SV-45321r2: Suggested Sites functionality must be disallowed. | Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

Suggested Sites functionality must be disallowed.

Description

Discussion Text

This policy setting controls the Suggested Sites feature, which recommends sites based on the user's browsing activity. Suggested Sites reports a user's browsing history to Microsoft to store and monitor user page activity to suggest sites the user might want to visit. If you enable this policy setting, the user will not be prompted to enable the Suggested Sites and the user's browsing activities will be sent and stored online to produce suggestions. If you disable this policy setting, the entry points and functionality associated with this feature will be disabled.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

References

DPMS Target IE Version 10 DISA DPMS Target IE Version 10 2351

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

# Windows PowerShell
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.ie:def:389
# Suggested Sites functionality must be disallowed.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Turn on Suggested Sites
# registry_object (registry_test)
function test_1 {
  return (((@{String='reg_sz';ExpandString='reg_expand_sz';Binary='reg_binary';DWord='reg_dword';MultiString='reg_multi_sz';QWord='reg_qword';None='reg_none'}[(Get-Item -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Suggested Sites').GetValueKind('Enabled').ToString()]) -eq 'reg_dword') -and (((Get-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Suggested Sites' -Name 'Enabled' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'Enabled') -eq 0))
}

if (-not (test_1)) {
  Write-Output "PASS"
} else {
  Write-Output "FAIL"
}

Assessment Script Powered by AISyntax-verified

A standalone PowerShell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked as valid PowerShell. Not executed here — running it for real needs the actual ms_ie10 target this check assesses.

# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.ie:def:389
if (!(Test-Path 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Suggested Sites\Enabled' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -or ((Get-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Suggested Sites\Enabled' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Value -eq 0)) { Write-Output "PASS"; Exit 0 } else { Write-Output "FAIL"; Exit 1 }

Remediation

Set the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Internet Explorer >> "Turn on Suggested Sites" to "Disabled".