EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · SA - System and Services Acquisition

SA-8(23) Security and Privacy Engineering Principles | Secure Defaults

Implement the security design principle of secure defaults in organization-defined systems or system components.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, SA-8(23). 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.

10
artefacts
1
held by a system
1
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

  • Procedures addressing the baseline configuration of the system · Cloud console / configuration management

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Test of Organizational processes for applying the security design principle of secure defaults in system specification, design, development, implementation, and modification; mechanisms supporting the application of the security design principle of secure defaults in system specification, design, developmen · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • System and services acquisition policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Configuration management policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing the security design principle of secure defaults used in the specification, design, development, implementation, and modification of the system · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System design documentation · Document repository
  • Configuration management plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System architecture and configuration documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System configuration settings and associated documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Security and privacy requirements and specifications for the system · 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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SA-8(22) Security and Privacy Engineering Principles | Accountability and Traceability · SA-8(24) Security and Privacy Engineering Principles | Secure Failure and Recovery