What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on IA-5(18) Authenticator Management | Password Managers?

Identification and authentication policy; Procedures addressing identifier management; System security plan; System design documentation; Mechanisms providing dynamic binding of identifiers and authenticators; System configuration settings and associated documentation.

What is the most common gap auditors find on IA-5(18)?

Passwords are generated and stored by users rather than with the defined password managers

NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · IA - Identification and Authentication

`IA-5(18)` Authenticator Management | Password Managers

(a) Employ organization-defined password managers to generate and manage passwords; and (b) Protect the passwords using organization-defined controls.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, IA-5(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 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

System audit records · Identity provider / directory
Test of Mechanisms supporting and/or implementing account management capability; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing identification and authentication management capabilities for the system · Identity provider / directory

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Identification and authentication policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Procedures addressing identifier management · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System design documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Mechanisms providing dynamic binding of identifiers and authenticators · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System configuration settings and associated documentation · 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

Passwords are generated and stored by users rather than with the defined password managers
The controls protecting passwords held in password managers were never defined

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

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