ISO 27001 A.5.17: passwords and secrets, explained for startups
What A.5.17 asks of a small company, and what an auditor samples.
Handle passwords, keys, and other login secrets carefully throughout their life. Control how they are created, shared, stored, and reset so attackers cannot grab them.
Why it exists: to keep passwords and secrets from being guessed, reused or shared.
A.5.17 Authentication information
Passwords and secrets are created, stored and shared safely. What proves it: password and secret rules, and settings showing a company password manager or single sign-on is required.
A certification auditor samples password manager enforcement settings and password rules. A file that usually does the job: password manager admin settings showing every staff member enrolled, or single sign-on enforcement settings.
How to put it in place
Each step leaves a record, and the record is what the auditor samples rather than the step itself. Inside Polara, the control card for A.5.17 walks you through it in this order.
- Make a company password manager mandatory for every staff member.
- Move shared secrets into it and rotate any that were shared in chat or documents.
- Write the rules in the access control policy.
The free ISO 27001 readiness assessment asks one question that evidences it:
- How is authentication information (passwords) managed?
Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap
In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Access Control Policy covers A.5.17. An auditor reads the policy for the rule, then samples the records to see the rule was followed.
Connected systems that pull evidence for it:
- Amazon Web Services, IAM password policy: the account-wide password requirements, or that none is set.
- Okta, Sign-on policies: sign-on and authentication policies, and whether their rules require multi-factor authentication.
The same evidence counts toward SOC 2. The Trust Services criterion that cover this ground: CC6.1, logical access.
Organizational controls
A.5.17 is one of the 37 organizational controls in Annex A. How the company runs security: policies, roles, suppliers, incidents, continuity and legal duties. Most of these are written decisions and the records that show you follow them.
Nearby controls in the same theme:
- A.5.14, sending information out
- A.5.15, access control rules
- A.5.16, identities and accounts
- A.5.18, granting and removing access
- A.5.19, supplier security
- A.5.20, security in supplier contracts
Before it: A.5.16, identities and accounts. After it: A.5.18, granting and removing access. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.
Questions
What does ISO 27001 A.5.17 require?
What evidence does an auditor want for A.5.17?
Get ready for ISO 27001 certification.
The readiness assessment is free, with no payment and no card. ISO 27001 is part of Constellation, at $10,800 a year: everything in Orbit plus the management system, the policies, the evidence and the management review for ISO 27001, and your SOC 2 Type 2 audit is included in every contract year. You contract the certification body directly.
The internal audit is priced separately: Polara arranges it with an independent internal auditor from our partner network who works in the platform, and quotes it for your company.
Take the free assessmentPolara Labs is not a certification body. Certification audits are performed by independent accredited certification bodies.