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NIST SP 800-171 CUI Protection Center

03.03.03 — Audit Record Generation

Read the official CUI requirement and assessment content, then use the separately labeled Bare Metal Cyber perspective to connect it to implementation, evidence, and sustained operation.

2Source controls
2Assessment objectives
3Assessment methods

03.03 — Audit and Accountability · NIST SP 800-171 Revision 3

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Official NIST requirement content

Security requirement

  1. a.Generate audit records for the selected event types and audit record content specified in 03.03.01 and 03.03.02.
  2. b.Retain audit records for a time period consistent with the records retention policy.
Official NIST discussion

Discussion

Audit records can be generated at various levels of abstraction, including at the packet level as information traverses the network. Selecting the appropriate level of abstraction is a critical aspect of an audit logging capability and can facilitate the identification of root causes to problems. The ability to add information generated in audit records is dependent on system functionality to configure the audit record content. Organizations may consider additional information in audit records, including the access control or flow control rules invoked and the individual identities of group account users. Organizations may also consider limiting additional audit record information to only information that is explicitly needed for audit requirements.

Bare Metal Cyber interpretation

Implementation perspective

Treat Audit Record Generation as a CUI protection outcome that must be reflected in the system boundary, documented implementation, operational behavior, and assessment evidence. Pay particular attention to event selection, trustworthy logging, review, retention, and support for CUI investigations.

  1. Confirm the requirement is in scope for the CUI system components, services, users, and external connections being assessed.
  2. Resolve every organization-defined parameter through an approved governance and tailoring process.
  3. Map each clause of the requirement to an accountable owner, implementation mechanism, and evidence source.
  4. Verify that inherited and shared implementations are supported by current provider evidence and responsibility boundaries.
  5. Collect evidence during normal operation and review changes, exceptions, and deficiencies on a risk-based cadence.

Questions to ask

  • Which CUI assets, data flows, users, and services are protected by this requirement?
  • Which portions are implemented locally, inherited, shared, or not applicable, and what evidence supports that determination?
  • Do the system security plan, deployed configuration, operating process, and assessment evidence tell the same story?
  • What change, incident, or threshold should trigger reassessment?

Evidence and validation

  • logging standards and event-selection decisions
  • sample audit records and retention settings
  • time synchronization evidence
  • alert review and investigation records

Common failure patterns

  • collecting logs without defined use cases
  • critical CUI events absent from the audit trail
  • retention shorter than investigative needs
  • logs modifiable by the same administrators being monitored
Official NIST SP 800-171A content

Assessment objectives and methods

Assessment objectives (2)
  1. a.

    audit records for the selected event types and audit record content specified in 03.03.01 and 03.03.02 are generated.

  2. b.

    audit records are retained for a time period consistent with the records retention policy.

Examine

  • audit and accountability policy and procedures
  • procedures for audit record generation
  • system design documentation
  • list of auditable events
  • system audit records
  • audit record retention policy and procedures
  • organization-defined retention period for audit records
  • audit record archives
  • system configuration settings
  • system security plan
  • other relevant documents or records

Interview

  • personnel with audit record generation responsibilities
  • personnel with audit record retention responsibilities
  • personnel with information security responsibilities
  • system developers
  • system administrators

Test

  • mechanisms for implementing the audit record generation capability
Official source-control relationships

Source NIST SP 800-53 controls

These controls are referenced by the official SP 800-171 Rev. 3 OSCAL record. Open the corresponding control pages for complete control text, enhancements, D3FEND mappings, and related learning.

Source controlAU-11Open SP 800-53 control →Source controlAU-12Open SP 800-53 control →
Source record

Authoritative sources

Bare Metal Cyber is an independent educational publisher and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST. The official publications, the responsible federal agency, and the governing contract or agreement determine applicability, tailoring, assessment depth, and required implementation.