EvidenceSheet
ISO/IEC 27002:2022 · Technological controls

8.18 Use of privileged utility programs

Utility programs able to override system and application controls are to have their use limited and tightly controlled. Purpose: prevent utility programs from undermining system and application security controls. Guidance: consider limiting such utilities to the smallest practical number of trusted, authorized users (8.2); applying identification, authentication and authorization to their use, including uniquely identifying each person using them; defining and documenting authorization levels for them; requiring authorization for one-off use; withholding them from application users on systems that depend on separated duties; removing or disabling all unneeded utilities; separating utilities logically from application software at a minimum, and where practical keeping their network traffic apart from application traffic; making them available only for limited periods, such as the duration of an authorized change; and logging every use. Other information: most systems include utilities that can bypass controls, such as diagnostic, patching, anti-virus, defragmentation, debugging, backup and network tools.

Source: ISO/IEC 27002:2022, 8.18. 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 27002:2022 in the compliance library.

ISO/IEC 27002 is guidance on the Annex A controls; certification is against ISO/IEC 27001. Use this set when your sheet follows the 27002 numbering.

5
artefacts
3
held by a system
1
at each review
easy
to go live
Document repository
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

  • A list of authorized users and documented authorization levels for each utility · Document repository
  • Logs of all utility program use with unique user identification · SIEM / log platform
  • Configuration showing utilities segregated from application software and not accessible to users bound by segregation of duties · Cloud console / configuration management

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Approvals for ad hoc use and time-limited availability, for example tied to change tickets · Ticketing / ITSM

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • An inventory of utility programs capable of overriding controls on each platform, with those not needed removed or disabled · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Document repository. Version-controlled document with owner, approval and review date as metadata.

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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8.17 Clock synchronization · 8.19 Installation of software on operational systems