The ability to run programs from PowerPoint must be disabled.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-223378	SRG-APP-000210	O365-PT-000002	SV-223378r961092_rule	2025-03-05	3

Description
This policy setting controls the prompting and activation behavior for the "Run Programs" option for action buttons in PowerPoint. If you enable this policy setting, you can choose from three options to control how the "Run Programs" option functions: - Disable (do not run any programs). If users click an action button with the "Run Programs" action assigned to it, nothing will happen. This option enforces the default configuration in PowerPoint.

Description

This policy setting controls the prompting and activation behavior for the "Run Programs" option for action buttons in PowerPoint. If you enable this policy setting, you can choose from three options to control how the "Run Programs" option functions: - Disable (do not run any programs). If users click an action button with the "Run Programs" action assigned to it, nothing will happen. This option enforces the default configuration in PowerPoint.

ℹ️ Check
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 >> PowerPoint Options >> Security >> Run Programs is set to "Enabled" "Disable (do not run any programs)". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\security If the value runprograms does not exist, this is not a finding. If the value is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 >> PowerPoint Options >> Security >> Run Programs is set to "Enabled" "Disable (do not run any programs)". Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\security If the value runprograms does not exist, this is not a finding. If the value is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

✔️ Fix
Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 >> PowerPoint Options >> Security >> Run Programs to "Enabled" "Disable (do not run any programs)".