KSI-IAM-APM—Adopting Passwordless Methods
Formerly KSI-IAM-02
>Control Description
>NIST 800-53 Controls
>Trust Center Components3
Ways to express your implementation of this indicator — approaches vary by organization size, complexity, and data sensitivity.
From the field: Mature implementations express privileged access management through session-level visibility — PAM platforms recording every privileged session, credential vaults enforcing checkout/checkin workflows, and admin access dashboards showing usage patterns and anomaly detection. Every privileged action is monitored and reviewable through automated audit trails.
Privileged Access Architecture
Architecture expressing PAM solution design — jump servers, session recording, credential vaulting, and break-glass procedures
Admin Access Audit Dashboard
Dashboard expressing privileged access posture — usage patterns, session recordings, credential rotation, and anomaly detection
Privileged Access Management Policy
Human-readable PAM policy covering privileged account controls, monitoring, and session management
>Programmatic Queries
CLI Commands
curl -s -H "Authorization: SSWS ${OKTA_API_TOKEN}" "https://${OKTA_DOMAIN}/api/v1/policies?type=MFA_ENROLL" | jq '.[].name'curl -s -H "Authorization: SSWS ${OKTA_API_TOKEN}" "https://${OKTA_DOMAIN}/api/v1/authenticators" | jq '.[] | select(.type=="security_key") | {name,status}'>20x Assessment Focus Areas
Aligned with FedRAMP 20x Phase Two assessment methodology
Completeness & Coverage:
- •What percentage of user authentication flows use passwordless methods (FIDO2, passkeys, certificate-based), and which flows still rely on passwords with MFA?
- •For authentication paths that still use passwords, are all of them protected by MFA, or are there any password-only login paths remaining?
- •Are passwordless or strong-password-with-MFA requirements enforced across all authentication surfaces — web console, CLI, API, mobile, and VPN?
- •How do you document and justify scenarios where passwordless authentication is deemed infeasible?
Automation & Validation:
- •What automated enforcement prevents creation or use of authentication flows that allow password-only access without MFA?
- •How do you detect password weakness at authentication time — do you check against breached password databases (e.g., HIBP) or common password lists?
- •What happens if a user attempts to downgrade from passwordless to password-based authentication — is it blocked or flagged?
- •How do you test that MFA enforcement cannot be bypassed through session manipulation, token replay, or API authentication paths?
Inventory & Integration:
- •What identity providers and authentication platforms are in use, and do they all support passwordless methods?
- •How does your passwordless rollout track which users and applications have been migrated versus those still on password-based authentication?
- •What tools enforce password strength policies (minimum length, complexity, breach checking) for non-passwordless authentication?
- •How do authentication policies integrate across federated identity scenarios where multiple IdPs are in use?
Continuous Evidence & Schedules:
- •What metrics demonstrate the passwordless adoption rate trending over time, and what is the target timeline for full adoption where feasible?
- •Is authentication method data (passwordless vs. password+MFA breakdown per user/application) available via API or dashboard?
- •How do you continuously validate that no new password-only authentication paths are introduced as applications are updated?
- •What evidence shows that password strength and MFA requirements are consistently enforced across all authentication events?
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