Trust Bar Notifications for unsigned application add-ins must be blocked.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-238178	SRG-APP-000131	DTOO131	SV-238178r879584_rule	2024-02-21	2

Description
This policy setting controls whether the specified Office 2016 applications notify users when unsigned application add-ins are loaded or silently disable such add-ins without notification. This policy setting only applies if you enable the ''Require that application add-ins are signed by Trusted Publisher'' policy setting, which prevents users from changing this policy setting. If you enable this policy setting, applications automatically disable unsigned add-ins without informing users. If you disable this policy setting, if an application is configured to require that all add-ins be signed by a trusted publisher, any unsigned add-ins the application loads will be disabled and the application will display the Trust Bar at the top of the active window. The Trust Bar contains a message that informs users about the unsigned add-in. If you do not configure this policy setting, the disable behavior applies, and in addition, users can configure this requirement themselves in the ''Add-ins'' category of the Trust Center for the application.

Description

This policy setting controls whether the specified Office 2016 applications notify users when unsigned application add-ins are loaded or silently disable such add-ins without notification. This policy setting only applies if you enable the ''Require that application add-ins are signed by Trusted Publisher'' policy setting, which prevents users from changing this policy setting. If you enable this policy setting, applications automatically disable unsigned add-ins without informing users. If you disable this policy setting, if an application is configured to require that all add-ins be signed by a trusted publisher, any unsigned add-ins the application loads will be disabled and the application will display the Trust Bar at the top of the active window. The Trust Bar contains a message that informs users about the unsigned add-in. If you do not configure this policy setting, the disable behavior applies, and in addition, users can configure this requirement themselves in the ''Add-ins'' category of the Trust Center for the application.

ℹ️ Check
Verify the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2016 -> Excel Options -> Security -> Trust Center "Disable Trust Bar Notification for unsigned application add-ins and block them" is set to "Enabled". Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\excel\security Criteria: If the value NoTBPromptUnsignedAddin is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2016 -> Excel Options -> Security -> Trust Center "Disable Trust Bar Notification for unsigned application add-ins and block them" is set to "Enabled". Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\excel\security Criteria: If the value NoTBPromptUnsignedAddin is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

✔️ Fix
Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Excel 2016 -> Excel Options -> Security -> Trust Center "Disable Trust Bar Notification for unsigned application add-ins and block them" to "Enabled".