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NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 · CM-8

System Component Inventory

US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) · cited in 173 of our lessons

Explanation

What it asks for. The organisation must develop and maintain an inventory of system components that is accurate, complete, at the right level of detail for tracking and reporting, and reviewed and updated at a defined frequency.

In practice. Doing this well means combining automated discovery from network scans, endpoint agents, cloud APIs and identity systems into one inventory with owners and criticality assigned. Auditors expect the inventory itself, evidence of how it is kept current and reconciliation between sources. This is the foundation of CIS Controls 1 and 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 asset inventory.

Common gaps. Inventories are often spreadsheets updated once a year, missing cloud, SaaS and shadow IT. Without owners and criticality, the inventory cannot support patching or incident response.

Open SP 800-53 at NIST
The official text
a. Develop and document an inventory of system components that: 1. Accurately reflects the system; 2. Includes all components within the system; 3. Does not include duplicate accounting of components or components assigned to any other system; 4. Is at the level of granularity deemed necessary for tracking and reporting; and 5. Includes the following information to achieve system component accountability: [Assignment: organization-defined information] ; and b. Review and update the system component inventory [Assignment: organization-defined frequency]. Discussion: System components are discrete, identifiable information technology assets that include hardware, software, and firmware. Organizations may choose to implement centralized system component inventories that include components from all organizational systems. In such situations, organizations ensure that the inventories include system-specific information required for component accountability. The information necessary for effective accountability of system components includes the system name, software owners, software version numbers, hardware inventory specifications, software license information, and for networked components, the machine names and network addresses across all implemented protocols (e.g., IPv4, IPv6). Inventory specifications include date of receipt, cost, model, serial number, manufacturer, supplier information, component type, and physical location. Preventing duplicate accounting of system components addresses the lack of accountability that occurs when component ownership and system association is not known, especially in large or complex connected systems. Effective prevention of duplicate accounting of system components necessitates use of a unique identifier for each component. For software inventory, centrally managed software that is accessed via other systems is addressed as a component of the system on which it is installed and managed. Software installed on multiple organizational systems and managed at the system level is addressed for each individual system and may appear more than once in a centralized component inventory, necessitating a system association for each software instance in the centralized inventory to avoid duplicate accounting of components. Scanning systems implementing multiple network protocols (e.g., IPv4 and IPv6) can result in duplicate components being identified in different address spaces. The implementation of [CM-8(7)](#cm-8.7) can help to eliminate duplicate accounting of components.

From NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, a work of the US government in the public domain.

Lessons that cite it

Real incidents where this item mattered: the latest 12 of 173.