Control statement
Provide and implement an audit record reduction and report generation capability that:
- a.Supports on-demand audit record review, analysis, and reporting requirements and after-the-fact investigations of incidents; and
- b.Does not alter the original content or time ordering of audit records.
Discussion
Audit record reduction is a process that manipulates collected audit log information and organizes it into a summary format that is more meaningful to analysts. Audit record reduction and report generation capabilities do not always emanate from the same system or from the same organizational entities that conduct audit logging activities. The audit record reduction capability includes modern data mining techniques with advanced data filters to identify anomalous behavior in audit records. The report generation capability provided by the system can generate customizable reports. Time ordering of audit records can be an issue if the granularity of the timestamp in the record is insufficient.
From control text to operational evidence
Use Audit Record Reduction and Report Generation as a testable risk decision. Translate the official statement into accountable people, repeatable processes, configured technology, and evidence that demonstrates the outcome over time. In this family, pay particular attention to audit event design, trustworthy collection, retention, review, and investigation support.
Implementation workflow
- Define the control boundary, responsible owner, inherited portions, and systems or processes in scope.
- Resolve each organization-defined parameter before declaring the control implemented.
- Document how the implementation satisfies every clause of the official control statement.
- Collect evidence as a normal byproduct of operation rather than only before an assessment.
- Review exceptions, changes, and monitoring results on a risk-based cadence.
Evidence examples
- logging standards and event-selection decisions
- sample audit records and retention settings
- time-synchronization evidence
- alert and review records
Common failure patterns
- collecting logs without defined use cases
- critical events missing from the audit trail
- retention shorter than investigative needs
- logs accessible to the same administrators being monitored
Questions practitioners should ask
- What risk decision is this control intended to support in this system?
- Which parts are implemented locally, inherited, shared, or not applicable—and what evidence supports that decision?
- Do the documented narrative, deployed configuration, operating process, and collected evidence agree?
- What event or threshold requires the implementation to be reviewed or changed?
Assessment objectives and methods
Show the assessment objective
- AU-07a.
- AU-07a.[01]an audit record reduction and report generation capability is provided that supports on-demand audit record review, analysis, and reporting requirements and after-the-fact investigations of incidents;
- AU-07a.[02]an audit record reduction and report generation capability is implemented that supports on-demand audit record review, analysis, and reporting requirements and after-the-fact investigations of incidents;
- AU-07b.
- AU-07b.[01]an audit record reduction and report generation capability is provided that does not alter the original content or time ordering of audit records;
- AU-07b.[02]an audit record reduction and report generation capability is implemented that does not alter the original content or time ordering of audit records.
Examine
- Audit and accountability policy
- system security plan
- privacy plan
- procedures addressing audit reduction and report generation
- system design documentation
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
- audit reduction, review, analysis, and reporting tools
- system audit records
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with audit reduction and report generation responsibilities
- organizational personnel with information security and privacy responsibilities
Test
- Audit reduction and report generation capability
Related controls
These relationships come from the official OSCAL catalog. They indicate useful dependencies or context, not automatic inheritance or equivalence.
Control enhancements
Enhancements add specificity, strength, or scope to the base control. Baseline badges show explicit selections in the official SP 800-53B OSCAL profiles.
AU-7(1) — Automatic Processing
Provide and implement the capability to process, sort, and search audit records for events of interest based on the following content: [Organization-defined: fields within audit records].
Official discussion
Events of interest can be identified by the content of audit records, including system resources involved, information objects accessed, identities of individuals, event types, event locations, event dates and times, Internet Protocol addresses involved, or event success or failure. Organizations may define event criteria to any degree of granularity required, such as locations selectable by a general networking location or by specific system component.
Organization-defined parameters (1)
Assessment objectives and methods
- AU-07(01)[01]the capability to process, sort, and search audit records for events of interest based on [Organization-defined: fields within audit records] are provided;
- AU-07(01)[02]the capability to process, sort, and search audit records for events of interest based on [Organization-defined: fields within audit records] are implemented.
Examine
- Audit and accountability policy
- system security plan
- privacy plan
- procedures addressing audit reduction and report generation
- system design documentation
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
- audit reduction, review, analysis, and reporting tools
- audit record criteria (fields) establishing events of interest
- system audit records
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with audit reduction and report generation responsibilities
- organizational personnel with information security and privacy responsibilities
- system developers
Test
- Audit reduction and report generation capability
AU-7(2) — Automatic Sort and Search
This enhancement is marked withdrawn in the official OSCAL catalog. Related-control metadata below may identify where its intent was incorporated.
Authoritative sources
Bare Metal Cyber is an independent educational publisher and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST. Official control requirements and interpretations remain with NIST and the responsible authorizing organization.