IA-04 Identifier Management
Identification and Authentication
Description
Manage system identifiers by: a. Receiving authorization from [Assignment: organization-defined personnel or roles] to assign an individual, group, role, service, or device identifier; b. Selecting an identifier that identifies an individual, group, role, service, or device; c. Assigning the identifier to the intended individual, group, role, service, or device; and d. Preventing reuse of identifiers for [Assignment: organization-defined time period].
Supplemental Guidance
Common device identifiers include Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, or device-unique token identifiers. The management of individual identifiers is not applicable to shared system accounts. Typically, individual identifiers are the usernames of the system accounts assigned to those individuals. In such instances, the account management activities of AC-02 use account names provided by IA-04. Identifier management also addresses individual identifiers not necessarily associated with system accounts. Preventing the reuse of identifiers implies preventing the assignment of previously used individual, group, role, service, or device identifiers to different individuals, groups, roles, services, or devices.
Changes from Rev 4
Removed control step to disable the identifier and associated parameter
Enhancements (6)
What NIST adds to this control. Select one to read its statement.
IA-04(01) Prohibit Account Identifiers as Public Identifiers
Prohibit the use of system account identifiers that are the same as public identifiers for individual accounts.
IA-04(04) Identify User Status ModerateHigh
Manage individual identifiers by uniquely identifying each individual as [Assignment: organization-defined characteristic identifying individual status].
IA-04(05) Dynamic Management
Manage individual identifiers dynamically in accordance with [Assignment: organization-defined dynamic identifier policy].
IA-04(06) Cross-organization Management
Coordinate with the following external organizations for cross-organization management of identifiers: [Assignment: organization-defined external organizations].
IA-04(08) Pairwise Pseudonymous Identifiers
Generate pairwise pseudonymous identifiers.
IA-04(09) Attribute Maintenance and Protection
Maintain the attributes for each uniquely identified individual, device, or service in [Assignment: organization-defined protected central storage].
Patterns that use this control (13)
Grouped by the emphasis each pattern gives it.
Critical (3)
Important (9)
- SP-019 Secure Ad-Hoc File Exchange Pattern
- SP-021 Realtime Collaboration Pattern
- SP-022 Board of Directors Room
- SP-029 Zero Trust Architecture
- SP-030 API Security
- SP-033 Passkey Authentication
- SP-037 Privileged User Management
- SP-047 Secure Agentic AI Frameworks
- SP-051 Tokenised Asset Security Architecture (draft)
Standard (1)
MITRE ATT&CK Techniques (36)
ATT&CK v16.1Techniques mitigated by this control, mapped via CTID.