Detections
Analytics

1.8.7.2.7 Ensure 'Trust Access to Visual Basic Project' to Disabled

Information

This policy setting controls whether automation clients such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Microsoft Office (VSTO) can access the Visual Basic for Applications project system in the specified applications. VSTO projects require access to the Visual Basic for Applications project system in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, even though the projects do not use Visual Basic for Applications. Design-time support of controls in both Visual Basic and C# projects depends on the Visual Basic for Applications project system in Word and Excel. If you enable this policy setting, VSTO and other automation clients can access the Visual Basic for Applications project system in the specified applications. Users will not be able to change this behavior through the 'Trust access to the VBA project object model' user interface option under the Macro Settings section of the Trust Center. If you disable this policy setting, VSTO does not have programmatic access to VBA projects. In addition, the 'Trust access to the VBA project object model' check box is cleared and users cannot change it. Note: Disabling this policy setting prevents VSTO projects from interacting properly with the VBA project system in the selected application. If you do not configure this policy setting, automation clients do not have programmatic access to VBA projects. Users can enable this by selecting the 'Trust access to the VBA project object model' in the 'Macro Settings' section of the Trust Center. However, doing so allows macros in any documents the user opens to access the core Visual Basic objects, methods, and properties, which represents a potential security hazard. The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled. VSTO projects require access to the Visual Basic for Applications project system in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, even though the projects do not use Visual Basic for Applications. Design-time support of controls in both Visual Basic and C# projects depends on the Visual Basic for Applications project system in Word and Excel. By default, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint do not allow automation clients to have programmatic access to VBA projects. Users can enable this by selecting the Trust access to the VBA project object model in the Macro Settings section of the Trust Center. However, doing so allows macros in any documents the user opens to access the core Visual Basic objects, methods, and properties, which represents a potential security hazard.

Solution

To implement the recommended configuration state, set the following Group Policy setting to Enabled. User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Word 2013\Word Options\Security\Trust Center\Trust Access to Visual Basic Project Impact: Disabling this setting enforces the default configuration in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint and is therefore unlikely to cause significant usability issues for most users.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/556

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b.

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 347a3e82800facc2b644bcfa39b65e2f700bc4dc7e244ce61c6b0f6e5804d614