EvidenceSheet
UK Cyber Essentials · Firewalls

FW.5 Remove or Disable Unused Rules

Remove or disable permissive firewall rules promptly when no longer required to limit attack surface.

Source: UK Cyber Essentials, FW.5. 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 UK Cyber Essentials in the compliance library.

The version of the requirements is not stamped here; check the question set your certification body uses.

2
artefacts
1
held by a system
1
at each review
easy
to go live
SIEM / log platform
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

  • Disabled/removed rule log · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Periodic firewall rule review records · Cloud console / configuration management

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

none for this control

First move

Automate the pull from your SIEM / log platform. Retention and alert rules exported from the SIEM; review evidence is the closed-alert record with reviewer and time.

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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FW.4 Approve and Document Inbound Rules · FW.6 Host-Based Firewall for Remote Workers