NIST SP 800-171 - National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-171 Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800 series contains more than 200 documents designed to help US government agencies and private organizations secure information systems and data. Among them, the 800-171 provides recommended security requirements for protecting the confidentiality of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS).

Built-in compliance capabilities

Red Hat products have built-in capabilities that help you to align with the NIST SP 800-171 policy. By using integrations with the system management solutions available in our portfolio, you can align the configuration of the machine with the requirements. However, the result is not full compliance - you always need to review the results and take the context of your specific deployment into account.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

You can install the system already pre-configured to NIST SP 800-171 by using RHEL image builder:

• RHEL 9: Creating pre-hardened images with RHEL image builder OpenSCAP integration

Note that this is integrated also in the Red Hat Insights, linked below.

If you prefer a kickstart-based installation, the method is described in the RHEL security guide:

• RHEL 9: Kickstart-based installation of compliant systems

You can build and deploy hardened bootable images pre-configured to NIST SP 800-171 for RHEL Image mode:

• RHEL 9: Security hardening and compliance of bootable images

You can check the system configuration during runtime by using the OpenSCAP command-line tool:

• RHEL 9: Scanning the system for configuration compliance and vulnerabilities
• RHEL 8: Scanning the system for configuration compliance and vulnerabilities
• RHEL 7: Scanning the System for Configuration Compliance and Vulnerabilities

Red Hat Satellite

You can plan and configure compliance policies, deploy the policies to hosts, and monitor the compliance of your hosts in Red Hat Satellite. For more information, see the product documentation:

• Managing Security Compliance

Red Hat Insights for RHEL

You can create and manage your custom security policies entirely within the compliance service UI, as well as monitor the compliance state of your systems, remediate any discrepancies, and use the custom security policies in image builder to deploy additional systems:

• Managing SCAP security policies in the Insights for RHEL compliance service

Red Hat OpenShift

You can automate the inspection of numerous technical implementations and compare them against certain aspects of industry standards, benchmarks, and baselines.

• Compliance Operator 

SP 800-171 Rev. 3, Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations | CSRC

SP 800-171A Rev. 3, Assessing Security Requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information | CSRC