Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (2nd Preliminary Draft)

SP 1800-35 (Draft)

Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (2nd Preliminary Draft)

Date Published: December 21, 2022
Comments Due: February 6, 2023 (public comment period is CLOSED)
Email Questions to: nccoe-zta-project@list.nist.gov

Announcement

The Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) team at NIST's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has published the second version of volumes A-D and the first version of volume E of a preliminary draft practice guide titled "Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture” and is seeking the public's comments on their contents.

This guide summarizes how the NCCoE and its collaborators are using commercially available technology to build interoperable, open standards-based ZTA example implementations that align to the concepts and principles in NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture. The updated versions of volumes A-D document three additional ZTA implementations that have been completed since the previous drafts were published. Volume E provides a risk analysis and mapping of ZTA security characteristics to cybersecurity standards and recommended practices. As the project progresses, the guide will be updated.

Abstract

A zero trust architecture (ZTA) focuses on protecting data and resources. It enables secure authorized access to enterprise resources that are distributed across on-premises and multiple cloud environments, while enabling a hybrid workforce and partners to access resources from anywhere, at any time, from any device in support of the organization’s mission. Each access request is evaluated by verifying the context available at access time, including criteria such as the requester’s identity and role, the requesting device’s health and credentials, the sensitivity of the resource, user location, and user behavior consistency. If the enterprise’s defined access policy is met, a secure session is created to protect all information transferred to and from the resource. A real-time and continuous policy-driven, risk-based assessment is performed to establish and maintain the access. In this project, the NCCoE and its collaborators use commercially available technology to build interoperable, open, standards-based ZTA implementations that align to the concepts and principles in NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture. This NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide explains how commercially available technology can be integrated and used to build various ZTAs.

Keywords

enhanced identity governance (EIG); identity, credential, and access management (ICAM); zero trust; zero trust architecture (ZTA)

Control Families

Access Control; Identification and Authentication; Risk Assessment; System and Communications Protection

Documentation

Publication:
NIST SP 1800-35E iprd

Supplemental Material:
NIST SP 1800-35D 2prd (pdf)
NIST SP 1800-35C 2prd (pdf)
NIST SP 1800-35B 2prd (pdf)
NIST SP 1800-35A 2prd (pdf)
Project homepage (web)
Comment template (xls)

Document History:
08/09/22: SP 1800-35 (Draft)
12/21/22: SP 1800-35 (Draft)

Topics

Security and Privacy
access authorization; access control; authentication; security controls; zero trust

Technologies
firewalls; servers

Applications
communications & wireless; telework

Laws and Regulations
Executive Order 14028