NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 AC-3(11) — Restrict Access To Specific Information Types

What this control requires

Organizations must restrict access to data repositories containing specific information types as defined by the organization. This provides flexibility in access control by limiting access to only the relevant information within a system. Examples include using role-based access to allow access to only specific types of personally identifiable information, cryptographic keys, authentication information, or other sensitive system data. This control supports the Governance capability within the Access Control family.

In plain English

Organizations must restrict access to data repositories containing specific information types as defined by the organization. In practice, this means you can prove you access management-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

SP 800-53 is the catalogue every U.S. federal authorisation (FedRAMP, FISMA, CMMC) and most regulated industries point at. A missing control surfaces as a Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) item that an Authorizing Official must approve before the Authority To Operate is granted or renewed.

This control is rated critical in the source catalogue. Treat gaps here as production incidents in the risk register, not housekeeping.

What an auditor looks for

A 3PAO (FedRAMP) or Independent Assessor (NIST RMF) tests against NIST SP 800-53A assessment procedures. For each control they expect a documented implementation that addresses every assessment objective (Examine, Interview, Test) and an implementation summary in the System Security Plan.

Within Access Control, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control AC-3(11)) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

1. Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2. Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3. Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4. Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

Operational checklist

• Access. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Restrict. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Information. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Data. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Review. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, access control, information, cryptographic keys, authentication information, sensitive system data, organization, only.

Evidence to collect

• Identity Scan. IAM / IdP exports — Entra ID, Okta, IAM Identity Center, Workspace directory — showing accounts, roles, MFA state and last sign-in.

Identity analytics (Okta, SailPoint, Access Analyzer) demonstrates least-privilege. Focus: Restrict Access To Specific Information Types.

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.

• CIS Controls v8 6.7 — Centralize Access Control
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.1.16 — Wireless Access
• BSI C5:2020 IDM-08 — Confidentiality of authentication information
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.18 — Access rights

Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

• Control AC-10 — Concurrent Session Control
• Control AC-12(1) — User-Initiated Logouts
• Control AC-3(12) — Assert And Enforce Application Access
• Control AC-5 — Separation Of Duties
• Control AC-11 — Device Lock
• Control AC-21(2) — Information Search And Retrieval

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5
• Catalogue identifier: Control AC-3(11)

Topics: identity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged access