NIST · Shared reference library

NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 Common Control Library

Browse 1,193 controls and enhancements across 20 security and privacy families. Use the GovRAMP crosswalk to locate controls referenced by Security Snapshot, Core, and Moderate.

A shared catalog supports common-control planning; designation as a common, hybrid, or system-specific control depends on your organization’s implementation and inheritance decisions.

Sources and crosswalk scope

NIST OSCAL content 5.1.1+u4, retrieved 2026-09-18. GovRAMP Snapshot v1.4 and Core selection from Moderate v1.06 reference the December 2020 Rev. 5 text. Mappings establish exact identifier correspondence, not identical requirements, inherited implementation, or GovRAMP authorization. GovRAMP parameters and additional requirements remain authoritative for each program. Full Moderate, High, and other programs are not mapped here. Withdrawn controls are retained for reference.

Official pinned NIST source

SHA-256: 81cf2de45ede9aef3de7ce09d65ea9d32f662c483bbf916f6e346292b22f7763

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4 matching controls · Page 1 of 1

Risk Assessment · Base control

RA-2 · Security Categorization

Control statement and discussion

NIST control statement

a. Categorize the system and information it processes, stores, and transmits; b. Document the security categorization results, including supporting rationale, in the security plan for the system; and c. Verify that the authorizing official or authorizing official designated representative reviews and approves the security categorization decision.

Discussion

Security categories describe the potential adverse impacts or negative consequences to organizational operations, organizational assets, and individuals if organizational information and systems are compromised through a loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Security categorization is also a type of asset loss characterization in systems security engineering processes that is carried out throughout the system development life cycle. Organizations can use privacy risk assessments or privacy impact assessments to better understand the potential adverse effects on individuals. [CNSSI 1253](#4e4fbc93-333d-45e6-a875-de36b878b6b9) provides additional guidance on categorization for national security systems. Organizations conduct the security categorization process as an organization-wide activity with the direct involvement of chief information officers, senior agency information security officers, senior agency officials for privacy, system owners, mission and business owners, and information owners or stewards. Organizations consider the potential adverse impacts to other organizations and, in accordance with [USA PATRIOT](#13f0c39d-eaf7-417a-baef-69a041878bb5) and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, potential national-level adverse impacts. Security categorization processes facilitate the development of inventories of information assets and, along with [CM-8](#cm-8) , mappings to specific system components where information is processed, stored, or transmitted. The security categorization process is revisited throughout the system development life cycle to ensure that the security categories remain accurate and relevant.

GovRAMP crosswalk

Risk Assessment · Enhancement

RA-2(1) · Impact-level Prioritization

View parent control
Control statement and discussion

NIST control statement

Conduct an impact-level prioritization of organizational systems to obtain additional granularity on system impact levels.

Discussion

Organizations apply the "high-water mark" concept to each system categorized in accordance with [FIPS 199](#628d22a1-6a11-4784-bc59-5cd9497b5445) , resulting in systems designated as low impact, moderate impact, or high impact. Organizations that desire additional granularity in the system impact designations for risk-based decision-making, can further partition the systems into sub-categories of the initial system categorization. For example, an impact-level prioritization on a moderate-impact system can produce three new sub-categories: low-moderate systems, moderate-moderate systems, and high-moderate systems. Impact-level prioritization and the resulting sub-categories of the system give organizations an opportunity to focus their investments related to security control selection and the tailoring of control baselines in responding to identified risks. Impact-level prioritization can also be used to determine those systems that may be of heightened interest or value to adversaries or represent a critical loss to the federal enterprise, sometimes described as high value assets. For such high value assets, organizations may be more focused on complexity, aggregation, and information exchanges. Systems with high value assets can be prioritized by partitioning high-impact systems into low-high systems, moderate-high systems, and high-high systems. Alternatively, organizations can apply the guidance in [CNSSI 1253](#4e4fbc93-333d-45e6-a875-de36b878b6b9) for security objective-related categorization.

GovRAMP crosswalk

Not selected in the imported Snapshot or Core sets. This does not establish exclusion from other GovRAMP baselines.

Risk Assessment · Base control

RA-9 · Criticality Analysis

Control statement and discussion

NIST control statement

Identify critical system components and functions by performing a criticality analysis for [Assignment: systems, system components, or system services] at [Assignment: decision points in the system development life cycle].

Discussion

Not all system components, functions, or services necessarily require significant protections. For example, criticality analysis is a key tenet of supply chain risk management and informs the prioritization of protection activities. The identification of critical system components and functions considers applicable laws, executive orders, regulations, directives, policies, standards, system functionality requirements, system and component interfaces, and system and component dependencies. Systems engineers conduct a functional decomposition of a system to identify mission-critical functions and components. The functional decomposition includes the identification of organizational missions supported by the system, decomposition into the specific functions to perform those missions, and traceability to the hardware, software, and firmware components that implement those functions, including when the functions are shared by many components within and external to the system. The operational environment of a system or a system component may impact the criticality, including the connections to and dependencies on cyber-physical systems, devices, system-of-systems, and outsourced IT services. System components that allow unmediated access to critical system components or functions are considered critical due to the inherent vulnerabilities that such components create. Component and function criticality are assessed in terms of the impact of a component or function failure on the organizational missions that are supported by the system that contains the components and functions. Criticality analysis is performed when an architecture or design is being developed, modified, or upgraded. If such analysis is performed early in the system development life cycle, organizations may be able to modify the system design to reduce the critical nature of these components and functions, such as by adding redundancy or alternate paths into the system design. Criticality analysis can also influence the protection measures required by development contractors. In addition to criticality analysis for systems, system components, and system services, criticality analysis of information is an important consideration. Such analysis is conducted as part of security categorization in [RA-2](#ra-2).

GovRAMP crosswalk

System and Information Integrity · Base control

SI-12 · Information Management and Retention

Control statement and discussion

NIST control statement

Manage and retain information within the system and information output from the system in accordance with applicable laws, executive orders, directives, regulations, policies, standards, guidelines and operational requirements.

Discussion

Information management and retention requirements cover the full life cycle of information, in some cases extending beyond system disposal. Information to be retained may also include policies, procedures, plans, reports, data output from control implementation, and other types of administrative information. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides federal policy and guidance on records retention and schedules. If organizations have a records management office, consider coordinating with records management personnel. Records produced from the output of implemented controls that may require management and retention include, but are not limited to: All XX-1, [AC-6(9)](#ac-6.9), [AT-4](#at-4), [AU-12](#au-12), [CA-2](#ca-2), [CA-3](#ca-3), [CA-5](#ca-5), [CA-6](#ca-6), [CA-7](#ca-7), [CA-8](#ca-8), [CA-9](#ca-9), [CM-2](#cm-2), [CM-3](#cm-3), [CM-4](#cm-4), [CM-6](#cm-6), [CM-8](#cm-8), [CM-9](#cm-9), [CM-12](#cm-12), [CM-13](#cm-13), [CP-2](#cp-2), [IR-6](#ir-6), [IR-8](#ir-8), [MA-2](#ma-2), [MA-4](#ma-4), [PE-2](#pe-2), [PE-8](#pe-8), [PE-16](#pe-16), [PE-17](#pe-17), [PL-2](#pl-2), [PL-4](#pl-4), [PL-7](#pl-7), [PL-8](#pl-8), [PM-5](#pm-5), [PM-8](#pm-8), [PM-9](#pm-9), [PM-18](#pm-18), [PM-21](#pm-21), [PM-27](#pm-27), [PM-28](#pm-28), [PM-30](#pm-30), [PM-31](#pm-31), [PS-2](#ps-2), [PS-6](#ps-6), [PS-7](#ps-7), [PT-2](#pt-2), [PT-3](#pt-3), [PT-7](#pt-7), [RA-2](#ra-2), [RA-3](#ra-3), [RA-5](#ra-5), [RA-8](#ra-8), [SA-4](#sa-4), [SA-5](#sa-5), [SA-8](#sa-8), [SA-10](#sa-10), [SI-4](#si-4), [SR-2](#sr-2), [SR-4](#sr-4), [SR-8](#sr-8).

GovRAMP crosswalk