NIST Special Publication 800-171 Revision 2

Date Published: January 28th, 2021

Withdrawn on May 14, 2024. Superseded by SP 800-171 Rev. 3

Author(s): Ron Ross (NIST), Victoria Pillitteri (NIST), Kelley Dempsey (NIST), Mark Riddle (NARA), Gary Guissanie (IDA)

Note: A Class Deviation is in effect as of May 2, 2024 (DEVIATION 2024O0013). The deviation clause requires contractors, who are subject to 252.204-7012, to comply with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 Revision 2, instead of the version of NIST SP 800-171 in effect at the time the solicitation is issued or as authorized by the contracting officer. Click Here

3.13.4: Prevent unauthorized and unintended information transfer via shared system resources

Control Family: System and Communications Protection

Control Type: Derived

SPRS Value: 1

SPRS Supplemental Guidance: N/A

CMMC Level(s):

  • SC.L2-3.13.3

Top Ten Failed Requirement:

No

Referenced in:

DFARS 252.204-7012

Derived From: NIST SP 800-53r4

  • SC-4

NIST Supplemental Guidance:

  • N/A

Discussion:

System management functionality includes functions necessary to administer databases, network components, workstations, or servers, and typically requires privileged user access. The separation of user functionality from system management functionality is physical or logical. Organizations can implement separation of system management functionality from user functionality by using different computers, different central processing units, different instances of operating systems, or different network addresses; virtualization techniques; or combinations of these or other methods, as appropriate. This type of separation includes web administrative interfaces that use separate authentication methods for users of any other system resources. Separation of system and user functionality may include isolating administrative interfaces on different domains and with additional access controls.

Upon assessment, assessors must determine if- 

Determine if unauthorized and unintended information transfer via shared system resources is prevented.

Assessors are instructed to-

Examine: [SELECT FROM: System and communications protection policy; procedures addressing application partitioning; system security plan; system design documentation; system configuration settings and associated documentation; system audit logs and records; other relevant documents or records].

Interview: [SELECT FROM: System or network administrators; personnel with information security responsibilities; system developer].

Test: [SELECT FROM: Separation of user functionality from system management functionality].

FURTHER DISCUSSION

No shared system resource, such as cache memory, hard disks, registers, or main memory may pass information from one user to another user. In other words, when objects are reused no residual information should exist on that object. This protects the confidentiality of the information. This is typically a feature provided by operating system and software vendors.

Example

You are a system administrator responsible for creating and deploying the system hardening procedures for your company’s computers. You ensure that the computer baselines include software patches to prevent attackers from exploiting flaws in the processor architecture to read data (e.g., the Meltdown and Spectre exploits). You also verify that the computer operating system is configured to prevent users from accessing other users’ folders [a].

Potential Assessment Considerations

  • Are shared system resources identified and documented [a]?

Frameworks & Controls