What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.8.2 Privileged access rights?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.8.2, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; An inventory of privileged accounts per system (operating systems, databases, applications, cloud consoles) mapped to named individuals; Authorization records for each privileged grant with approver, justification and expiry; Privileged access management configuration showing time-limited elevation, step-up authentication and session recording; Privileged access review records performed periodically and after organizational changes.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.8.2?

Administrators use their privileged account for email and web browsing

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Technological controls

`A.8.2` Privileged access rights

The granting and use of privileged access rights are to be limited and managed. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): limits privileged access to authorized people, software components and services. As an Annex A reference control, it is compared with the controls determined in risk treatment (6.1.3 c) and recorded in the Statement of Applicability as included or excluded, with the justification and implementation status (6.1.3 d); implementation guidance is ISO/IEC 27002:2022 8.2.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.8.2. 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 ISO/IEC 27001:2022 in the compliance library.

Clauses 4 to 10 are the management-system requirements: none of them can be excluded when an organisation claims conformity. The 93 Annex A controls are a reference set: one may be excluded with a justification in the Statement of Applicability. Certification bodies assess conformity; the evidence lists here are what auditors commonly ask for, not a list the standard prescribes.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

moderate

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

An inventory of privileged accounts per system (operating systems, databases, applications, cloud consoles) mapped to named individuals · Identity provider / directory
Privileged access management configuration showing time-limited elevation, step-up authentication and session recording · Identity provider / directory

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Authorization records for each privileged grant with approver, justification and expiry · Identity provider / directory
Privileged access review records performed periodically and after organizational changes · Identity provider / directory

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.8.2, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 2 of 5 artefacts that already live in a system (Identity provider / directory); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Administrators use their privileged account for email and web browsing
Shared generic administrator accounts are used with no individual accountability
Privileged rights are standing and never expire
Service accounts with administrative rights are excluded from reviews

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

A.8.1 User end point devices · A.8.3 Information access restriction