SC-24_fail-in-known-state

SC-24 Fail in Known State

High-Level Description

Family: System and Communications Protection (SC) Framework: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5

Failure in a known state addresses security concerns in accordance with the mission and business needs of organizations. Failure in a known state prevents the loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information in the event of failures of organizational systems or system components. Failure in a known safe state helps to prevent systems from failing to a state that may cause injury to individuals or destruction to property. Preserving system state information facilitates system restart and return to the operational mode with less disruption of mission and business processes.

What to Check

• Verify SC-24 Fail in Known State is documented in SSP
• Confirm control is operating effectively
• Review evidence of continuous monitoring for SC-24

How to Test

Step 1: Review Documentation

Examine the System Security Plan (SSP) and related artifacts for SC-24 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

Fail to a [organization-defined] for the following failures on the indicated components while preserving [organization-defined] in failure: [organization-defined].

Implementation Guidance

Failure in a known state addresses security concerns in accordance with the mission and business needs of organizations. Failure in a known state prevents the loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information in the event of failures of organizational systems or system components. Failure in a known safe state helps to prevent systems from failing to a state that may cause injury to individuals or destruction to property. Preserving system state information facilitates system restart and return to the operational mode with less disruption of mission and business processes.

Risk Assessment

CWE Categories

References

• NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 - SC-24
• 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-2, CP-4, CP-10, CP-12, SA-8) reviewed