Security requirement
Employ [Organization-defined: safeguards] and conduct [Organization-defined: analysis method] to ensure the integrity of the system and system components by validating the internal composition and provenance of critical or mission-essential technologies, products, and services.
Discussion
Authoritative information regarding the internal composition of system components and the provenance of technology, products, and services provides a strong basis for trust. The validation of the internal composition and provenance of technologies, products, and services is referred to as the pedigree. For microelectronics, this includes the material composition of components. For software this includes the composition of open-source and proprietary code, including the version of the component at a given point in time. Pedigrees increase the assurance that the claims suppliers assert about the internal composition and provenance of the products, services, and technologies they provide are valid. The validation of the internal composition and provenance can be achieved by various evidentiary artifacts or records that manufacturers and suppliers produce during the research, development, design, manufacturing, acquisition, delivery, integration, operations, maintenance, and disposal of technology, products, and services. Evidentiary artifacts include software identification (SWID) tags, software component inventory, the manufacturers’ declarations of platform attributes (e.g., serial numbers, hardware component inventory), and measurements (e.g., firmware hashes) that are tightly bound to the hardware. 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 Supply Chain Integrity – Pedigree 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 supply-chain governance, provenance, supplier risk, component authenticity, and dependency resilience.
- 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
- supplier inventories and criticality ratings
- contract security clauses
- provenance and authenticity records
- supplier monitoring and incident records
Common failure patterns
- sub-tier dependencies ignored
- contracts lacking evidence and notification obligations
- open-source and service dependencies omitted
- supplier risk reviewed only during procurement
Assessment objectives and methods
Assessment objectives (2)
[Organization-defined: safeguards] are employed to ensure the integrity of the system and system components.
[Organization-defined: analysis method] is conducted to ensure the integrity of the system and system components.
Examine
- Supply chain risk management policy and procedures
- supply chain risk management plan
- system and services acquisition policy
- procedures addressing supply chain protection
- bill of materials for critical systems or system components
- acquisition documentation
- software identification tags
- manufacturer declarations of platform attributes (e.g., serial numbers, hardware component inventory) and measurements (e.g., firmware hashes) that are tightly bound to the hardware itself
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with system and services acquisition responsibilities
- organizational personnel with information security responsibilities
- organizational personnel with supply chain risk management responsibilities
Test
- Organizational processes for identifying pedigree information
- organizational processes to determine and validate the integrity of the internal composition of critical systems and critical system components
- mechanisms to determine and validate the integrity of the internal composition of critical systems and critical system components
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.