EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · AC - Access Control

AC-3(4) Access Enforcement | Discretionary Access Control

Enforce organization-defined discretionary access control policy over the set of covered subjects and objects specified in the policy, and where the policy specifies that a subject that has been granted access to information can do one or more of the following: (a) Pass the information to any other subjects or objects; (b) Grant its privileges to other subjects; (c) Change security attributes on subjects, objects, the system, or the system’s components; (d) Choose the security attributes to be associated with newly created or revised objects; or (e) Change the rules governing access control.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, AC-3(4). 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 NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 in the compliance library.

Base controls and their enhancements. Which apply follows the baseline you are assessed against (for example FedRAMP Moderate or High, or the low, moderate and high baselines of SP 800-53B). Text in square brackets is a parameter your organisation sets.

9
artefacts
1
held by a system
2
at each review
hard
to go live
Policy repository / GRC workspace
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

  • List of subjects and objects (i.e., users and resources) requiring enforcement of discretionary access control policies · Identity provider / directory

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • System audit records · Identity provider / directory
  • Test of Mechanisms implementing discretionary access control policy · Identity provider / directory

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Access control policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Discretionary access control policies · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing access enforcement · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System design documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System configuration settings and associated documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Identity provider / directory 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

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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AC-3(3) Access Enforcement | Mandatory Access Control · AC-3(5) Access Enforcement | Security-relevant Information