Skip to main content

IAC-13.2: Federated Credential Management

IAC 4 — Medium Protect

Mechanisms exist to federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices.

Control Question: Does the organization federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices?

General (6)
Framework Mapping Values
CIS CSC 8.1 6.7
NIST 800-53 R5 (source) IA-5(9)
NIST 800-53 R5 (NOC) (source) IA-5(9)
NIST 800-161 R1 IA-5(9)
NIST 800-161 R1 Level 3 IA-5(9)
NIST 800-207 NIST Tenet 4
US (2)
Framework Mapping Values
US DoD Zero Trust Execution Roadmap 1.5 1.5.1 2.1.3 2.1.4
US DHS ZTCF APP-02

Capability Maturity Model

Level 0 — Not Performed

There is no evidence of a capability to federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices.

Level 1 — Performed Informally

C|P-CMM1 is N/A, since a structured process is required to federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices.

Level 2 — Planned & Tracked

C|P-CMM2 is N/A, since a well-defined process is required to federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices.

Level 3 — Well Defined

Identification & Authentication (IAC) efforts are standardized across the organization and centrally managed, where technically feasible, to ensure consistency. CMM Level 3 control maturity would reasonably expect all, or at least most, the following criteria to exist:

  • An Identity & Access Management (IAM) function, or similar function, centrally manages permissions and implements “least privileges” Role Based Access Control (RBAC) practices for the management of user, group and system accounts, including privileged accounts.
  • The Human Resources (HR) department governs personnel management operations and notifies IAM personnel of personnel role changes for RBAC-based provisioning and deprovisioning actions.
  • An IT Asset Management (ITAM) function, or similar function, categorizes endpoint devices according to the data the asset stores, transmits and/ or processes and applies the appropriate technology controls to protect the asset and data that conform to industry-recognized standards for hardening (e.g., DISA STIGs, CIS Benchmarks or OEM security guides).
  • An IT infrastructure team, or similar function, ensures that statutory, regulatory and contractual cybersecurity and data privacy obligations are addressed to ensure secure configurations are designed, built and maintained.
  • Active Directory (AD), or a similar technology, is used to centrally manage identities and permissions. Only by exception due to a technical or business limitation are solutions authorized to operate a decentralized access control program for systems, applications and services.
Level 4 — Quantitatively Controlled

See C|P-CMM3. There are no defined C|P-CMM4 criteria, since it is reasonable to assume a quantitatively-controlled process is not necessary to federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices.

Level 5 — Continuously Improving

See C|P-CMM4. There are no defined C|P-CMM5 criteria, since it is reasonable to assume a continuously-improving process is not necessary to federate credentials to allow cross-organization authentication of individuals and devices.

Assessment Objectives

  1. IAC-13.2_A01 external organizations to be used for federating credentials are defined.
  2. IAC-13.2_A02 external organizations are used to federate credentials.

Technology Recommendations

Micro/Small

  • Microsoft Active Directory (https://microsoft.com)
  • Microsoft Entra (https://microsoft.com)
  • AWS IAM (https://aws.amazon.com)

Small

  • Microsoft Active Directory (https://microsoft.com)
  • Microsoft Entra (https://microsoft.com)
  • AWS IAM (https://aws.amazon.com)

Medium

  • Microsoft Active Directory (https://microsoft.com)
  • Microsoft Entra (https://microsoft.com)
  • AWS IAM (https://aws.amazon.com)

Large

  • Microsoft Active Directory (https://microsoft.com)
  • Microsoft Entra (https://microsoft.com)
  • AWS IAM (https://aws.amazon.com)

Enterprise

  • Microsoft Active Directory (https://microsoft.com)
  • Microsoft Entra (https://microsoft.com)
  • AWS IAM (https://aws.amazon.com)

The Secure Controls Framework (SCF) is maintained by SCF Council. Use of SCF content is subject to the SCF Terms & Conditions.

Manage this control in SCF Connect

Track implementation status, collect evidence, and map controls to your compliance frameworks automatically.