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NIST SP 800-172 Enhanced CUI Protection Center

03.01.05E — Remote Access Monitoring and Control

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.

1Source controls
2Assessment objectives
3Assessment methods

03.01 — Access Control · NIST SP 800-172 Revision 3

Active
Official NIST requirement content

Security requirement

Employ automated mechanisms to monitor and control remote access methods.

Official NIST discussion

Discussion

Monitoring and controlling remote access methods allows organizations to detect attacks and ensure compliance with remote access policies. This is accomplished by auditing the connection activities of remote users on system components, including servers, notebook computers, workstations, smart phones, and tablets. This requirement enhances SP 800-171 requirement 03.01.02.

Official protection strategy classifications

Protection strategies supported

These classifications are carried from the official SP 800-172 OSCAL record and help explain the enhanced requirement’s defensive purpose.

PS-DLODamage-Limiting Operations
PS-PRAPenetration-Resistant Architecture
Bare Metal Cyber interpretation

Implementation perspective

Treat Remote Access Monitoring and Control as an enhanced CUI protection outcome for elevated threat conditions that must be reflected in the system boundary, documented implementation, operational behavior, and assessment evidence. Pay particular attention to approved identities, least privilege, remote access, information flow, and the full account lifecycle.

  1. Confirm the federal agency selected this enhanced requirement for the critical program or high-value asset and identify the CUI system components, services, users, and external connections in scope.
  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 critical-program or high-value-asset CUI, data flows, users, and services are protected by this enhanced 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

  • access authorization and approval records
  • account inventories and entitlement exports
  • access review results
  • authentication and authorization logs

Common failure patterns

  • CUI access that exceeds mission need
  • shared or orphaned accounts
  • remote access paths outside the approved boundary
  • access reviews that cannot be reconciled to deployed permissions
Official NIST SP 800-172A content

Assessment objectives and methods

Assessment objectives (2)
  1. automated mechanisms are employed to monitor remote access methods.

  2. automated mechanisms are employed to control remote access methods.

Examine

  • Access control policy
  • procedures addressing remote access to the system
  • system design documentation
  • system configuration settings and associated documentation
  • system audit records
  • system monitoring records
  • system security plan
  • other relevant documents or records

Interview

  • System/network administrators
  • personnel with information security responsibilities
  • system developers

Test

  • Automated mechanisms monitoring and controlling remote access methods
Official source-control relationships

Source NIST SP 800-53 controls

These controls are referenced by the official SP 800-172 Rev. 3 OSCAL record. Open the corresponding control pages for complete control text, enhancements, D3FEND mappings, and related learning.

Source record

Authoritative sources