Requirement text: AM.4.226: Employ a capability to discover and identify systems with specific
component attributes (e.g., firmware level, OS type) within your inventory.
DISCUSSION FROM SOURCE: CMMC
Organizations employ systems that can assess assets connected to the network in real time,
or can create an inventory identifying system-specific information required for component
accountability and to provide support to identify, control, monitor, and verify configuration
items in accordance with the authoritative source. For user computing systems this should
include: firmware level, OS type, drive type, network and wireless card vendors, monitor
card type and vendor, and software applications installed on that system.
CMMC CLARIFICATION
One purpose an organization might have in determining the component attributes is to
identify and locate specific systems in the event a vulnerability is discovered in the hardware
or software installed so patches can be rapidly deployed to these systems or have the
systems isolated from the network. For small organizations or small enclaves, this might be
achieved with manual processes. Automation is expected as scale increases in order to
achieve results in an operational meaningful timeframe.
Example 1
You are an IT administrator for your organization. You learn from the vendor about a
privilege escalation vulnerability in version 9.3.201 of an application when running on
macOS 10.14. Since you have this version of the application installed at your organization,
you download the patch the vendor has released to correct this vulnerability. You run a
report to identify all the macOS 10.14 systems with this version the software application
installed. You schedule a job to install the patch the next time each of the systems on the
report connects to the network.
Example 2
You are on the cyber hunt team and find out there is a technique in the wild that adversaries
are using against an IoT sensor that your organization has deployed. You check your system
to identify how many of these sensors are currently connected to the network and their IP
Addresses. You provide this information to the cyber operations team for increased
monitoring until the vendor releases a patch.
References
• CMMC modification of Draft NIST SP 800-171B 3.4.3e
• CIS Controls v7.1 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
• NIST CSF v1.1 ID.AM-1, ID.AM-2
• CERT RMM v1.2 ADM:SG1.SP1
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev 4 CM-8