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NIST SP 800-172 Enhanced CUI Protection Center

03.14.08E — Integrity Checks

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.

15Parameters
1Source controls
3Assessment objectives
3Assessment methods

03.14 — System and Information Integrity · NIST SP 800-172 Revision 3

Active
Official NIST requirement content

Security requirement

Perform an integrity check of [Organization-defined: organization-defined software, firmware, and information] [Organization-defined: SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)].

Official NIST discussion

Discussion

Security-relevant events include the identification of new threats to which organizational systems are susceptible and the installation of hardware, software, or firmware. Transitional states include system startup, restart, shutdown, and abort. This requirement is sourced to a control tailored out of the SP 800-53B .13 moderate baseline in SP 800-171.

Official organization-defined parameters

Tailoring decisions required

Resolve these values through the governing organization’s approved tailoring and risk-management process before declaring the requirement implemented.

organization-defined software, firmware, and information
organization-defined transitional states or security-relevant events
organization-defined frequency
softwareorganization-defined software, firmware, and informationsoftware on which an integrity check is to be performed is defined.
SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)
firmwareorganization-defined software, firmware, and informationfirmware on which an integrity check is to be performed is defined.
SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)
informationorganization-defined software, firmware, and informationinformation on which an integrity check is to be performed is defined.
SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)
transitional states or security-relevant eventsorganization-defined transitional states or security-relevant eventstransitional states or security-relevant events requiring integrity checks (on software) are defined (if selected).
frequencyorganization-defined frequencythe frequency at which to perform an integrity check (on software) is defined (if selected).
transitional states or security-relevant eventsorganization-defined transitional states or security-relevant eventstransitional states or security-relevant events requiring integrity checks (on firmware) are defined (if selected).
frequencyorganization-defined frequencythe frequency at which to perform an integrity check (on firmware) is defined (if selected).
transitional states or security-relevant eventsorganization-defined transitional states or security-relevant eventstransitional states or security-relevant events requiring integrity checks (of information) are defined (if selected).
frequencyorganization-defined frequencythe frequency at which to perform an integrity check (of information) is defined (if selected).
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-PRAPenetration-Resistant Architecture
Bare Metal Cyber interpretation

Implementation perspective

Treat Integrity Checks 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.

  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

  • 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
Official NIST SP 800-172A content

Assessment objectives and methods

Assessment objectives (3)

  1. an integrity check of [Organization-defined: software] is performed [Organization-defined: SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)].

  2. an integrity check of [Organization-defined: firmware] is performed [Organization-defined: SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)].

  3. an integrity check of [Organization-defined: information] is performed [Organization-defined: SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE(S)].

Examine

  • System and information integrity policy
  • system and information integrity procedures
  • procedures addressing software, firmware, and information integrity testing
  • system design documentation
  • system configuration settings and associated documentation
  • system security plan
  • integrity verification tools and associated documentation
  • records of integrity scans
  • other relevant documents or records

Interview

  • Personnel responsible for software, firmware, and/or information integrity
  • personnel with information security responsibilities
  • system/network administrators
  • system developers

Test

  • Software, firmware, and information integrity verification tools
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 controlSI-7(1)Open 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.