Security requirement
Obtain software and data employed during system component and service refreshes from the following trusted sources: [Organization-defined: trusted sources].
Discussion
Trusted sources include software and data from write-once, read-only media or from selected offline secure storage facilities. 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.
Tailoring decisions required
Resolve these values through the governing organization’s approved tailoring and risk-management process before declaring the requirement implemented.
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 Refresh From Trusted Sources 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 flaw remediation, malicious-code protection, monitoring, integrity, and trustworthy handling of CUI.
- 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
- patch and remediation records
- malware protection configuration
- monitoring alerts and response records
- integrity validation and exception reports
Common failure patterns
- patch compliance hiding unsupported assets
- alerts generated without response ownership
- exceptions that never expire
- integrity monitoring excluding critical configurations
Assessment objectives and methods
Assessment objectives (1)
the software and data used during system component and service refreshes are obtained from [Organization-defined: trusted sources] .
Examine
- System and information integrity policy
- system and information integrity procedures
- system design documentation
- procedures addressing non-persistence for system components
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
- system audit records
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Personnel responsible for obtaining component and service refreshes from trusted sources
- personnel with information security responsibilities
Test
- Processes for defining and obtaining component and service refreshes from trusted sources
- automated mechanisms supporting and/or implementing component and service refreshes
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.