EvidenceSheet
CIS Controls v8.1 · CIS Control 16: Application Software Security

16.7 Use Standard Hardening Configuration Templates for Application Infrastructure

Apply standard, industry-recommended hardening templates to application infrastructure components, including underlying servers, databases and web servers, cloud containers, PaaS and SaaS components, and do not let in-house software weaken that hardening. Implementation Groups: IG2 and IG3 (not in the IG1 baseline; applies from IG2 upward). Asset type: Software. Security function: Protect.

Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 16.7. 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 CIS Controls v8.1 in the compliance library.

Scope: Implementation Groups: IG2, IG3. Security function: Protect; asset type: Software.

Each safeguard shows its Implementation Groups. IG1 is the essential baseline for every enterprise, IG2 adds to it, IG3 is all 153. Version 8.1 adds the Govern security function and asks for more processes to be documented; numbering is unchanged from v8.

3
artefacts
1
held by a system
1
at each review
moderate
to go live
Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling
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

  • Configuration scan results · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Evidence that applications do not require weakened settings · Source control / CI pipeline

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Hardening templates or benchmarks applied to application servers, databases, containers and PaaS · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 1 of 3 artefacts that already live in a system (Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

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.

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16.6 Establish and Maintain a Severity Rating System and Process for Application Vulnerabilities · 16.8 Separate Production and Non-Production Systems