3.1 Set 'Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary SMTP address' to 'Enabled'

Information

This policy setting controls whether users who are joined to a domain in an Active
Directory environment can change the primary SMTP address used when setting up
accounts in Outlook. If you enable this policy setting, users cannot change the SMTP
settings Outlook retrieves from Active Directory when setting up a new account. If you
disable or do not configure this policy setting, if a user is joined to a domain in an Active
Directory environment and does not have an e-mail account configured, Outlook populates
the e-mail address field of the New Account Wizard with the primary SMTP address of the
user who is currently logged on to Active Directory. The user can change the address to
configure a different account, or click Next to use the default settings from Active Directory.
The recommended state for this setting is- Enabled.

*Rationale*

By default, if a user is joined to a domain in an Active Directory environment and does not
have an e-mail account configured, Outlook 2010 populates the e-mail address field of the
New Account Wizard with the primary SMTP address of the user who is currently logged
on to Active Directory. The user can change the address to configure a different account, or
click Next to use the default settings from Active Directory. If users are allowed to change
this address, they could incorrectly configure their environment or misrepresent their
identity.

Solution

To implement the recommended configuration state, set the following Group Policy setting
to Enabled.

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Outlook 2010\Account
Settings\Exchange\Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary
SMTP address

Impact-Enabling this setting could prevent users from configuring Outlook 2010 as desired in some
unusual cases (for example, if Active Directory is temporarily inaccessible during setup).
However, most users should experience no significant usability issues.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/530

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b.

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 2d88b8ba6833434b21f310d24f1f3f8f000e83de4be5667b8099daccadcd788d