| Since the accounts in the IDPS are privileged or system level accounts, account management is vital to the security of the IDPS. Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, they often attempt to create a persistent method of re-establishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to simply create a new account. Notification of account creation is one method and best practice for mitigating this risk. Auditing account creation provides the necessary reconciliation that account management procedures are being followed. Without this audit trail, personnel without the proper security clearance may gain access to critical network nodes.
This requirement is applicable for accounts created or maintained using the IDPS application itself rather than the underlying OS or an authentication server. Accounts created and maintained on AAA devices (e.g., RADIUS, LDAP, or Active Directory) are secured using the applicable security guide or STIG.
To support this auditing requirement, the IDPS account and audit management functions must be configured to transmit these types of events to the site's central audit server (e.g., SYSLOG server), as required by CCI-000136. |
