SC-17 Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

Control

a. Issue public key certificates under an [Assignment: organization-defined certificate policy] or obtain public key certificates from an approved service provider; and

b. Include only approved trust anchors in trust stores or certificate stores managed by the organization.

Discussion

Public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates are certificates with visibility external to organizational systems and certificates related to the internal operations of systems, such as application-specific time services. In cryptographic systems with a hierarchical structure, a trust anchor is an authoritative source (i.e., a certificate authority) for which trust is assumed and not derived. A root certificate for a PKI system is an example of a trust anchor. A trust store or certificate store maintains a list of trusted root certificates.

AU-10, IA-5, SC-12.

Enhancements

None.