Information
This policy setting controls whether RSS feeds can be authenticated using the Basic authentication scheme over an unencrypted HTTP connection.
A developer cannot change this setting through the Feed APIs.
The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled
Allowing RSS feeds to use Basic authentication over HTTP will transmit user credentials in plain text, where they could be intercepted en route by a malicious user.
Solution
To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Disabled :
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\RSS Feeds\Turn on Basic feed authentication over HTTP
Note: This Group Policy path is provided by the Group Policy template InetRes.admx/adml that is included with the Microsoft Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2 Administrative Templates (or newer).
Impact:
None - this is the default behavior.