NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3·Requirement 3.13.13·high·Component: Situational Awareness

What this control requires

This control requires defining acceptable mobile code and mobile code technologies, and implementing policies to authorize, monitor, and control their use. Mobile code includes software that is executed on a local system without explicit installation, and the control ensures that only trusted, safe mobile code is used to prevent potential harm to the system. This control supports the Mobile Code Management capability within the Situational Awareness (3.13) family.
— NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3, Requirement 3.13.13

In plain English

This control requires defining acceptable mobile code and mobile code technologies, and implementing policies to authorize, monitor, and control their use. In practice, this means you can prove you protection management-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

DoD contractors and their subcontractors must implement all 100 SP 800-171 requirements to keep CUI handling contracts. Gaps are scored against the SPRS scoring methodology; below a 110-point starting score, each unmet requirement deducts points and a below-threshold score can disqualify a bid.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

A C3PAO conducting a CMMC Level 2 assessment uses NIST SP 800-171A objectives. They expect a System Security Plan (SSP), Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) for any gaps, and objective evidence (configurations, ticket records, training records) for every requirement.

Within Situational Awareness, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Requirement 3.13.13) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Secure Development

Pipeline. Require code review, SAST (Semgrep / Snyk Code), SCA (Dependabot / Renovate), secret-scanning and IaC scanning in the merge pipeline.

Branch protection. Protected branches enforce reviews, signed commits and passing CI before merge; document the protection rules as the control evidence.

Code Review Testing

Pipeline. Require at least one human reviewer plus passing CI (lint, type, unit, security scan) before merge — protected branches enforce this.

Endpoint Protection

MDM. Make MDM enrollment a hard gate for device access (Intune compliance + Conditional Access, or Jamf + Okta device trust). Unmanaged devices simply don't get a session token.

EDR. Deploy CrowdStrike / SentinelOne / Defender for Endpoint to every server and laptop; alert on any host that stops sending telemetry for >24h.

Operational checklist

  • Protection. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • System. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Monitor. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Mobile. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: management, software, security, protection, code, development.

Evidence to collect

  • Code Repo Scan. Source-control evidence — branch protection, required reviewers, CI status, SCA / SAST reports.

Source control pipelines (GitHub, GitLab) enforce SDLC guardrails. Focus: Mobile Code.

Common pitfalls

  • CI security checks set to warn-only; the merge button is faster than the security feedback.
  • Pilot MDM rollouts that quietly exclude executives or engineers; carving out the highest-risk users is the most common audit failure.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

Related controls in NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3

References

Topics: application securitylogging monitoringsecure developmentcode review testingdevsecopsendpoint protection