Document metadata for rights managed Office Open XML files must be protected.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
high	V-223285	SRG-APP-000429	O365-CO-000002	SV-223285r1067544_rule	2025-03-05	3

Description
This policy setting determines whether metadata is encrypted in Office Open XML files that are protected by Information Rights Management (IRM). If this policy setting is enabled, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word encrypt metadata stored in rights-managed Office Open XML files and override any configuration changes on users' computers. If this policy setting is enabled, Office 2016 applications cannot encrypt metadata in rights-managed Office Open XML files, which can reduce security. If this policy setting is not configured when Information Rights Management (IRM) is used to restrict access to an Office Open XML document, any metadata associated with the document is not encrypted.

Description

This policy setting determines whether metadata is encrypted in Office Open XML files that are protected by Information Rights Management (IRM). If this policy setting is enabled, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word encrypt metadata stored in rights-managed Office Open XML files and override any configuration changes on users' computers. If this policy setting is enabled, Office 2016 applications cannot encrypt metadata in rights-managed Office Open XML files, which can reduce security. If this policy setting is not configured when Information Rights Management (IRM) is used to restrict access to an Office Open XML document, any metadata associated with the document is not encrypted.

ℹ️ Check
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2016 >> Security Settings "Protect document metadata for rights managed Office Open XML Files" is set to "Enabled". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\common\security If the value DRMEncryptProperty is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2016 >> Security Settings "Protect document metadata for rights managed Office Open XML Files" is set to "Enabled". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\common\security If the value DRMEncryptProperty is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

✔️ Fix
Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2016 >> Security Settings "Protect document metadata for rights managed Office Open XML Files" to "Enabled".