What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on IAM-13 Strong Authentication?

Authentication standard naming where multifactor is mandatory; Identity provider conditional access or MFA enforcement report with coverage figures; Certificate inventory or workload identity configuration for system identities; Exceptions register for systems without MFA and their compensating controls.

What is the most common gap auditors find on IAM-13?

MFA enforced for administrators but not for access to sensitive data

CSA CCM v4.1 · IAM - Identity & Access Management

`IAM-13` Strong Authentication

Define, put in place and assess processes, procedures and technical measures that authenticate access to systems, applications and data, with multifactor authentication for least-privileged users and for access to sensitive data, and use digital certificates or an equally strong method for system identities.

Source: CSA CCM v4.1, IAM-13. 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 CSA CCM v4.1 in the compliance library.

Version 4.1 adds 11 controls (among them API security, log sanitisation and a service bill of materials) and renumbers several domains. CSA accepts v4.0.x during its transition; if your STAR assessment is still on v4.0.1, check the numbering against it.

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

Identity provider conditional access or MFA enforcement report with coverage figures · Identity provider / directory
Certificate inventory or workload identity configuration for system identities · Key management / PKI

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Authentication standard naming where multifactor is mandatory · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Exceptions register for systems without MFA and their compensating controls · 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 for administrators but not for access to sensitive data
Service-to-service authentication still using static shared secrets
Legacy protocols that bypass MFA left enabled

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

IAM-12 Unique Identities · IAM-14 Credentials Management