Office must be configured to not allow read with browsers.

From Microsoft Office System 2013 STIG

Part of DTOO200 - Allow users to read with browsers

Associated with: CCI-002165

SV-52749r2_rule Office must be configured to not allow read with browsers.

Vulnerability discussion

The Windows Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer provides a way for users who do not use the 2013 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, representing the risk of documents being read by those without the rights and not intended to have access to the document.

Check content

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2013 >> Manage Restricted Permissions "Allow users with earlier versions of Office to read with browsers" is set to "Disabled". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following hive: HKEY_Users For every users profile hive under HKEY_Users, navigate to the following key: \Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\drm If the value “IncludeHTML” is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 -> Manage Restricted Permissions "Allow users with earlier versions of Office to read with browsers" to "Disabled".

Pro Tips

Lavender hyperlinks in small type off to the right (of CSS class id, if you view the page source) point to globally unique URIs for each document and item. Copy the link location and paste anywhere you need to talk unambiguously about these things.

You can obtain data about documents and items in other formats. Simply provide an HTTP header Accept: text/turtle or Accept: application/rdf+xml.