CP-4(4)_full-recovery-and-reconstitution

CP-4(4) Full Recovery and Reconstitution

Enhancement of: CP-4

High-Level Description

Family: Contingency Planning (CP) Framework: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5

Recovery is executing contingency plan activities to restore organizational mission and business functions. Reconstitution takes place following recovery and includes activities for returning systems to fully operational states. Organizations establish a known state for systems that includes system state information for hardware, software programs, and data. Preserving system state information facilitates system restart and return to the operational mode of organizations with less disruption of mission and business processes.

What to Check

• Verify CP-4(4) Full Recovery and Reconstitution is documented in SSP
• Confirm control is operating effectively
• Review evidence of continuous monitoring for CP-4(4)
• Verify enhancement builds upon base control CP-4

How to Test

Step 1: Review Documentation

Examine the System Security Plan (SSP) and related artifacts for CP-4(4) implementation details. Verify the organization has documented how this control is satisfied.

Step 2: Validate Implementation

# For cloud environments, use cloud-audit-mcp tools
# For on-premises, review system configurations directly

# Example: Check if account management policies exist
grep -r "account.management\|access.control" /etc/security/ 2>/dev/null

Step 3: Test Operating Effectiveness

Verify the control is actively functioning, not just documented. Check logs, configurations, and operational evidence.

Tools

Remediation Guide

Control Statement

Include a full recovery and reconstitution of the system to a known state as part of contingency plan testing.

Implementation Guidance

Recovery is executing contingency plan activities to restore organizational mission and business functions. Reconstitution takes place following recovery and includes activities for returning systems to fully operational states. Organizations establish a known state for systems that includes system state information for hardware, software programs, and data. Preserving system state information facilitates system restart and return to the operational mode of organizations with less disruption of mission and business processes.

Risk Assessment

CWE Categories

References

• NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 - CP-4(4)
• NIST SP 800-53A Rev 5 (Assessment Procedures)
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 Full Catalog

Checklist

• Control documented in SSP
• Implementation evidence collected
• Operating effectiveness validated
• Continuous monitoring in place
• Related controls (CP-10, SC-24) reviewed