Cyber-Ark and NIST 800-53: Enhancing Cybersecurity Standards

Summary:

Based on the text provided, it seems that there are several key points and concepts related to CyberArk's products and their role in ensuring secure authentication processes within organizations. Here’s a summary of these points: 1. **Identification and Authentication**: Users within the CyberArk system are uniquely identified with assigned permissions and functions. The solution supports multiple authentication methods for strong device identification and user authentication, including PKI, RADIUS, LDAP, RSA SecurID, Windows authentication, Oracle SSO, etc. 2. **Application Identity Manager (AIM)**: This part of the Privileged Identity Management Suite uses secure authentication parameters like path, hash/signature, OS user or machine address to manage device authentication through IP and ensure robust identification and authentication practices. 3. **Compliance and Standards**: CyberArk's products are FIPS 140-2 compliant for cryptographic modules, indicating they meet specific standards related to data encryption at rest. This compliance is crucial for organizations that handle sensitive information. 4. **Components of the Privileged Session Manager (PSM) Suite**: The text mentions several modules within PSM that focus on different aspects of security and management: - Feedback mechanisms in IA-6 Module. - Authentication processes, including identification and handling incidents in IA-7 Module. - Incident monitoring with log generation and notifications through IR-5 Module. - Maintenance of secure access to key systems via non-local tamper-proof vaults in MA-4 Module. - Vulnerability scanning support in RA-5 Module. - Lifecycle support, including documentation at acquisition (SA-5), security engineering principles (SA-8), and configuration management (SA-10). 5. **Privileged Single Sign-On**: This feature ensures secure connections with third-party vendors without exposing passwords directly. 6. **Security in External Environments**: CyberArk’s products are used in closely monitored environments for privileged access, ensuring high security standards and compliance. 7. **Continuous Monitoring and Updates**: The text highlights the importance of continuous monitoring for privileged users and the commitment to providing updates that maintain the integrity of information systems. 8. **Sensitive Information Management**: CyberArk’s Sensitive Information Management Suite ensures security during transit, protecting confidential files. 9. **Cyber-Ark's Industry Reputation**: The text underscores the rigorous testing undergone by CyberArk products and their industry recognition for robust security features and engineering practices. In conclusion, the text provides a comprehensive overview of how CyberArk’s solutions contribute to high assurance in secure authentication processes, compliance with standards, effective incident management, and protection of sensitive information within organizations.

Details:

This document is an assessment of Cyber-Ark's solutions by NIST, focusing on how their offerings comply with NIST SP 800-53 recommendations for security controls in federal information systems and organizations. The report outlines three main solution suites provided by Cyber-Ark: Privileged Identity Management (PIM) Suite, Privileged Session Management (PSM) Suite, and Sensitive Information Management (SIM) Suite. These solutions aim to implement necessary security controls that help achieve FISMA compliance through a preventative approach. The PIM Suite is designed to manage the entire lifecycle of privileged, shared, and application accounts across the datacenter, ensuring secure access control. The PSM Suite isolates, controls, and monitors privileged sessions on servers, databases, or virtual environments, integrating seamlessly with the PIM Suite for enhanced security. Lastly, the SIM Suite manages and protects sensitive information within the organization or when shared externally, safeguarding confidential data from potential threats. The document emphasizes that privileged users are prevalent in enterprises and highlight Cyber-Ark's role in providing comprehensive solutions to mitigate risks associated with these users, thereby supporting the overall goal of achieving FISMA compliance and protecting organizational assets through preventative security measures. This text is about different types of user accounts used in various networks, operating systems, databases, and software applications within an organization. These accounts can be categorized into four main classes: generic or shared administrative accounts, personal privileged accounts, application accounts, and emergency accounts. Each type has distinct features and purposes. Generic or shared accounts are super-user privileges that may be anonymously used by IT staff without proper accountability. Personal privileged accounts include powerful business user and IT personnel accounts with high privilege levels. Application accounts are for applications to access databases and other apps, holding broad access rights to business info. Emergency accounts are for urgent issues like fixing problems in business continuity or disaster recovery, requiring managerial approval for elevated privileges. The main NIST SP 800-53 Control Families addressed by Cyber-Ark include Access Control, which focuses on managing user and account creation/assignment, the importance of giving special attention to privileged accounts with access to sensitive info, and additional scrutiny for users needing admin privs on IS accs. Cyber-Ark's PIM suite is designed to manage privileged accounts effectively, ensuring compliance with NIST 800-53 standards from discovery and securing accounts through policy enforcement and auditing. Complementary to this, PSM enhances control over privileged sessions by defining who can initiate them, for how long, and enforcing least privilege principles without revealing credentials. The Access Control family includes controls like Access Enforcement, Information Flow, and encryption to manage sensitive information internally or with third parties securely. Cyber-Ark's SIM suite supports storing and sharing such data while adhering to strict access policies. Cyber-Ark exceeds baseline requirements in account management, access enforcements, separation of duties, concurrent session control, and privileged access restrictions by emphasizing the Least Privilege principal. The Audit and Accountability family ensures detailed audit trails for accountability purposes, requiring identity information be included in audit records to maintain transparency and traceability. Cyber-Ark solutions are designed to support stringent requirements for user identification and authentication by thoroughly documenting every event in the system, including access to stored information and use of privileged passwords. The logs are timestamped, cryptographically protected, and securely stored in a tamper-proof vault, linked to specific users. Alerts can be generated on specific occurrences and sent to external SIEM products like ArcSight for compliance with CEF standards. In the context of "IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)", Cyber-Ark ensures that systems uniquely identify and authenticate organizational users, including those with privileged or shared accounts. For effective password management, they adhere to "IA-5 Authenticator Management" which includes requirements for password strength, lifetime, renewal, protection, and revocation across all account types as specified in AC-2. Cyber-Ark's PIM (Privileged Identity Management) suite automatically identifies the existence of various accounts—from individual to temporary—across servers or virtual environments, ensuring their management throughout their lifecycle. This is particularly crucial for addressing the challenge of hardcoded, clear-text passwords that are often problematic due to increased vulnerability and accountability issues. This text outlines a solution from Cyber-Ark designed to enhance security in applications by eliminating hard-coded passwords and replacing them with enhanced secure authentication methods. The Cyber-Ark's Application Identity Manager, part of the Privileged Identity Management (PIM) suite, provides this service without causing system downtime. It achieves this through a secure cache mechanism that can be used even during network outages. The solution is intended to address security recommendations from NIST SP 800-53 by providing an integrated and full lifecycle management of privileged identities and passwords within applications and scripts. The core technology, the Patented Digital Vault®, ensures high security standards through capabilities like authentication, encryption, tamper-proof audit, and data protection. The Cyber-Ark PIM Suite includes: 1. Enterprise Password Vault® - A tool that enforces enterprise policies to protect critical systems by managing the lifecycle of shared and privileged accounts across different data centers. 2. Application Identity Manager™ - Specifically designed to securely manage applications without using unencrypted static authenticators, ensuring compliance with stringent security standards. Cyber-Ark's Application Identity Manager (AIM) is designed to tackle issues with hard-coded app-to-app credentials and encryption keys by eliminating their storage in applications, scripts, or configuration files. AIM securely stores these sensitive credentials within a patented Digital Vault for centralized management, auditing, and control. On-Demand Privileges Manager (OPM) is Cyber-Ark's first unified solution that manages and monitors superusers and privileged accounts such as root users on UNIX systems. It provides granular access controls to record both command usage and output, enhancing security in Windows environments by enforcing a 'least privilege' policy. Cyber-Ark's Privileged Session Management (PSM) Suite serves as a central control point for managing risks associated with privileged accounts and activities. It allows isolation, control, and monitoring of all privileged sessions whether on servers, databases, or virtual machines. Together, the Privileged Identity Management Suite and PSM Suite offer a holistic approach to safeguarding sensitive information and preventing unauthorized access. The Sensitive Information Management (SIM) Suite includes two components: 1. Sensitive Document Vault provides secure central storage with granular access control, segregation of duties, and extensive monitoring capabilities for storing and sharing files within an organization. 2. Governed File Transfer (GFT) Suite ensures encrypted transmission of sensitive files to third parties, supporting various transfer methods including ad-hoc or automated processes on the same Digital Vault platform for centralized management and control. Cyber-Ark's patented Digital Vault technology is designed to provide highly secure environments for file storage and transfer by employing advanced encryption methods like SSL/SSH protocols that protect files both at rest and in transit. This technology includes multiple security layers such as encryption, authentication, access control, and strict auditing. The underlying infrastructure of the PIM, PSM, and SIM suites is built around this Digital Vault to provide an enterprise-level solution for safeguarding sensitive information or privileged credentials from unauthorized access. The patented "Vault Protocol" used in Cyber-Ark's technology incorporates proven cryptographic algorithms and primitives that comply with NIST SP 800-53 recommendations, helping to implement the controls outlined in this standard for different security baselines (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH). The solution supports several key access control features: 1. **Account Management** - Automatically discovers privileged accounts on servers and virtual environments, ensuring that only necessary privileged access is granted based on predefined policies. 2. **Access Enforcement** - Implements strict controls to enforce separation of duties and least privilege principles through automated workflows like dual approval for password usage, email notifications, and integration with a ticketing system for validation. 3. **Unsuccessful Login Attempts Notification** - Monitors and notifies about any unsuccessful login attempts, providing an additional layer of security by alerting users to potential account compromises. 4. **System Use Notification** - Extends these controls through the PSM Suite, allowing organizations to have more comprehensive monitoring and management of system usage, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and regulatory standards such as NIST SP 800-53. In summary, Cyber-Ark's Digital Vault technology serves as a robust security framework that supports various access control mechanisms, enabling efficient implementation of stringent security measures in line with industry standards like NIST SP 800-53, thereby protecting sensitive information and privileged credentials from unauthorized use and potential breaches. The document outlines various security controls and features of Cyber-Ark, a cybersecurity company providing infrastructure protection solutions. Key points include: 1. **Concurrent Session Control (AC-10)**: This control ensures that only authorized users can initiate sessions on servers, databases, or virtual environments. It includes provisions for session lock after a set period without activity and dual control for session initiation to prevent unauthorized access. 2. **Security Attributes (AC-16)** and **Remote Access (AC-17)**: These controls focus on maintaining security by not divulging privileged credentials during single sign-on sessions with third parties, and ensuring that servers, databases, and virtual environments are continuously monitored for forensic analysis and rapid remediation. 3. **Separation of Duties**: Cyber-Ark's infrastructure inherently enforces separation of duties through its design, exposing users only to the information relevant to their roles without granting access to irrelevant data. Safes within Vault are accessed based on user permissions, ensuring privacy and security. 4. **Sensitive Information Management Suite (AC-20)**: This suite enables organizations to create and share content securely using file categories with attached security attributes. It also includes a Scan Engine for virus scanning and all Vault activities are logged in tamper-proof format for audit purposes. 5. **Audit and Accountability (AU-3, AU-4)**: Cyber-Ark offers extensive audit records including timestamps, user identifiers, event descriptions, success/fail indicators, and supports any storage size or retention period as set by the organization. This is crucial for maintaining accountability and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Overall, these features help in enhancing security posture of organizations by enforcing robust access controls, continuous monitoring, audit trails, and secure information sharing capabilities. The provided text is a summary of various aspects related to the Cyber-Ark Application Identity Management (AIM) solution and its role in configuration management, access restrictions for changes, audit processing, and time stamp protection. Here's an overview based on the information given: 1. **Audit and Reporting:**

• **AU-5** focuses on handling Processing Failures and supporting schemas like Syslog and XSL. It involves Audit Monitoring, integration with SIEM and event log systems, analysis, alerting via Notification Engine, reporting filtered by various parameters, and audit reduction. All logs are synchronized to Vault clock using NTP.

• **AU-7** allows report generation if needed, providing detailed audit records that can be time-stamped and protected in the Digital Vault for accountability.

• **AU-8** ensures all audit information is properly time-stamped and synchronized, enhancing protection through a Digital Vault.

• **AU-10** includes session recording for forensic analysis to support non-repudiation.

2. **Security Assessments and Authorization:**

• The AIM Provider and SDK are used by Cyber-Ark's Application Identity Management solution to securely manage connections across various information systems, eliminating the need to store sensitive passwords in applications, scripts, or configuration files. These passwords are now centrally stored, logged, and managed within a Digital Vault.

3. **Configuration Management:**

• **CM-2** involves supporting baseline configuration and enforcing access restrictions for changes based on organizational policy through Cyber-Ark's PIM (Privileged Identity Management) solution. Key features include dual control mechanisms and confirmation of access via web browser or smartphone.

In summary, Cyber-Ark helps by providing a comprehensive security framework that includes robust audit processes, secure management of connection details, strict access restrictions, and centralized storage for sensitive information to comply with regulatory requirements and enhance overall security posture. CyberArk helps in controlling what privileged and elevated commands a user can run based on the 'least privilege' principle. It provides a Privileged Session Management Suite that monitors and records privileged sessions on servers, databases, or virtual environments, with session approval workflows for review and analysis. The suite also offers DVR playback of recordings for further analysis. CyberArk products offer high availability and full disaster recovery capabilities, ensuring that privileged credentials are always accessible even during network outages through password versioning and reconciliation capabilities. For Sensitive Information Management Suite, sensitive information is never lost, always protected, and transmissions are automatically resumed thanks to the Vault's ability to be rebuilt based on guidelines. This ensures continuity in case of any disruption. In terms of Identification and Authentication (IA), every user is uniquely identified within the CyberArk system with assigned permissions and functions. The solution supports a variety of authentication methods including PKI, RADIUS, LDAP, RSA SecurID, Windows authentication, Oracle SSO, and more, to ensure secure device identification and authentication. The Application Identity Manager (AIM) solution, part of the Privileged Identity Management Suite, uses unique secure authentication parameters like path, hash/signature, OS user or machine address for robust management and security. This helps in managing device authentication through IP authentication and ensures strong user identification and authentication practices within the organization's infrastructure. This document primarily discusses the features and capabilities of Cyber-Ark's products, particularly in terms of their security measures and compliance with standards. It highlights that Cyber-Ark's products are FIPS 140-2 compliant for cryptographic modules, which means they meet specific security requirements related to the encryption of data at rest. The document also details several components within Cyber-Ark's suite of products known as PSM (Privileged Session Manager), such as: 1. **IA-6 - Feedback**: This module is about providing feedback mechanisms, presumably for users to report issues or provide input regarding the software and its performance. 2. **IA-7 Module - Authentication**: Focuses on authentication processes including identification of organizational users and non-organizational users, as well as handling incidents related to these authentications. 3. **IR-5 Incident Monitoring**: Cyber-Ark provides necessary logs and notifications for effective incident monitoring and reporting, using its Notification Engine to send alerts and integrate with SIEM systems (Security Information and Event Management) for better security management. 4. **MA-4 Maintenance**: This involves securing access to key systems through a non-local tamper-proof vault, ensuring that privileged sessions are recorded and stored 24/7 for surveillance of sensitive operations. 5. **RA-5 Vulnerability Scanning**: The PIM Suite supports vulnerability scanning by integrating with external scanners and providing required passwords dynamically, minimizing the risk of password exposure to the organization's infrastructure. 6. **SA-3 Life Cycle Support and SA-4 Acquisitions of the solution suites**: This part outlines how Cyber-Ark supports its customers throughout the life cycle of their IT solutions, including documentation at acquisition (SA-5), security engineering principles (SA-8), and configuration management (SA-10). Furthermore, it mentions that Cyber-Ark's products are not only used internally but also externally in closely monitored environments for privileged access. The Privileged Single Sign-On feature within PSM allows users to connect securely without directly exposing their passwords when third-party vendors need access. Lastly, the document underscores Cyber-Ark’s commitment to security by detailing that its products have undergone extensive testing and are highly acclaimed in the industry for their security features and engineering practices. Cyber-Ark provides a comprehensive security solution for large customers, ensuring high assurance with features such as configuration management, change tracking, testing security updates, and maintaining a 95% renewal rate. It addresses system and communications protection requirements through partitioning, isolation, boundary protection, trusted path establishment, cryptographic key management, use of cryptography, session authenticity, and more. Cyber-Ark's products are FIPS 140-2 compliant, ensuring secure transmission of information. It also supports virtualization techniques and can run on Virtual Machines (VMs), enhancing security through features like thin nodes, honeypots, and protection of information at rest. Overall, Cyber-Ark helps in maintaining the integrity of the information system by monitoring internal components and checking for potential breaches. The provided text discusses various security functions and controls related to information assurance within systems. It highlights the importance of encryption, verification, error handling, and retention policies for data integrity. The passage also emphasizes the significance of managing privileged accounts to combat insider threats and mentions NIST's improvements in SP 800-53 after its third revision, where the word "privileged" appears frequently due to increased focus on this area. Additionally, it introduces Cyber-Ark’s Privileged Identity and Session Management Suites as a solution that meets all requirements mentioned in the document and provides continuous monitoring for privileged users, while their Sensitive Information Management Suite ensures security of confidential files during transit. To summarize the given text, it seems to be referring to a situation where something (possibly an idea or concept) is at rest between different organizations. The exact meaning might vary depending on context and additional information not provided here. If you have more details or context regarding this topic, please provide them for a clearer understanding.

Disclaimer:

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