Account provisioning/deprovisioning documented
Why it matters
Undocumented account provisioning means departing employees retain access indefinitely and new joiners receive inconsistent permissions — two direct violations of NIST 800-53 rev5 AC-2 (Account Management), which requires formal procedures for account creation, modification, review, and termination. CMMC 2.0 AC.L1-3.1.1 makes this a baseline requirement for any contractor handling federal information. FedRAMP rev5 AC-2 adds an auditable trail requirement. Without documented deprovisioning steps, a disgruntled ex-employee's credentials may remain valid long after their last day, and an auditor will flag the absence of written procedures as a control gap regardless of what the code does.
Severity rationale
Low because undocumented provisioning does not directly enable an attack, but its absence means deprovisioning failures go undetected and auditors will cite it as a control deficiency.
Remediation
Create docs/account-management.md covering all four lifecycle stages. Write steps specifically enough that an on-call engineer with no prior context can execute them without asking questions.
# Account Management
## Provisioning (new user)
1. Admin navigates to Settings > Users > Invite
2. Enters email and selects role (viewer / auditor / admin)
3. System sends time-limited invite link (24 h expiry)
4. User completes registration and sets a password meeting policy
## Role Assignment
- Roles follow least-privilege: default is viewer
- Elevation to auditor or admin requires written approval in the team ticket tracker
- Role changes logged automatically in audit_logs table
## Deprovisioning (user departure)
1. Admin deactivates account in Settings > Users > [User] > Deactivate
2. All active sessions invalidated immediately (Supabase: `auth.admin.deleteUser`)
3. API keys and personal tokens revoked
4. Access confirmed revoked within 1 business day of departure notice
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the FISMA/FedRAMP Readiness Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
External references
- nist:rev5 · AC-2 — Account Management
- nist:rev5 · PS-4 — Personnel Termination
- fedramp:rev5 · AC-2 — FedRAMP AC-2 — documented account provisioning and deprovisioning
- cmmc:2.0 · AC.L1-3.1.1 — Authorized access control
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from gov-fisma-fedramp·automated