STIGUI
V-253478CAT II — Medium severitySV-253478r1268251_rule

Zone information must be preserved when saving attachments.

Rule version WN11-UC-000020 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-01

Discussion

Preserving zone of origin (internet, intranet, local, restricted) information on file attachments allows Windows to determine risk.

Check

Note: This Check must be performed for each interactive user profile on the system.

The default behavior is for Windows to mark file attachments with their zone information.

If it exists and is configured with a value of "1", this is a finding.

Registry Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER Registry Path: \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments\

Value Name: SaveZoneInformation

Value Type: REG_DWORD Value: 0x00000002 (2) (or if the Value Name does not exist)

Note: This requirement is applicable to profiles for interactive logins. It is not applicable for Service accounts.

To determine the system's enabled user profiles: Run "PowerShell" as an administrator.

Execute the following command: Get-LocalUser | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -eq $true}

Fix

The default behavior is for Windows to mark file attachments with their zone information.

To correct this, (for each user profile on the system) configure the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Attachment Manager >> "Do not preserve zone information in file attachments" to "Not Configured" or "Disabled".

Identifiers

Group ID
V-253478
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-253478r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-56931r1260005_chk
Fix ID
F-56881r1260006_fix