NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CP-9 — System Backup

What this control requires

Establish restrictions on open-source software use to ensure secure source code access, vulnerability remediation, and licensing compliance using software asset management systems. This control supports the Backup Software capability within the Contingency Planning family.

In plain English

Establish restrictions on open-source software use to ensure secure source code access, vulnerability remediation, and licensing compliance using software asset management systems. In practice, this means you can prove you restrictions 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 Contingency Planning, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control CP-9) 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

• Restrictions. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Access. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Review. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• System. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Identity. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, system, source, identity, software, compliance, review, recovery.

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.
• Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Identity analytics (Okta, SailPoint, Access Analyzer) demonstrates least-privilege. Focus: System Backup.

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.

• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.4 — Access to source code
• CIS Controls v8 14.9 — Conduct Role-Specific Security Awareness and Skills Training
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.5.7 — Password Management

Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

• Control CM-10(1) — Open-Source Software
• Control MA-5(3) — Citizenship Requirements For Classified Systems
• Control CP-13 — Alternative Security Mechanisms
• Control CP-9(4) — Protection From Unauthorized Modification
• Control CP-9(7) — Dual Authorization For Deletion Or Destruction
• Control IA-4(5) — Dynamic Management

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5
• Catalogue identifier: Control CP-9

Topics: identity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged accessbackup recovery