CMMC Practice Number: AU.L2-3.3.4
CMMC Level: 2 CMMC Domain: Audit and Accountability (AU)
Practice Summary:
Alert in the event of an audit logging process failure.
Contents:
CMMC Practice Implementation |
Assessment Objectives
Determine if:
[a] personnel or roles to be alerted in the event of an audit logging process failure are identified;
[b] types of audit logging process failures for which alert will be generated are defined; and
[c] identified personnel or roles are alerted in the event of an audit logging process failure.
Practice Clarification (DOD, CMU)
Audit logging keeps track of activities occurring on the network, servers, user workstations and other components of the overall system. These logs must always be available and functional. The company’s designated security personnel (e.g., system administrator and
security officer) need to be aware when the audit log process fails or becomes unavailable [a]. Notifications (e.g., email, SMS) should to be sent to the company’s designated security personnel to immediately take appropriate action [c]. If security personnel are unaware of the audit logging process failure, then they will be unaware of any suspicious activity occurring at that time. Response to an audit logging process failure should account for the extent of the failure (e.g., a single component’s audit logging versus failure of the centralized logging solution), the risks involved in this loss of audit logging, and other factors (e.g., the possibility that an adversary could have caused the audit logging process failure) [b].
Example
You are in charge of IT operations for your company, and your responsibilities include managing the audit logging process. You configure your systems to send you an email in the event of an audit log failure. One day you receive one of these alerts. You connect to the system, restart logging, and determine why the logging stopped [a,b,c].
Potential Assessment Considerations
• Will the system alert personnel with security responsibilities in the event of an audit processing failure?
Where To Look
- Audit and accountability policy;
- procedures addressing response to audit logging processing failures;
- system design documentation;
- system security plan;
- system configuration settings and associated documentation;
- list of personnel to be notified in case of an audit logging processing failure;
- system incident reports;
- system audit logs and records;
- other relevant documents or records.
Who To Talk To
- Personnel with audit and accountability responsibilities;
- personnel with information security responsibilities;
- system or network administrators;
- system developers.
Perform Test On
- Mechanisms implementing system response to audit logging process failures.
Additional Information
An accurate and current audit trail is essential for maintaining a record of system activity. If the system fails, employees with security responsibilities must be notified and must take prompt action to correct the problem. Minimally, the system must log this event and the employees with security responsibilities (e.g., system administrator) will receive this notification during the daily system log review. If feasible, active alerting (such as e-mail or paging) should be employed consistent with the company’s established operations management systems and procedures.
CMMC Practice Background and References (DOD, CMU) |
Practice Discussion:
DISCUSSION FROM SOURCE: DRAFT NIST SP 800-171 R2
Audit logging process failures include software and hardware errors, failures in the audit record capturing mechanisms, and audit record storage capacity being reached or exceeded. This requirement applies to each audit record data storage repository (i.e., distinct system component where audit records are stored), the total audit record storage capacity of organizations (i.e., all audit record data storage repositories combined), or both.
CMMC References:
· NIST SP 800-171 Rev 1 3.3.4
· CIS Controls v7.1 6.7
· NIST SP 800-53 Rev 4 AU-5