What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on PE-2 Physical Access Authorizations?

SSP PE-2 statement describing the authorised facility access list, credential issuance and quarterly review; Quarterly facility access list review with removals of staff who left or changed role; Environmental monitoring readings for temperature, humidity, and water leak sensors; Fire suppression and UPS maintenance records; Physical security policy and facility risk assessment; Badge access system audit log and door alarm reports.

What is the most common gap auditors find on PE-2?

Visitor logs incomplete or escort sign offs missing

FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) · PE - Physical and Environmental Protection

`PE-2` Physical Access Authorizations

Develop, approve, maintain list of individuals with authorized facility access; review at least quarterly (FedRAMP).

Source: FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline), PE-2. 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 FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) in the compliance library.

A FedRAMP baseline is a subset of NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, enhancements included.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Physical access / facilities

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

Environmental monitoring readings for temperature, humidity, and water leak sensors · Physical access / facilities

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Quarterly facility access list review with removals of staff who left or changed role · Physical access / facilities
Fire suppression and UPS maintenance records · Backup / DR tooling
Physical security policy and facility risk assessment · Physical access / facilities
Badge access system audit log and door alarm reports · Physical access / facilities

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

SSP PE-2 statement describing the authorised facility access list, credential issuance and quarterly review · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Physical access / facilities on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Visitor logs incomplete or escort sign offs missing
Environmental sensor alerts route to unmonitored mailboxes
Server room doors propped open during cooling failures

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

PE-1 Policy and Procedures · PE-3 Physical Access Control