What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on CP-10(6) System Recovery and Reconstitution | Component Protection?

Contingency planning policy; Procedures addressing system recovery and reconstitution; Contingency plan; System design documentation; System configuration settings and associated documentation; Logical access credentials.

What is the most common gap auditors find on CP-10(6)?

Recovery components such as backup images and restoration tools are not protected from unauthorized access or modification

NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · CP - Contingency Planning

`CP-10(6)` System Recovery and Reconstitution | Component Protection

Protect system components used for recovery and reconstitution.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, CP-10(6). 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.

artefacts

held by a system

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

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Logical access authorization records · Identity provider / directory
Physical access authorization records · Physical access / facilities
Test of Organizational processes for protecting backup and restoration of hardware, firmware, and software; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing protection of backups and restoration of hardware, firmware, and software · Backup / DR tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Contingency planning policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Procedures addressing system recovery and reconstitution · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Contingency plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System design documentation · Document repository
System configuration settings and associated documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Logical access credentials · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Physical access credentials · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Recovery components such as backup images and restoration tools are not protected from unauthorized access or modification
Recovery media are stored with the same access as production, so a compromise reaches them too

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

CP-10(4) System Recovery and Reconstitution | Restore Within Time Period · CP-11 Alternate Communications Protocols