Ensure 'Disable All ActiveX' is set to 'Enabled'

HighLevel 1Automatedoffice

Description

This policy setting controls whether ActiveX controls are disabled across Microsoft Office applications. The recommended state for this setting is: Enabled. Rationale: Without this setting, users can change the ActiveX trust level in the Trust Center of Microsoft Access, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, and untrusted controls are presented in the Message Bar for the user to allow or block. User setting: the audit checks HKEY_USERS\<SID>\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\common\security:disableallactivex (REG_DWORD) in every loaded user hive (S-1-5-21-*) and is compliant when each holds 1. It prints 'no-user-hive-loaded' (FAIL) when no user profile is loaded, so scan while users are logged on.

How it is checked

Audit method: Windows registry

registry

$sids = @(Get-ChildItem -Path 'Registry::HKEY_USERS' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object { $_.PSChildName -match '^S-1-5-21-\d+-\d+-\d+-\d+$' } | ForEach-Object { $_.PSChildName }); if ($sids.Count -eq 0) { 'no-user-hive-loaded' } else { $bad = @(); foreach ($s in $sids) { $v = (Get-ItemProperty -Path ('Registry::HKEY_USERS\' + $s + '\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\common\security') -Name 'disableallactivex' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).'disableallactivex'; if (-not ($null -ne $v -and @(1) -contains [int64]$v)) { $bad += $s + ':disableallactivex=' + $v } }; if ($bad.Count -eq 0) { 'compliant' } else { 'non-compliant: ' + ($bad -join ', ') } }

Expected output: compliant

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

Configure through Group Policy (User Configuration): User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016\Security Settings\Disable All ActiveX = Enabled

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: officeproductivitycis-l1
Reference: CIS Microsoft Office Enterprise Benchmark v2.0.0 - 2.3.27.20 Ensure 'Disable All ActiveX' is set to 'Enabled'

Check this host

Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.

shell

tmaegis scan --target office