NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7(2) — Prevent Program Execution

What this control requires

Enforce policies, rules, or access agreements to restrict software execution, prohibit auto-execute features, limit authorized roles for approving program execution, allow or ban specific software, and restrict simultaneous program instances while ensuring compliance with software licensing and copyright terms to minimize security risks. This control supports the Application Whitelisting Software capability within the Configuration Management family.

In plain English

Enforce policies, rules, or access agreements to restrict software execution, prohibit auto-execute features, limit authorized roles for approving program execution, allow or ban specific software, and restrict simultaneous program instances while ensuring compliance with software licensing and copyright terms to minimize security risks. 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 high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

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 Configuration Management, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control CM-7(2)) 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.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Configuration. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Review. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, application, identity, configuration, software, program execution, compliance, review.

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: Prevent Program Execution.

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.

• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.4.2 — Configuration Settings
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.4 — Access to source code
• CIS Controls v8 6.1 — Establish an Access Granting Process

Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

• Control CM-11(2) — Software Installation With Privileged Status
• Control PM-1 — Information Security Program Plan
• Control CM-8(3) — Automated Unauthorized Component Detection
• Control CM-10(1) — Open-Source Software
• Control CM-3(6) — Cryptography Management
• Control CM-5(6) — Limit Library Privileges

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5
• Catalogue identifier: Control CM-7(2)

Topics: governance riskidentity accessapplication securityidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged access