The NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has released the second preliminary drafts of volumes A and D of NIST SP 1800-36, Trusted Internet of Things (IoT) Device Network-Layer Onboarding and Lifecycle Management. The comment period is open through November 10, 2023.
About the Project
Provisioning network credentials to IoT devices in an untrusted manner leaves networks vulnerable to having unauthorized IoT devices connect to them. It also leaves IoT devices vulnerable to being taken over by unauthorized networks. Instead, trusted, scalable, and automatic mechanisms are needed to safely manage IoT devices throughout their lifecycles, beginning with secure ways to provision devices with their network credentials—a process known as trusted network-layer onboarding. Trusted network-layer onboarding, in combination with additional device security capabilities such as device attestation, application-layer onboarding, secure lifecycle management, and device intent enforcement could improve the security of networks and IoT devices.
This practice guide aims to demonstrate how organizations can protect both their IoT devices and their networks. The updated draft versions of volumes A and D describe advancements to the IoT onboarding functional implementations. NCCoE is collaborating with product and service providers to produce example implementations of trusted network-layer onboarding and capabilities that improve device and network security throughout the IoT-device lifecycle to achieve this.
Submit Your Comments
The public comment period is open through November 10, 2023. View the publication details for draft copies and instructions for submitting comments.
NIST is adopting an agile process to publish content. Each volume is being made available as soon as possible rather than delaying release until all volumes are complete. Work continues on implementing the example solutions and developing other parts of the content. This is the final draft the team will publish for public comment before the final guidance is published.
Contribute
If you have expertise in IoT and/or network security and would like to help shape this project, consider joining the IoT Onboarding Community of Interest. Contact the project team at iot-onboarding@nist.gov declaring your interest.
