Service Identification and Authentication
LOW MODERATE HIGHRequirements NIST SOURCE
Uniquely identify and authenticate [system services and applications] before establishing communications with devices, users, or other services or applications.
Discussion (NIST Supplemental Guidance)
Services that may require identification and authentication include web applications using digital certificates or services or applications that query a database. Identification and authentication methods for system services and applications include information or code signing, provenance graphs, and electronic signatures that indicate the sources of services. Decisions regarding the validity of identification and authentication claims can be made by services separate from the services acting on those decisions. This can occur in distributed system architectures. In such situations, the identification and authentication decisions (instead of actual identifiers and authentication data) are provided to the services that need to act on those decisions.
Implementation Guidance
Original engineering commentary written for this explorer — not NIST source text and not authoritative guidance.
No engineering interpretation has been authored for IA-9 yet. This section is architected to receive it — see the Requirements and Assessment sections above for the authoritative NIST source content in the meantime.
Assessment
Assessment Objectives
- system services and applications to be uniquely identified and authenticated are defined;
- <IA-09_ODP system services and applications> are uniquely identified and authenticated before establishing communications with devices, users, or other services or applications.
Examine
[SELECT FROM: Identification and authentication policy; procedures addressing service identification and authentication; system security plan; system design documentation; security safeguards used to identify and authenticate system services; system configuration settings and associated documentation; system audit records; other relevant documents or records].
Interview
[SELECT FROM: Organizational personnel with system operations responsibilities; organizational personnel with information security responsibilities; system/network administrators; system developers; organizational personnel with identification and authentication responsibilities].
Test
[SELECT FROM: Security safeguards implementing service identification and authentication capabilities].
STIGs & CCIs
No STIG checks or CCI mappings are currently loaded for IA-9. This section is architected to display, per product: STIG ID, Finding ID, Severity, Title, Description, Check, Fix, CCI, and NIST control mapping — but nothing is populated here until a real DISA STIG/CCI dataset is ingested.
Learn more about STIG/CCI integration →Evidence
Categorized from the SP 800-53A "Examine"/"Test" artifact list above by keyword — not an authoritative NIST evidence list.
Policy
- Identification and authentication policy
- system security plan
Configuration
- system design documentation
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
Testing
- Security safeguards implementing service identification and authentication capabilities
Other Records
- procedures addressing service identification and authentication
- security safeguards used to identify and authenticate system services
- system audit records
- other relevant documents or records