Security requirement
Include components within organizational systems specifically designed to be the target of malicious attacks for detecting, deflecting, and analyzing such attacks.
Discussion
Decoys (i.e., honeypots, honeynets, or deception nets) are established to attract adversaries and deflect attacks away from the operational systems that support organizational missions and business functions. The use of decoys requires some supporting isolation measures to ensure that any deflected malicious code does not infect organizational systems. This requirement does not enhance a specific requirement in SP 800-171 but can be used to strengthen the protection of CUI associated with critical programs or high value assets.
Protection strategies supported
These classifications are carried from the official SP 800-172 OSCAL record and help explain the enhanced requirement’s defensive purpose.
Implementation perspective
Treat Decoys 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 secure architecture, boundary protection, communications security, cryptography, and isolation of CUI processing.
- 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.
- Resolve every organization-defined parameter through an approved governance and tailoring process.
- Map each clause of the requirement to an accountable owner, implementation mechanism, and evidence source.
- Verify that inherited and shared implementations are supported by current provider evidence and responsibility boundaries.
- 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
- network and trust-boundary diagrams
- firewall and gateway configurations
- cryptographic configuration and key records
- segmentation and isolation test results
Common failure patterns
- diagrams omitting cloud and third-party paths
- encryption enabled without key governance
- flat trust zones permitting unnecessary lateral movement
- boundary rules accumulating without owner review
Assessment objectives and methods
Assessment objectives (3)
components within organizational systems specifically designed to be the target of malicious attacks are included to detect such attacks.
components within organizational systems specifically designed to be the target of malicious attacks are included to deflect such attacks.
components within organizational systems specifically designed to be the target of malicious attacks are included to analyze such attacks.
Examine
- System and communications protection policy
- procedures addressing the use of decoys
- system design documentation
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
- system audit records
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- System/network administrators
- personnel with information security responsibilities
- system developers
Test
- Mechanisms supporting and/or implementing decoys
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.
Authoritative sources
- NIST SP 800-172 Revision 3 official publication ↗
- NIST SP 800-172A Revision 3 official publication ↗
- NIST OSCAL Content release used for this import ↗
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.