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IR-4(12) IR · Incident Response

Malicious Code and Forensic Analysis

LOW MODERATE HIGH
1 Overlay 0 Related Controls
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Requirements NIST SOURCE

Analyze malicious code and/or other residual artifacts remaining in the system after the incident.

Discussion (NIST Supplemental Guidance)

When conducted carefully in an isolated environment, analysis of malicious code and other residual artifacts of a security incident or breach can give the organization insight into adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures. It can also indicate the identity or some defining characteristics of the adversary. In addition, malicious code analysis can help the organization develop responses to future incidents.

Implementation Guidance

Engineering Interpretation

Original engineering commentary written for this explorer — not NIST source text and not authoritative guidance.

No engineering interpretation has been authored for IR-4(12) 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

NIST SP 800-53A REV 5.2.0

Assessment Objectives

  1. malicious code remaining in the system is analyzed after the incident;
  2. other residual artifacts remaining in the system (if any) are analyzed after the incident.

Examine

[SELECT FROM: Incident response policy; procedures addressing incident handling; procedures addressing code and forensic analysis; procedures addressing incident response; incident response plan; system design documentation; malicious code protection mechanisms, tools, and techniques; results from malicious code analyses; system security plan; system audit records; other relevant documents or records].

Interview

[SELECT FROM: System/network administrators; organizational personnel with information security responsibilities; organizational personnel installing, configuring, and/or maintaining the system; organizational personnel with responsibility for malicious code protection; organizational personnel responsible for incident response/management].

Test

[SELECT FROM: Organizational process for incident response; organizational processes for conducting forensic analysis; tools and techniques for analysis of malicious code characteristics and behavior].

Overlays

Showing the OT/ICS overlay for the parent control IR-4 — see the IR-4(12) entries within each baseline below.

OT/ICS Overlay SP 800-82r3

NIST SP 800-82r3 Appendix F, Table 22. Blank baseline means the control/control enhancement is not selected in that initial OT baseline.

LOW

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)

MODERATE

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)
  • Included: (1)

HIGH

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)
  • Included: (1) (4) (11)

STIGs & CCIs

No STIG checks or CCI mappings are currently loaded for IR-4(12). 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

Potential Evidence — Derived

Categorized from the SP 800-53A "Examine"/"Test" artifact list above by keyword — not an authoritative NIST evidence list.

Policy

  • Incident response policy
  • incident response plan
  • system security plan

Configuration

  • system design documentation

Testing

  • Organizational process for incident response
  • organizational processes for conducting forensic analysis
  • tools and techniques for analysis of malicious code characteristics and behavior

Other Records

  • procedures addressing incident handling
  • procedures addressing code and forensic analysis
  • procedures addressing incident response
  • malicious code protection mechanisms, tools, and techniques
  • results from malicious code analyses
  • system audit records
  • other relevant documents or records