Deletion of browser history must be disabled.

Documentable No

Rule ID SV-221586r960879_rule

CCI References

CCI-000169

Discussion

Disabling this function will prevent users from deleting their browsing history, which could be used to identify malicious websites and files that could later be used for anti-virus and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) signatures. Furthermore, preventing users from deleting browsing history could be used to identify abusive web surfing on government systems.

Check Procedure

Universal method: 
 1. In the omnibox (address bar) type chrome://policy 
 2. If the policy "AllowDeletingBrowserHistory" is not shown or is not set to false, this is a finding.

Windows method:
 1. Start regedit
 2. Navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\
 3. If the "AllowDeletingBrowserHistory" value name does not exist or its value data is not set to "0",  this is a finding.

Fix Action

Windows group policy:
 1. Open the group policy editor tool with gpedit.msc 
 2. Navigate to Policy Path: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Google\Google Chrome\
 Policy Name: Enable deleting browser and download history
 Policy State: Disabled
 Policy Value: N/A