STIGUI
V-235726CAT II — Medium severitySV-235726r960963_rule

The default search provider must be set to use an encrypted connection.

Rule version EDGE-00-000009 · STIG v2 · 2026-02-25

Discussion

Allows a list of list of up to 10 search engines to be configured, one of which must be marked as the default search engine. The encoding does not need to be specified. Starting in Microsoft Edge 80, the suggest_url and image_search_url parameters are optional. The optional parameter, image_search_post_params (consists of comma-separated name/value pairs), is available starting in Microsoft Edge 80.

Starting in Microsoft Edge 83, search engine discovery can be enabled with the allow_search_engine_discovery optional parameter. This parameter must be the first item in the list. If allow_search_engine_discovery is not specified, search engine discovery will be disabled by default. Starting in Microsoft Edge 84, this policy can be set as a recommended policy to allow search provider discovery. The allow_search_engine_discovery optional parameter does not need to be added.

If this policy is enabled, users cannot add, remove, or change any search engine in the list. Users can set their default search engine to any search engine in the list.

If this policy is disabled or not configured, users can modify the search engines list as desired.

Check

The policy value for "Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Microsoft Edge/Manage Search Engines" must be configured.

Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge

Example REG_SZ value text for "ManagedSearchEngines": [{"allow_search_engine_discovery": false},{"is_default": true,"name": "Microsoft Bing","keyword": "bing","search_url": "https://www.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}"},{"name": "Google","keyword": "google","search_url": "https://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}"}]

If any of the search URLs in the list do not begin with "https", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the policy value for "Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Microsoft Edge/Manage Search Engines".

Identifiers

Group ID
V-235726
Group title
SRG-APP-000141
Rule ID
SV-235726r960963_rule
Check ID
C-38945r766839_chk
Fix ID
F-38908r626375_fix