Protection of Audit Information is the requirement that keeps your audit trail trustworthy. All the other Audit and Accountability requirements produce, review, and report on audit records, but those records are only useful if they cannot be quietly altered or deleted by the very people they are watching. Protection of Audit Information (03.03.08) does two things: protect audit information and audit logging tools from unauthorized access, modification, and deletion, and limit access to management of audit logging functionality to only a subset of privileged users or roles. Per the NIST discussion, audit information includes audit records, audit log settings, audit reports, and personally identifiable information, and the concern is that privileged individuals who are subjects of an audit could inhibit audit activities or modify records unless audit-related privileges are separated from other privileges.
A common difficulty with this requirement is letting every administrator manage the logging. If the same people who operate the systems can also turn logging off, change its settings, or delete records, the audit trail cannot be trusted. R3 requires that management of audit logging is restricted to a defined subset of privileged users, which is a separation-of-duties idea applied to logging.
Where things stand for companies facing the transition from NIST 800-171 R2 to R3:
The following is reproduced verbatim from NIST 800-171 R3, requirement 03.03.08 Protection of Audit Information. Only the formatting has been adjusted for readability. This requirement has two (2) lettered parts:
The source controls are AU-09 and AU-09(04) from NIST 800-53. There are no Organization-Defined Parameters (ODPs). Per the NIST discussion, the protection here focuses on technical protection and limits the ability to access and execute audit logging tools to authorized individuals, while physical protection of audit information is addressed by media and physical protection requirements. You can read the requirement directly at NIST 800-171 R3, 03.03.08 (p. 26).
None (0). Requirement 03.03.08 contains no bracketed assignment, so there is no organization-defined value to select and nothing for the DoD to specify. The requirement applies as written.
Your System Security Plan (SSP) narrative for 03.03.08 therefore records how the requirement is implemented rather than a parameter you chose.
NIST 800-171A R3 breaks 03.03.08 into three (3) determination statements, and it has no Organization-Defined Parameters (ODPs). These AOs are:
Part a splits into protecting audit information (a[01]) and protecting audit logging tools (a[02]) as separate objectives, and part b restricts management of logging to a subset of privileged users. Each is assessed independently. The full guidance on assessment methods and objects, is in NIST 800-171A R3, 03.03.08 (p. 31).
Examine: audit and accountability policy and procedures; access control policy and procedures; procedures for the protection of audit information; system configuration settings; system audit records; audit tools; system-generated list of privileged users with access to the management of audit functionality; access authorizations; access control list; system design documentation; system security plan.
Interview: personnel with audit and accountability responsibilities; personnel with information security responsibilities; system developers; system administrators.
Test: mechanisms for implementing audit information protection; mechanisms for managing access to audit functionality.
03.03.08 maps from NIST 800-171 R2 requirement 3.3.8 (protect audit information and audit logging tools from unauthorized access, modification, and deletion), and it absorbs R2 requirement 3.3.9 (limit management of audit logging functionality to a subset of privileged users):
Mapped against the three (3) AOs, all three (3) are direct (minimal effort), with no net-new AOs and none with no mapping. This is a clean carry-forward that consolidates two R2 requirements. If you satisfied R2 3.3.8 and 3.3.9, you are almost certainly satisfying 03.03.08, provided the subset of privileged users who manage logging is actually defined and enforced.
Source Controls in NIST 800-53 R5:
Secure Controls Framework (SCF) Crosswalk
Organizations running a single control set across multiple frameworks can satisfy 03.03.08 through the following SCF controls:
The crosswalks from NIST 800-171 R3 and NIST 800-171A R3 to the SCF are available at no cost through the SCF Set Theory Relationship Mapping (STRM): https://securecontrolsframework.com/start-here/set-theory-relationship-mapping-strm. The STRM also carries the relationship type for each mapping (Equal, Subset Of, Intersects With), which tells you whether an SCF control fully satisfies the requirement or only part of it. Mapping above taken from SCF 2026.3.
The following are issues teams may encounter rather than certainties. They are about restricting management and protecting the tools, each of which needs documented evidence of due diligence and due care such as policies, standards, procedures, and configuration screenshots:
Reasonable objective evidence for an assessment is often subjective. The following examples of evidence to address NIST 800-171 R3 03.03.08 are sourced from the SCF Evidence Request List (ERL), available at https://securecontrolsframework.com/free-content/scf-download. These ERL artifacts are mapped to NIST 800-171 R3 03.03.08 through SCF controls. They establish a starting point for discussions on what an organization needs to have for evidence of due diligence and due care to withstand external scrutiny by an assessor or regulator.
Alongside these, keep the System Security Plan (SSP) narrative for 03.03.08.
With all three (3) AOs mapping directly, 03.03.08 is a light lift if the privileged subset is defined. A realistic sequence:
How many assessment objectives does NIST 800-171 R3 03.03.08 have? NIST 800-171A R3 breaks 03.03.08 into three (3) assessment objectives. An assessor works through each one separately, so each needs its own evidence.
Which NIST 800-53 R5 controls does NIST 800-171 R3 03.03.08 come from? AU-09, AU-09(04).
How many Organization-Defined Parameters (ODPs) does NIST 800-171 R3 03.03.08 have? None (0). The requirement contains no bracketed assignment, so there is no organization-defined value and nothing for the DoD to specify.
Where does NIST 800-171 R3 03.03.08 sit in the NIST 800-171 R3 Kill Chain? Phase 11, Situational Awareness (SA). The Kill Chain is a phased model for sequencing R3 implementation, and it assigns this requirement to that phase.
03.03.08 Protection of Audit Information protects audit information and logging tools from unauthorized access, modification, and deletion, and limits management of logging to a subset of privileged users. It maps directly from R2 3.3.8 and absorbs 3.3.9, with all three (3) assessment objectives transitioning directly, so there is no net-new work. The recurring problem is letting every administrator manage logging. Protect the records and the tools, define the privileged subset that can manage logging, separate audit privileges from other privileges, and keep the access controls as evidence.
Authoritative sources:
Authoritative sources:
This guide reproduces U.S. Government text from NIST 800-171 R3 and NIST 800-171A R3. It is educational, not legal or assessment advice. Last reviewed: 2026-09-22.
