CMMC Practice AC.L2-3.1.11 – Session Termination: Terminate (automatically) user sessions after a defined condition.
Links to Publicly Available Resources
This article shows the actual configuration that would be set to terminate user sessions after a set period of time. It would be best to automate this. This document provides assessment guidance for conducting Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) assessments for Level 2. This article describes techniques for automating the management of Apple iOS devices that will allow an admin to push polices such as “Idle-time logoff” to a MAC instead of touching each machine. NIST 800-171 Control: 3.1.11 This document along with the comments section list Unix scripts that can be used to automatically terminate user sessions. This article describes best practices for automatically terminating user sessions on a Microsoft Network Server. This document discusses how Windows security settings that affect termination of user sessions can be configured in a Group Policy Object (GPO) to apply to all devices that are subject to that GPO. In this edition of the On Call Compliance Solutions Compliance Tip of the Week, we focus on the termination of user-initiated logical sessions in contrast to the termination of network connections that are associated with communications sessions (i.e., disconnecting from the network Let’s talk about NIST 800-171 Control 3.1.11 -- Terminate (automatically) a user session after a defined condition
Discussion [NIST SP 800-171 R2]
This requirement addresses the termination of user-initiated logical sessions in contrast to the termination of network connections that are associated with communications sessions (i.e., disconnecting from the network). A logical session (for local, network, and remote access) is initiated whenever a user (or process acting on behalf of a user) accesses an organizational system. Such user sessions can be terminated (and thus terminate user access) without terminating network sessions. Session termination terminates all processes associated with a user’s logical session except those processes that are specifically created by the user (i.e., session owner) to continue after the session is terminated. Conditions or trigger events requiring automatic session termination can include organization-defined periods of user inactivity, targeted responses to certain types of incidents, and time-of-day restrictions on system use.
Further Discussion
Configure the system to terminate user sessions based on the organization’s policy. Session termination policies can be simple or sophisticated. Examples are inactivity (end the session after a specified duration (e.g., one hour7) of inactivity), day/time (all sessions are terminated at the end of the established workday), misbehavior (end the session due to an attempted policy violation), and maintenance (terminate sessions to prevent issues with an upgrade or service outage). If there is no automatic control of user sessions, an attacker can take advantage of an unattended session.