Details

Protected View is a ‘super-sandbox’ that is essentially a read-only mode. When enabled, Acrobat strictly confines the execution environment of untrusted PDF’s and the processes the PDF may invoke. Acrobat also assumes all PDFs are potentially malicious and confines processing to a restricted sandbox. When the PDF is opened, the user is presented with the option to trust the document. When the user chooses to trust the document, all features are enabled, this action assigns trust to the document and adds the document to the users’ list of Privileged Locations.

Solution

Configure the following registry value:

Registry Hive:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry Path:
SoftwarePoliciesAdobeAdobe AcrobatDCFeatureLockDown

Value Name: iProtectedView
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 2

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration > Administrative Template > Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Continuous > Preferences > Security (Enhanced) > ‘Protected View’ to ‘Enabled’ and select ‘All files’ in the drop down box.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Adobe_Acrobat_Pro_DC_Continuous_V2R1_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-39
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-002530
• Rule-ID|SV-213128r766541_rule
• STIG-ID|AADC-CN-001015
• STIG-Legacy|SV-94087
• STIG-Legacy|V-79381
• Vuln-ID|V-213128

Source

• Tenable.com/audits