Rule
Document metadata for password protected files must be protected.
Medium Severity
When an Office Open XML document is protected with a password and saved, any metadata associated with the document is encrypted along with the rest of the document's contents. If this configuration is changed, potentially sensitive information such as the document author and hyperlink references could be exposed to unauthorized people.
DTOO187 - Protect metadata / rights managed docs
1 Rule
Rights managed Office Open XML files must be protected.
Medium Severity
When Information Rights Management (IRM) is used to restrict access to an Office Open XML document, any metadata associated with the document is not encrypted. This configuration could allow potentially sensitive information such as the document author and hyperlink references to be exposed to unauthorized people.
DTOO180 - Vector Markup Lang (VML) / IE graphics
1 Rule
Vector markup Language (VML) for displaying graphics in browsers must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
When saving documents as Web pages, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word can save vector–based graphics in Vector Markup Language (VML), which enables Internet Explorer to display them smoothly at any resolution. By default, when saving VML graphics, Office applications also save copies of the graphics in a standard raster file format (GIF or PNG) for use by browsers that cannot display VML. If the Rely on VML for displaying graphics in browsers check box in the Web Options dialog box is selected, applications will not save raster copies of VML graphics, which means those graphics will not display in non-Microsoft browsers.
DTOO204 - External Signature Services menu
1 Rule
External Signature Services Menu for Office must be suppressed.
Medium Severity
Users can select Add Signature Services (from the Signature Line drop-down menu on the Insert tab of the Ribbon in Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Word 2010) to see a list of signature service providers on the Microsoft Office Web site. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as signature providers or Office Marketplace, allowing users to access the Add Signature Services menu item might enable them to violate those policies.
DTOO306 - Disable hyperlinks to web templates
1 Rule
Hyperlinks to web templates in File | New and task panes must be disabled.
Medium Severity
This setting controls whether users can follow hyperlinks to templates on Office.com from within Office 2010 applications.
DTOO307 - Office Live Workspace Integration
1 Rule
Office Live Workspace Integration must be off.
Medium Severity
This setting controls the exposing of entry points for Office Live Workspace Integration features.
DTOO311 - Key Usage Filtering
1 Rule
Key Usage Filtering must be allowed.
Medium Severity
This policy setting allows you to filter a list of digital certificates for signing Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents, based on the Key Usage field. The Key Usage field in a certificate is used to represent a series of basic constraints about the broad types of operations that can be performed with the certificate. Key usage filtering allows you to filter the list of installed certificates that can be used for signing documents. The filtered list will appear when users attempt to select a certificate for digitally signing a document.
DTOO345 - Online content options
1 Rule
Online content options must be configured for offline content availability.
Medium Severity
The Office 2010 Help system automatically searches Microsoft Office.com for content when a computer is connected to the Internet. Users can change this default by clearing the Search Microsoft Office.com for Help content when I'm connected to the Internet check box in the Privacy Options section of the Trust Center. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such as Office.com, allowing the Help system to download content might cause users to violate these policies.
DTOO312 - Customer-submitted templates downloads
1 Rule
Customer-submitted templates downloads from Office.com must be disallowed.
Medium Severity
This policy setting controls whether Office 2010 users can download templates from the community area of Office.com by clicking New on the Microsoft Office menu. If you enable this policy setting, Office 2010 users cannot download customer-submitted templates from Office.com. However, access to templates posted by Microsoft and its partners are not affected.
DTOO321 - Encrypt document properties
1 Rule
Encrypt document properties must be configured for OLE documents.
Medium Severity
This policy setting allows you configure if the document properties are encrypted. This applies to OLE documents (Office 97-2003 compatible) if the application is configured for CAPI RC4. Disabling this setting will prevent the encryption of document properties, which may expose sensitive data.
DTOO191-ActiveX Control Initialization for Office
1 Rule
ActiveX control initialization must be disabled.
Medium Severity
ActiveX controls can adversely affect a computer directly. In addition, malicious code can be used to compromise an ActiveX control and attack a computer. To indicate the safety of an ActiveX control, developers can denote them as Safe For Initialization (SFI). SFI indicates a control is safe to open and run, and it is not capable of causing a problem for any computer, regardless of whether it has persisted data values or not. If a control is not marked SFI, it is possible the control could adversely affect a computer—or it could mean the developers did not test the control in all situations and are not sure whether it might be compromised in the future. By default, if a control is marked SFI, the application loads the control in safe mode and uses persisted values (if any). If the control is not marked SFI, the application loads the control in unsafe mode with persisted values (if any), or uses the default (first-time initialization) settings. In both situations, the Message Bar informs users the controls have been disabled and prompts them to respond.