SC-17 SC · System and Communications Protection

Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

LOW ✓ MODERATE ✓ HIGH
1 Overlay 3 Related Controls
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Requirements NIST SOURCE

Discussion (NIST Supplemental Guidance)

Public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates are certificates with visibility external to organizational systems and certificates related to the internal operations of systems, such as application-specific time services. In cryptographic systems with a hierarchical structure, a trust anchor is an authoritative source (i.e., a certificate authority) for which trust is assumed and not derived. A root certificate for a PKI system is an example of a trust anchor. A trust store or certificate store maintains a list of trusted root certificates.

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 SC-17 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. a certificate policy for issuing public key certificates is defined;
  2. public key certificates are issued under <SC-17_ODP certificate policy> , or public key certificates are obtained from an approved service provider;
  3. only approved trust anchors are included in trust stores or certificate stores managed by the organization.

Examine

[SELECT FROM: System and communications protection policy; procedures addressing public key infrastructure certificates; public key certificate policy or policies; public key issuing process; system security plan; other relevant documents or records].

Interview

[SELECT FROM: System/network administrators; organizational personnel with information security responsibilities; organizational personnel with responsibilities for issuing public key certificates; service providers].

Test

[SELECT FROM: Mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the management of public key infrastructure certificates].

Overlays

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

Not applicable at this tier.

MODERATE

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)

HIGH

  • Base control: Included (matches standard baseline)

STIGs & CCIs

No STIG checks or CCI mappings are currently loaded for SC-17. 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

  • System and communications protection policy
  • public key certificate policy or policies
  • system security plan

Testing

  • Mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the management of public key infrastructure certificates

Other Records

  • procedures addressing public key infrastructure certificates
  • public key issuing process
  • other relevant documents or records