Overview
  1. 03.01: Access Control
  2. 03.02: Awareness and Training
  3. 03.03: Audit and Accountability
  4. 03.04: Configuration Management
  5. 03.05: Identification and Authentication
  6. 03.06: Incident Response
  7. 03.07: Maintenance
  8. 03.08: Media Protection
  9. 03.09: Personnel Security
  10. 03.10: Physical Protection
  11. 03.11: Risk Assessment
  12. 03.12: Security Assessment
  13. 03.13: System and Communications Protection
  14. 03.14: System and Information Integrity

Security Requirements for 03.03.08 Audit Protection

Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit log settings, and audit reports) needed to successfully audit system activity. Audit logging tools are those programs and devices used to conduct audit and logging activities. This requirement focuses on the technical protection of audit information and limits the ability to access and execute audit logging tools to authorized individuals. Physical protection of audit information is addressed by media protection and physical and environmental protection requirements.

Assessment GuidanceExamine 0/8

How an assessor determines this requirement is met. Source: CMMC Assessment Guide – Level 2, Version 2.13 (NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2).

Discussion

Audit information is a critical record of what events occurred, the source of the events, and the outcomes of the events; this information needs to be protected. The logs must be properly secured so that the information may not be modified or deleted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Only those with a legitimate need-to-know should have access to audit information, whether that information is being accessed directly from logs or from audit tools.

Examples

  1. Example 1

    You are in charge of IT operations in a company that handles CUI. Your responsibilities include protecting audit information and audit logging tools. You protect the information from modification or deletion by having audit log events forwarded to a central server and by restricting the local audit logs to only be viewable by the system administrators [a, b, c]. Only a small group of security professionals can view the data on the central audit server [b, c, d]. For an additional layer of protection, you back up the server daily and encrypt the backups before sending them to a cloud data repository [a, b, c].

Assessment Methods

Examine
The process of reviewing, inspecting, observing, studying, or analyzing assessment objects (e.g., policies, procedures, plans, system designs, mechanisms) to facilitate understanding, achieve clarification, or obtain evidence.Example: An assessor reads the access control policy and inspects system configuration settings to confirm they match.

Not all of the evidence listed is required to meet this requirement — check the items your organization has collected.

Interview
The process of holding discussions with individuals or groups within an organization to facilitate understanding, achieve clarification, or identify the location of evidence.Example: An assessor asks a system administrator to describe how user accounts are approved, reviewed, and disabled.
  • Personnel with audit and accountability responsibilities
  • Personnel with information security responsibilities
  • System or network administrators
  • System developers
Test
The process of exercising assessment objects (e.g., activities, mechanisms) under specified conditions to compare actual behavior with expected behavior.Example: An assessor attempts to sign in with a disabled account to confirm that access is denied.
  • Mechanisms implementing audit information protection

Potential Assessment Considerations

  • Is there a list of authorized users for audit systems and tools [a]?

Key References

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 3.3.8

Evidence

  1. 03.03.08.a

    Audit information is protected from unauthorized access

  1. 03.03.08.b

    Audit information is protected from unauthorized modification

  1. 03.03.08.c

    Audit information is protected from unauthorized deletion

  1. 03.03.08.d

    Audit logging tools are protected from unauthorized access

  1. 03.03.08.e

    Audit logging tools are protected from unauthorized modification

  1. 03.03.08.f

    Audit logging tools are protected from unauthorized deletion