Skip to main content

7. External Systems and Services Not Having FedRAMP Authorization

FedRAMP authorized services should be used, whenever possible, since their risk is defined. However, there are instances where CSOs have external systems or services that are not FedRAMP authorized. In OSCAL, these external systems and services must be identified using component assemblies with additional FedRAMP namespace and class properties as shown in the OSCAL representation below.

system security plan external systems and services page image

OSCAL Representation

<!-- list any external connections as components in thesystem-security-plan:
  system-characteristicsimplementation:
    -->component:
      <componentuuid: uuid=11111111-2222-4000-8000-009000200001
      type: interconnection
      title: "uuid-value" type="interconnection">
    <title>[EXAMPLE]External System / Service Name</title>Name"
      <description>description: <p>"Briefly describe the interconnection details.</p>"
      </description>prop:
        <!-- Propsns: for table 7.1 columns -->
    <prop ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: service-processor"processor
          value=value: "[SAMPLE] Telco Name"/>
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: interconnection-type"type
          value=value: "1"
        />- <propname: name="direction"direction
          value="incoming"/>value: <propincoming
        name="direction"- value="outgoing"/>name: <propdirection
          ns=value: outgoing
        - ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: nature-of-agreement"agreement
          value="contract"value: />contract
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: still-supported"supported
          value="yes"value: />yes
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          class="fedramp"class: name="fedramp
          name: interconnection-data-type"type
          value=value: "C.3.5.1"
        />- <propns: ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          class="fedramp"class: name="fedramp
          name: interconnection-data-type"type
          value=value: "C.3.5.8"
        />- <propns: ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          class=class: "C.3.5.1"
          name="name: interconnection-data-categorization"categorization
          value="low"value: />low
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          class=class: "C.3.5.8"
          name="name: interconnection-data-categorization"categorization
          value="moderate"value: />moderate
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: authorized-users"users
          value=value: "SecOps engineers"
        />- <propns: ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          class="fedramp"class: name="fedramp
          name: interconnection-compliance"compliance
          value=value: "PCI SOC 2"
        />- <propns: ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          class="fedramp"class: name="fedramp
          name: interconnection-compliance"compliance
          value=value: "ISO/IEC 27001"
        />- <propns: ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: interconnection-hosting-environment"environment
          value="PaaS"value: />PaaS
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: interconnection-risk"risk
          value="None"value: />None
        <prop- name="name: isa-title"title
          value=value: "system interconnection agreement"/>
        <prop- name="name: isa-date"date
          value=value: "2023-01-01T00:00:00Z"/>
        <prop- name="name: ipv4-address"address
          class="local"class: value=local
          value: "10.1.1.1"/>
        <prop- name="name: ipv4-address"address
          class="remote"class: value=remote
          value: "10.2.2.2"/>
        <prop- name="name: ipv6-address"address
          value=value: "::ffff:10.2.2.2"/>
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="information"name: value=information
          value: "Describe the information being transmitted."/>
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="port"name: class="remote"port
          value=class: remote
          value: "80"/>
        <prop- ns=ns: "https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal"
          name="name: interconnection-security"security
          value="ipsec">value: <!-ipsec
          link:
            - cuthref: ports, protocols -->
    <link href="#uuid-of-ICA-resource-in-back-matter"
              rel=rel: isa-agreement
  back-matter:
    resource:
      uuid: "isa-agreement"11111111-2222-4000-8000-001000000050"
      />title: <!-- cut repeat responsible-party assembly for each required ICA role id -->
</component>
<!-- cut …. -->
<back-matter>
    <resource uuid="uuid-value">
        <title>[SAMPLE]Interconnection Security Agreement Title</title>Title"
      <propprops:
      name="version"- value="name: published
        value: '2023-01-01T00:00:00Z'
      - name: version
        value: Document Version"/>Version
      <rlink- href="name: type
        value: agreement
        class: interconnection-security-agreement
      rlinks:
      - href: ./documents/attachments/ISAs/ISA-1.docx"/>
        <citation><!-- cut --></citation>
    </resource>
    <!-- repeat citation assembly for each ICA -->
</back-matter>docx

External System and Services (Queries)

Refer to the XPath queries below and corresponding notes for guidance on what targets in an OSCAL SSP should be used to represent each column of the "External Systems and Services Not Having FedRAMP Authorization" table in the legacy SSP template.

XPath Queries

Interconnection # for first external system:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/ prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="interconnection-type"]/@value
    System/Service/API/CLI Name:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection']/title
    Connection Details:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/prop[@name="direction"]/@value
    Nature of Agreement for first external system:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/ prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="nature-of-agreement"]/@value
    Still Supported (Y/N):
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/ prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="still-supported"]/@value
    Data Types:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="interconnection-data-type"]/@value
    Data Categorization:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="interconnection-data-categorization"]/@value
    Authorized Users:
        //system-security-plan/system-implementation/user[@uuid="uuid-of-user"]
    Corresponding Access Level:
        //system-security-plan/system-implementation/user[@uuid="uuid-of-user"]/prop @name="privilege-level"]/@value
    Other Compliance Programs:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="interconnection-compliance"]/@value
    Description:
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/description
    Hosting Environment: 
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="interconnection-hosting-environment"]/@value
    Risk/Impact/Mitigation: 
        /*/system-implementation/component[@type='interconnection'][1]/prop[@ns="https://fedramp.gov/ns/oscal" and @name="interconnection-risk"]/@value

Replace XPath predicate "[1]" with "[2]", "[3]", etc.

Back to top