What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on IDM-09 Authentication mechanisms?

Authentication design stating which factors are demanded to reach production; Password policy showing the risk assessment from which its parameters were derived; Platform settings enforcing those password parameters on in-scope system components; Certificate administration records held under the key management guideline.

What is the most common gap auditors find on IDM-09?

Break-glass and emergency logins reach production behind a single factor

BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue) · C5: Identity and Access Management

`IDM-09` Authentication mechanisms

Authenticate every user and automated system component, require two-factor or multi-factor authentication to reach the production environment, permit only passwords, signed certificates or equally strong methods inside it, and enforce risk-derived password rules through configuration.

Source: BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue), IDM-09. 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 BSI C5 (121-criteria catalogue) in the compliance library.

The edition of the catalogue is not stamped here; check the edition your attestation is issued against.

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

Password policy showing the risk assessment from which its parameters were derived · Identity provider / directory
Platform settings enforcing those password parameters on in-scope system components · Identity provider / directory

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Authentication design stating which factors are demanded to reach production · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Certificate administration records held under the key management guideline · 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

Break-glass and emergency logins reach production behind a single factor
Password rules published centrally but not technically enforceable on some platforms
Machine certificates used for authentication issued outside the governed key management process

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

IDM-08 Confidentiality of authentication information · INQ-01 Legal Assessment of Investigative Inquiries