What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 20 Multi-factor authentication (Essential)?

List of important data repositories and privileged actions in scope for MFA, with the enforcement mechanism for each; MFA configuration exports for VPN, RDP, SSH and other remote access gateways showing a second factor is enforced; Conditional access or authentication policies requiring MFA for privileged actions and for important data repositories; MFA enrolment report listing users and service accounts without a registered second factor.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 20?

MFA enforced on the VPN but not on directly exposed RDP, SSH or cloud admin portals

ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents · Limiting the Extent of Cyber Security Incidents

`20` Multi-factor authentication (Essential)

Multi-factor authentication including for VPNs, RDP, SSH and other remote access, and for all users when they perform a privileged action or access an important (sensitive/high-availability) data repository.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 20. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Identity provider / directory

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

MFA configuration exports for VPN, RDP, SSH and other remote access gateways showing a second factor is enforced · Identity provider / directory
Conditional access or authentication policies requiring MFA for privileged actions and for important data repositories · Identity provider / directory
MFA enrolment report listing users and service accounts without a registered second factor · Identity provider / directory

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

List of important data repositories and privileged actions in scope for MFA, with the enforcement mechanism for each · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Identity provider / directory. Scheduled export of users, roles and MFA state from the directory; access-review completion pulled from the IdP, not a spreadsheet.

Common gaps auditors find

MFA enforced on the VPN but not on directly exposed RDP, SSH or cloud admin portals
Privileged actions performed without step-up MFA once the user has logged in
Sensitive data repositories accessible with only a password from inside the network

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

19 Patch operating systems (Essential) · 21 Disable local administrator accounts (Excellent)