What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on PR.PS-02 Software is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk?

Software lifecycle policy with end of support tracking; Patch management cadence and exception register; End of life replacement plan; Software risk assessments for unsupported tools; Software retirement records.

What is the most common gap auditors find on PR.PS-02?

EOL software in production beyond plan

NIST CSF 2.0 · PR - Protect

`PR.PS-02` Software is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk

Software is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk. Control from NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 framework, domain: PR - Protect.

Source: NIST CSF 2.0, PR.PS-02. 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 CSF 2.0 in the compliance library.

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

Software risk assessments for unsupported tools · Document repository
Software retirement records · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Software lifecycle policy with end of support tracking · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Patch management cadence and exception register · Policy repository / GRC workspace
End of life replacement plan · 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

EOL software in production beyond plan
Patch SLAs missed for embedded systems
Replacement plans unfunded
Retirement records incomplete

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

PR.PS-01 Configuration management practices are established and applied · PR.PS-03 Hardware is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk