Denial-of-service Protection
✓ LOW ✓ MODERATE ✓ HIGHRequirements NIST SOURCE
Requirement Context
This element is part of SC-5 — Denial-of-service Protection. See the Assessment section below for the related SP 800-53A examine/interview/test procedures. No engineering interpretation has been authored for this control yet.
Requirement Context
This element is part of SC-5 — Denial-of-service Protection. See the Assessment section below for the related SP 800-53A examine/interview/test procedures. No engineering interpretation has been authored for this control yet.
Discussion (NIST Supplemental Guidance)
Denial-of-service events may occur due to a variety of internal and external causes, such as an attack by an adversary or a lack of planning to support organizational needs with respect to capacity and bandwidth. Such attacks can occur across a wide range of network protocols (e.g., IPv4, IPv6). A variety of technologies are available to limit or eliminate the origination and effects of denial-of-service events. For example, boundary protection devices can filter certain types of packets to protect system components on internal networks from being directly affected by or the source of denial-of-service attacks. Employing increased network capacity and bandwidth combined with service redundancy also reduces the susceptibility to denial-of-service events.
Enhancements NIST SOURCE
SC-5(1) Restrict Ability to Attack Other Systems LOW MODERATE HIGH
Restrict the ability of individuals to launch the following denial-of-service attacks against other systems: [denial-of-service attacks].
Discussion
Restricting the ability of individuals to launch denial-of-service attacks requires the mechanisms commonly used for such attacks to be unavailable. Individuals of concern include hostile insiders or external adversaries who have breached or compromised the system and are using it to launch a denial-of-service attack. Organizations can restrict the ability of individuals to connect and transmit arbitrary information on the transport medium (i.e., wired networks, wireless networks, spoofed Internet protocol packets). Organizations can also limit the ability of individuals to use excessive system resources. Protection against individuals having the ability to launch denial-of-service attacks may be implemented on specific systems or boundary devices that prohibit egress to potential target systems.
SC-5(2) Capacity, Bandwidth, and Redundancy LOW MODERATE HIGH
Manage capacity, bandwidth, or other redundancy to limit the effects of information flooding denial-of-service attacks.
Discussion
Managing capacity ensures that sufficient capacity is available to counter flooding attacks. Managing capacity includes establishing selected usage priorities, quotas, partitioning, or load balancing.
SC-5(3) Detection and Monitoring LOW MODERATE HIGH
- (a) Employ the following monitoring tools to detect indicators of denial-of-service attacks against, or launched from, the system: [monitoring tools] ; and
- (b) Monitor the following system resources to determine if sufficient resources exist to prevent effective denial-of-service attacks: [system resources].
Discussion
Organizations consider the utilization and capacity of system resources when managing risk associated with a denial of service due to malicious attacks. Denial-of-service attacks can originate from external or internal sources. System resources that are sensitive to denial of service include physical disk storage, memory, and CPU cycles. Techniques used to prevent denial-of-service attacks related to storage utilization and capacity include instituting disk quotas, configuring systems to automatically alert administrators when specific storage capacity thresholds are reached, using file compression technologies to maximize available storage space, and imposing separate partitions for system and user data.
Implementation Guidance
Original engineering commentary written for this explorer — not NIST source text and not authoritative guidance.
No engineering interpretation has been authored for SC-5 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
- types of denial-of-service events to be protected against or limited are defined;
- one of the following PARAMETER VALUES is selected: {protect against; limit};
- controls to achieve the denial-of-service objective by type of denial-of-service event are defined;
- the effects of <SC-05_ODP[01] types of denial-of-service events> are <SC-05_ODP[02] SELECTED PARAMETER VALUE>;
- <SC-05_ODP[03] controls by type of denial-of-service event> are employed to achieve the denial-of-service protection objective.
Examine
[SELECT FROM: System and communications protection policy; procedures addressing denial-of-service protection; system design documentation; list of denial-of-service attacks requiring employment of security safeguards to protect against or limit effects of such attacks; list of security safeguards protecting against or limiting the effects of denial-of-service attacks; system configuration settings and associated documentation; system audit records; system security plan; other relevant documents or records].
Interview
[SELECT FROM: System/network administrators; organizational personnel with information security responsibilities; organizational personnel with incident response responsibilities; system developer].
Test
[SELECT FROM: Mechanisms protecting against or limiting the effects of denial-of-service attacks].
Overlays
STIGs & CCIs
No STIG checks or CCI mappings are currently loaded for SC-5. 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
- System and communications protection policy
- system security plan
Configuration
- system design documentation
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
Testing
- Mechanisms protecting against or limiting the effects of denial-of-service attacks
Other Records
- procedures addressing denial-of-service protection
- list of denial-of-service attacks requiring employment of security safeguards to protect against or limit effects of such attacks
- list of security safeguards protecting against or limiting the effects of denial-of-service attacks
- system audit records
- other relevant documents or records