CMMC Navigatorby Foxx Cyber Bedrock CMMC

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3.1.6Do ordinary work from ordinary accounts

Admins should read email and browse the web from a normal account, not their admin one.

The requirement, verbatim

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 · 3.1.6

Use non-privileged accounts or roles when accessing nonsecurity functions.

Requirement 3.1.6, practice name in the CMMC assessment guide: Non-Privileged Account Use.

NIST's discussion

This requirement limits exposure when operating from within privileged accounts or roles. The inclusion of roles addresses situations where organizations implement access control policies such as role-based access control and where a change of role provides the same degree of assurance in the change of access authorizations for the user and all processes acting on behalf of the user as would be provided by a change between a privileged and non-privileged account.

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, discussion under 3.1.6. Whitespace normalised; wording unchanged.

Assessment objectives

An assessor decides each of these separately. The requirement is met only when every objective is.

  1. [a] nonsecurity functions are identified
  2. [b] users are required to use non-privileged accounts or roles when accessing nonsecurity functions

NIST SP 800-171A, determination statements for 3.1.6.

For assessors: examine, interview, test

NIST SP 800-171A names what an assessor may examine, whom they may interview, and what they may test for this requirement. Assessors select from these lists; they are not a checklist of everything you must produce.

Examine
  • Access control policy
  • procedures addressing least privilege
  • system security plan
  • list of security functions (deployed in hardware, software, and firmware) and security-relevant information for which non-privileged access is to be used
  • system design documentation
  • system configuration settings and associated documentation
  • system audit logs and records
  • other relevant documents or records
Interview
  • Personnel with responsibilities for defining least privileges necessary to accomplish specified tasks
  • personnel with information security responsibilities
  • system or network administrators
Test
  • Mechanisms implementing least privilege functions

NIST SP 800-171A, potential assessment methods and objects for 3.1.6.

Evidence

No evidence examples are published for this requirement yet. The objectives above are what an assessor checks; evidence is whatever shows each one is true in your environment, dated and kept with your system security plan.

Scoring weight

Worth 1 point. Not meeting this requirement subtracts 1 from your 110-point SPRS score.

DoD NIST SP 800-171 Assessment Methodology v1.2.1 weighting, as carried in the Bedrock scoring table. The score starts at 110 and subtracts the weight of every requirement not met.

In Rev. 3

Rev. 2 is what your contract requires today. A standing DoD class deviation keeps Rev. 2 in force; NIST has published Rev. 3, but it is not adopted for contracts. In Rev. 3 this requirement is reworded: 03.01.06 Least Privilege – Privileged Accounts. It gains organization-defined parameters.

See the Rev. 2 and Rev. 3 wording word by word, or start with the status page.

Where this page's facts come from
Requirement text
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/004_reference_requirements.sql#Requirement.basicRequirement@rev2
Discussion
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/004_reference_requirements.sql#Requirement.discussion@rev2
Practice name
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/004_reference_requirements.sql#Requirement.title@rev2 (CMMC Assessment Guide practice name)
Objectives
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/005_reference_objectives.sql#AssessmentObjective.description@rev2
Examine, interview, test
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/005_reference_objectives.sql#AssessmentObjective.description@rev2 ({examineGuidance, interviewGuidance, testGuidance})
Level
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/021_fix_level1_requirements.sql#Requirement.cmmcLevel@rev2
Weight
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:internal/cmmc/requirement_values.go#requirementValues (DoD AM v1.2.1 / eMASS L2 template v3.8)
Rev. 3 mapping
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:docs/reference/nist-800-171-rev3/normalized/r2_r3_transition_map.json#r2_to_r3
Plain-language title and summary
editorial/CMMC Navigator.dc.html#RAW (Foxx Cyber editorial)