3.13.2Design with security in mind

Architecture and development practices that promote security, written down.

The requirement, verbatim

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 · 3.13.2
Employ architectural designs, software development techniques, and systems engineering principles that promote effective information security within organizational systems.

Requirement 3.13.2, practice name in the CMMC assessment guide: Security Engineering.

NIST's discussion

Organizations apply systems security engineering principles to new development systems or systems undergoing major upgrades. For legacy systems, organizations apply systems security engineering principles to system upgrades and modifications to the extent feasible, given the current state of hardware, software, and firmware components within those systems. The application of systems security engineering concepts and principles helps to develop trustworthy, secure, and resilient systems and system components and reduce the susceptibility of organizations to disruptions, hazards, and threats. Examples of these concepts and principles include developing layered protections; establishing security policies, architecture, and controls as the foundation for design; incorporating security requirements into the system development life cycle; delineating physical and logical security boundaries; ensuring that developers are trained on how to build secure software; and performing threat modeling to identify use cases, threat agents, attack vectors and patterns, design patterns, and compensating controls needed to mitigate risk. Organizations that apply security engineering concepts and principles can facilitate the development of trustworthy, secure systems, system components, and system services; reduce risk to acceptable levels; and make informed risk-management decisions.

NIST SP 800-160-1 provides guidance on systems security engineering.

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, discussion under 3.13.2. Whitespace normalised; wording unchanged.

Assessment objectives

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

[a] architectural designs that promote effective information security are identified
[b] software development techniques that promote effective information security are identified
[c] systems engineering principles that promote effective information security are identified
[d] identified architectural designs that promote effective information security are employed
[e] identified software development techniques that promote effective information security are employed
[f] identified systems engineering principles that promote effective information security are employed

NIST SP 800-171A, determination statements for 3.13.2.

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

Security planning policy
procedures addressing system security plan development and implementation
procedures addressing system security plan reviews and updates
enterprise architecture documentation
system security plan
records of system security plan reviews and updates
system and communications protection policy
procedures addressing security engineering principles used in the specification, design, development, implementation, and modification of the system
security architecture documentation
security requirements and specifications for the system
system design documentation
system configuration settings and associated documentation
other relevant documents or records

Interview

Personnel with responsibility for determining information system security requirements
personnel with information system design, development, implementation, and modification responsibilities
personnel with security planning and system security plan implementation responsibilities
personnel with information security responsibilities

Test

Organizational processes for system security plan development, review, update, and approval
mechanisms supporting the system security plan
processes for applying security engineering principles in system specification, design, development, implementation, and modification
automated mechanisms supporting the application of security engineering principles in information system specification, design, development, implementation, and modification

NIST SP 800-171A, potential assessment methods and objects for 3.13.2.

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 5 points. Not meeting this requirement subtracts 5 from your 110-point SPRS score. These are the requirements with the largest effect on your posture.

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 withdrawn with no successor.

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)