EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · RA - Risk Assessment

RA-5(8) Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning | Review Historic Audit Logs

Review historic audit logs to determine if a vulnerability identified in a organization-defined system has been previously exploited within an organization-defined time period.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, RA-5(8). 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
3
held by a system
2
at each review
moderate
to go live
Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling
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

  • Audit logs · SIEM / log platform
  • Vulnerability scanning results · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling
  • Patch and vulnerability management records · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Records of audit log reviews · SIEM / log platform
  • Test of Organizational processes for vulnerability scanning; organizational process for audit record review and response; mechanisms/tools supporting and/or implementing vulnerability scanning; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing audit record review · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Risk assessment policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing vulnerability scanning · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 3 of 8 artefacts that already live in a system (Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling); keep the periodic reviews but log each one 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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