Does Google Chrome and Edge use Internet Explorer trusted sites?

Question

If trusted sites are configured via GPO for Internet explorer, does Google Chrome and Edge interpret these at all or are additional GPO admx imported templates needed?

I’m seeing conflicting posts on this topic. I haven’t had time to test yet, and would like a conclusive answer from someone who has tested this. The following link talks about importing GPO templates from Edge but someone mentions that Chrome and Edge is already reading from IE trusted sites: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/168518/local-intraneta-and-trusted-sites-in-edge.html

Answer 1

Hi @Steve

IE trusted sites is one of Windows Security Zones. Chrome and Edge make very limited use of Windows Security Zones. There's a detailed blog about security zones in different browsers by EricLaw. You can check it.

In paragraph Use of Zones in Chromium, it clarifies there's only two situations chromium uses Windows Security Zones:

1.When deciding how to handle File Downloads, and
2.When deciding whether or not to release Windows Integrated Authentication (Kerberos/NTLM) credentials automatically.

In paragraph Zones in the New Edge, we can know that apart from the above two situations, the new Edge adds one more situation:

Administrators can configure Internet Explorer Mode to open all Intranet sites in IEMode. Those IEMode tabs are really running Internet Explorer, and they use Zones for everything that IE did.

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Regards,
Yu Zhou

Answer 2

Hi there,

As a part of every page load, browsers have to make dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of decisions. In many cases, decisions are governed by two inputs: a user setting, and the URL of the page for which the decision is being made. The below points might help you in understanding how browsers work on security decisions.

-Internet Explorer and Legacy Edge use a system of five Zones and 88+ URLActions to make security decisions for web content, based on the host of a target site.
-Chromium (New Edge, Chrome) uses a system of Site Lists and permission checks to make security decisions for web content, based on the hostname of a target site.

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Answer 3

Is this also the case for "local intranet" after the Internet Explorer (IE) depreciation on Chrome?

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-sso-quick-start#why-do-you-need-to-modify-users-intranet-zone-settings