Details
This policy setting controls the prompting and activation behavior for the ‘Run Programs’ option for action buttons in PowerPoint. The recommended state for this setting is: Enabled. (Disable (Don’t Run Any Programs)) 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 significantly affect the security of a user’s computer and data.
Solution
To implement the recommended configuration state, set the following Group Policy setting to Enabled. User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesMicrosoft PowerPoint 2016PowerPoint OptionsSecurityRun Programs Impact: Enabling this setting and configuring the drop-down menu to ‘Disable (don’t run any programs)’ will cause disruptions to users who wish to create or use presentations that launch external programs when action buttons are clicked. These users will have to launch any external programs manually at the appropriate times when delivering presentations.
Supportive Information
The following resource is also helpful.
This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management.This control applies to the following type of system Windows.