Navigation to URLs embedded in Office products must be blocked.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-40747	DTOO123 - Block Navigation to URL from Office	DTOO123	SV-52805r1_rule	2018-04-02	1

Description
To protect users from attacks, Internet Explorer usually does not attempt to load malformed URLs. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Internet Explorer spawned by Office applications (for example, if a user clicks a link in an Office document or selects a menu option that loads a web page). If Internet Explorer attempts to load a malformed URL, a security risk could occur.

Description

To protect users from attacks, Internet Explorer usually does not attempt to load malformed URLs. This functionality can be controlled separately for instances of Internet Explorer spawned by Office applications (for example, if a user clicks a link in an Office document or selects a menu option that loads a web page). If Internet Explorer attempts to load a malformed URL, a security risk could occur.

ℹ️ Check
Verify the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 (Machine) -> Security Settings -> IE Security "Navigate URL" must be "Enabled" and a check in the 'spdesign.exe' check box must be present. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_VALIDATE_NAVIGATE_URL Criteria: If the value spdesign.exe is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 (Machine) -> Security Settings -> IE Security "Navigate URL" must be "Enabled" and a check in the 'spdesign.exe' check box must be present. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_VALIDATE_NAVIGATE_URL Criteria: If the value spdesign.exe is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

✔️ Fix
Set the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 2013 (Machine) -> Security Settings -> IE Security "Navigate URL" to "Enabled" and place a check in the 'spdesign.exe' check box.