SC-17—Public Key Infrastructure Certificates
>Control Description
Issue public key certificates under an ⚙organization-defined certificate policy or obtain public key certificates from an approved service provider; and
Include only approved trust anchors in trust stores or certificate stores managed by the organization.
>DoD Impact Level Requirements
DoD FedRAMP+ Parameters
DODI 8520.02, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Public Key Enabling (PKE).
>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.
>Programmatic Queries
Related Services
CLI Commands
aws acm list-certificates --query 'CertificateSummaryList[*].{Domain:DomainName,Status:Status,Type:Type}'aws acm describe-certificate --certificate-arn ARN --query 'Certificate.{Domain:DomainName,NotAfter:NotAfter,Status:Status}'aws acm-pca list-certificate-authorities --query 'CertificateAuthorities[*].{Arn:Arn,Status:Status,Type:Type}'aws iam list-server-certificates --query 'ServerCertificateMetadataList[*].{Name:ServerCertificateName,Expiration:Expiration}'>Related Controls
>Assessment Interview Topics
Questions assessors commonly ask
Process & Governance:
- •What policies govern the implementation of public key infrastructure certificates?
- •How are system and communications protection requirements defined and maintained?
- •Who is responsible for configuring and maintaining the security controls specified in SC-17?
- •What is your cryptographic key management policy?
Technical Implementation:
- •How is public key infrastructure certificates technically implemented in your environment?
- •What systems, tools, or configurations enforce this protection requirement?
- •How do you ensure that public key infrastructure certificates remains effective as the system evolves?
- •What encryption mechanisms and algorithms are used to protect data?
Evidence & Documentation:
- •What documentation demonstrates the implementation of SC-17?
- •Can you provide configuration evidence or system diagrams showing this protection control?
- •What logs or monitoring data verify that this control is functioning correctly?
- •Can you demonstrate that FIPS 140-2 validated cryptography is used?
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