Mapped to NIST 800-171 Requirement: 3.4.6
CMMC Assessment Objective: CM.L2-3.4.6[a]
What This Objective Means
This control focuses on your ability to identify any change made outside your approved change control process. These could include:
• Unauthorized software installation
• Altered security settings or policies
• Changes to firewall or network configurations
• Unauthorized user account modifications
You must be able to detect and flag these deviations—even if they were made with good intentions.
Why It Matters
Unauthorized changes can:
• Introduce vulnerabilities
• Bypass baseline security controls
• Open your environment to insider threats or external attacks
Detection is the first step in preventing these changes from putting your CUI at risk.
How to Implement It
• Use tools that detect configuration drift, such as:
◦ File integrity monitoring (FIM)
◦ System configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, SCCM)
◦ Endpoint detection and response (EDR) platforms with change detection
• Compare current configurations to:
◦ Your documented baseline
◦ Approved change control records
• Define what constitutes an “unauthorized” change in your policies and procedures
Evidence the Assessor Will Look For
• Screenshots or reports from monitoring tools showing configuration drift detection
• Documentation listing change types that require authorization
• Incident logs showing how unauthorized changes were detected and handled
• Sample alerts or tickets generated from unapproved modifications
Common Gaps
• No tooling or manual process to detect system-level changes
• All changes are assumed to be authorized without verification
• No alerting or audit trail when configurations are modified
How Cuick Trac Helps
Cuick Trac supports this requirement by:
• Locking down system configurations to prevent unauthorized change
• Logging all configuration changes and flagging deviations from the baseline
• Helping define change control expectations and alerting criteria
• Supporting compliance documentation with evidence of detection and reporting processes
With Cuick Trac, unauthorized changes are detected fast—so you can respond before they become real risks.
Final CTA
What you don’t notice can hurt you.
Schedule a Cuick Trac demo and detect every unauthorized change—before it compromises your compliance.