ia-10-adaptive-authentication

name	IA-10_adaptive-authentication
description	Require individuals accessing the system to employ [organization-defined] under specific [organization-defined].
category	authentication
version	5.2.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["nist","sp800-53","rev5","ia-10","ia"]
tech_stack	["aws","azure","active-directory","linux","windows"]
cwe_ids	["CWE-287"]
chains_with	["IA-2","IA-8"]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{"IA-2":"Chain with IA-2 for comprehensive security coverage","IA-8":"Chain with IA-8 for comprehensive security coverage"}

IA-10 Adaptive Authentication

High-Level Description

Family: Identification and Authentication (IA) Framework: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5

Adversaries may compromise individual authentication mechanisms employed by organizations and subsequently attempt to impersonate legitimate users. To address this threat, organizations may employ specific techniques or mechanisms and establish protocols to assess suspicious behavior. Suspicious behavior may include accessing information that individuals do not typically access as part of their duties, roles, or responsibilities; accessing greater quantities of information than individuals would routinely access; or attempting to access information from suspicious network addresses. When pre-established conditions or triggers occur, organizations can require individuals to provide additional authentication information. Another potential use for adaptive authentication is to increase the strength of mechanism based on the number or types of records being accessed. Adaptive authentication does not replace and is not used to avoid the use of multi-factor authentication mechanisms but can augment implementations of multi-factor authentication.

What to Check

• Verify IA-10 Adaptive Authentication is documented in SSP
• Confirm control is operating effectively
• Review evidence of continuous monitoring for IA-10

How to Test

Step 1: Review Documentation

Examine the System Security Plan (SSP) and related artifacts for IA-10 implementation details. Verify the organization has documented how this control is satisfied.

Step 2: Validate Implementation

# For cloud environments, use cloud-audit-mcp tools
# For on-premises, review system configurations directly

# Example: Check if account management policies exist
grep -r "account.management\|access.control" /etc/security/ 2>/dev/null

Step 3: Test Operating Effectiveness

Verify the control is actively functioning, not just documented. Check logs, configurations, and operational evidence.

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Usage
cloud-audit-mcp	Check authentication settings	cloud_audit_iam_policies
hackbrowser-mcp	Test authentication mechanisms	browser_auth_test

Remediation Guide