Details

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 default, these encrypted macros will be disabled unless they are scanned by antivirus software immediately before being loaded. If this default configuration is modified, Office products will not require encrypted macros to be scanned before loading. They will be handled as specified by the Office System macro security settings, which can cause macro viruses to load undetected and lead to data loss or reduced application functionality.

Solution

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 -> PowerPoint Options -> Security ‘Scan encrypted macros in PowerPoint Open XML presentations’ to ‘Enabled (Scan encrypted macros (default)’.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_MS_PowerPoint_2010_V1R10_STIG.zip

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: System and Communications Protection.This control applies to the following type of system Windows.

References

• 800-53|SC-18(4)
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-001170
• Rule-ID|SV-33602r1_rule
• STIG-ID|DTOO142
• Vuln-ID|V-17473

Source

• Tenable.com/audits