The ability to demote attachments from Level 2 to Level 1 must be disabled.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-223360 | O365-OU-000015 | SV-223360r961086_rule | CCI-001662 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| This policy setting controls whether Outlook users can demote attachments to Level 2 by using a registry key, which will allow them to save files to disk and open them from that location. Outlook uses two levels of security to restrict access to files attached to e-mail messages or other items. Files with specific extensions can be categorized as Level 1 (users cannot view the file) or Level 2 (users can open the file after saving it to disk). Users can freely open files of types that are not categorized as Level 1 or Level 2. If you enable this policy setting, users can create a list of Level 1 file types to demote to Level 2 by adding the file types to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security\Level1Remove. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, users cannot demote level 1 attachments to level 2, and the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security\Level1Remove registry key has no effect. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2025-03-05 | |||
Related Frameworks
2 paths across 2 frameworks
Related Frameworks
NIST 800-531 mapping
SC-18(1)
1.00
- DISA · 3 · disa_xccdf · related
- DISA · 2025-01-23 · disa_cci_list · equivalent
CCI1 mapping
CCI-001662
1.00
- DISA · 3 · disa_xccdf · related
Details
Check Text (C-223360r961086_chk)
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Outlook 2016 >> Security >> Security Form Settings >> Attachment Security >> Allow users to demote attachments to Level 2 is set to "Disabled".
Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key:
HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\security
If the value allowuserstolowerattachments is set to REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.
Fix Text (F-25021r442300_fix)
Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Outlook 2016 >> Security >> Security Form Settings >> Attachment Security >> Allow users to demote attachments to Level 2 to "Disabled".