EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · MA - Maintenance

MA-3(4) Maintenance Tools | Restricted Tool Use

Restrict the use of maintenance tools to authorized personnel only.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, MA-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.

8
artefacts
1
held by a system
2
at each review
hard
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

  • Maintenance tool usage records · Cloud console / configuration management

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Maintenance records · Document repository
  • Test of Organizational processes for restricting the use of maintenance tools; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the restricted use of maintenance tools · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Maintenance policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing system maintenance tools · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System maintenance tools and associated documentation · Document repository
  • List of personnel authorized to use maintenance tools · Document repository
  • System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Cloud console / configuration management 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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MA-3(3) Maintenance Tools | Prevent Unauthorized Removal · MA-3(5) Maintenance Tools | Execution with Privilege