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SA-08(12) Hierarchical Protection

NIST SP 800-53 (controls) 5.2.0 against 5.2.0
All changes in this version
unchanged SA part of SA-8

Title

Hierarchical Protection

Control

Implement the security design principle of hierarchical protection in [Assignment: systems or system components].

Discussion

The principle of hierarchical protection states that a component need not be protected from more trustworthy components. In the degenerate case of the most trusted component, it protects itself from all other components. For example, if an operating system kernel is deemed the most trustworthy component in a system, then it protects itself from all untrusted applications it supports, but the applications, conversely, do not need to protect themselves from the kernel. The trustworthiness of users is a consideration for applying the principle of hierarchical protection. A trusted system need not protect itself from an equally trustworthy user, reflecting use of untrusted systems in "system high" environments where users are highly trustworthy and where other protections are put in place to bound and protect the "system high" execution environment.

Parameters

sa-08.12_odp: systems or system components

Assessment objective

SA-08(12) [Assignment: systems or system components] implement the security design principle of hierarchical protection.

STIG rules that implement this control 0

No followed STIG rule cites a CCI indexed to this control (CCI list 2026-07-14).