Ensure users cannot publish files to the web or make visible to the world as public or unlisted

MediumLevel 1Manual reviewgoogle-workspace

Description

You should control the publishing of documents to the web or making them visable to the world as public or unlisted. Attackers will often attempt to expose sensitive information to external entities through sharing, and restricting the methods that your users can share documents with will reduce that surface area. This setting is only applicable if ON - Files owned by users in <Company> can be shared outside of <Company>. This applies to files in all shared drives as well is selected, but should be configured as described below to prevent unintentional document publishing.

How it is checked

Audit method: Manual review

This recommendation cannot be checked automatically. A scan lists it with these instructions when you pass --include-manual.

To verify this setting via the Google Admin Console: 1. Log in to https://admin.google.com as an administrator 2. Select Apps 3. Select Google Workspace 4. Select Drive and Docs 5. Under Sharing settings, select Sharing options 6. Under Sharing outside of <Company> - ON - Files owned by users in <Company> can be shared outside of <Company>. This applies to files in all shared drives as well, ensure When sharing outside of <Company> is allowed, users in <Company> can make files and published web content visible to anyone with the link is unchecked

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

To configure this setting via the Google Admin Console: 1. Log in to https://admin.google.com as an administrator 2. Select Apps 3. Select Google Workspace 4. Select Drive and Docs 5. Under Sharing settings, select Sharing options 6. Under Sharing outside of <Company> - ON - Files owned by users in <Company> can be shared outside of <Company>. This applies to files in all shared drives as well, set When sharing outside of <Company> is allowed, users in <Company> can make files and published web content visible to anyone with the link to unchecked 7. Select Save

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: google-workspacesaas
Reference: CIS Google Workspace Foundations Benchmark v1.4.0 - 3.1.2.1.1.2 Ensure users cannot publish files to the web or make visible to the world as public or unlisted