What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 03 Configure Microsoft Office macro settings (Essential)?

Macro settings test showing an internet-marked document with macros blocked and the enable content option unavailable to the user; Group policy or Intune settings blocking macros in files from the internet across Office applications; List of Trusted Locations with the file permissions showing limited write access; Macro signing certificate details and the vetting records for signed macros.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 03?

Users can change macro settings or enable content on internet-sourced documents

ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents · Preventing Malware Delivery and Execution

`03` Configure Microsoft Office macro settings (Essential)

Configure Microsoft Office macro settings to block macros from the internet, and only allow vetted macros either in Trusted Locations with limited write access or digitally signed with a trusted certificate.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 03. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Macro settings test showing an internet-marked document with macros blocked and the enable content option unavailable to the user · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
Group policy or Intune settings blocking macros in files from the internet across Office applications · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Macro signing certificate details and the vetting records for signed macros · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

List of Trusted Locations with the file permissions showing limited write access · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Endpoint management (MDM / EDR). Device compliance report from the MDM (encryption, EDR agent, OS version) on a daily pull.

Common gaps auditors find

Users can change macro settings or enable content on internet-sourced documents
Trusted Locations include network shares writable by all staff
Macros signed with a certificate but never vetted before signing

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

02 Patch applications (Essential) · 04 User application hardening (Essential)