Active

Continuous Improvement

The organization shall establish a continuous improvement process for secrets management, driving ongoing enhancement of secrets security and management effectiveness. The process shall include mechanisms for identifying improvement opportunities, implementing changes, and measuring results, drawing inputs from secret reviews, incident analysis, and best practice benchmarking.

Requirement ID
APP-009-R010
Parent Control
Domain Code

Requirement Details & Guidance

APP-009-R010 · APP-009
Why This Requirement Exists

Hard-coded or exposed secrets can provide direct access to applications, infrastructure, databases, and cloud services.

Implementation Guidance

Store secrets in approved secrets-management systems, restrict access, rotate credentials, prevent secrets from entering source repositories, and monitor usage.

Practical Application & Audit Readiness

APP-009-R010 · Field Guidance

Business Examples

    Common Audit Findings

      Common Mistakes

        Best Practices & Ownership

        APP-009 · Recommended Approach

        Recommended Practices

          Typical Owner

          Cross-Mapped Regulatory Frameworks

          Harmonized Control Mappings
          FRAMEWORK CODE FRAMEWORK NAME & DETAILS FAMILY / CATEGORY VERSION ACTION
          ISO27001 ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27001 specifies auditable requirements for... Clause: 10.1 – Continual improvement
          ISO
          Standard
          v2022 View →
          RBI-CSF RBI Cyber Security Framework / Master Directions RBI cyber-security requirements and directions set... Clause: 6) Application Security Life Cycle (ASLC) – 6.4 Security requirements for access, authentication, authorization, integrity, logging, audit trail, sessions and exceptions; 8) User Access Control / Management – 8.2 Protection of customer access credentials, authentication information and tokens
          India
          Regulation
          vLatest View →
          SEBI-CSCRF SEBI Cyber Security & Cyber Resilience Framework SEBI’s Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framewor... Clause: 5.1 RS.MA: Incident Management; 5.3 RS.AN: Incident Analysis; 5.4 RS.IM: Improvements
          India
          Regulation
          vLatest View →
          DORA Digital Operational Resilience Act The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act establis... Clause: Article 9(4)(c) – Logical/physical access limitation and access-rights administration Article 9(4)(d) – Strong authentication, cryptographic keys and encryption
          EU
          Regulation
          vCurrent View →
          NIS2 NIS2 Directive The NIS2 Directive establishes EU-wide cybersecuri... Clause: Article 21(2)(h) – Policies and procedures regarding cryptography and, where appropriate, encryption
          EU
          Directive
          vCurrent View →
          PCI-DSS PCI DSS PCI DSS is an industry security standard maintaine... Clause: 6.1.1 – All security policies and operational procedures that are identified in Requirement 6 are documented, kept up to date, in use, and known to all affected parties.; 6.2.1 – Bespoke and custom software are developed
          PCI
          Standard
          v4 View →
          COBIT2019 COBIT COBIT is an enterprise governance and management f... Clause: 4.2 – Align, Plan and Organize (APO) > APO13 – Managed Security > APO13.03 – Monitor and review the information security management system (ISMS). 4.3 – Build, Acquire and Implement (BAI) > BAI03 – Managed Solutions Identification and Build > BAI03.03 – Develop solution components.
          COBIT
          Governance Framework
          v2019 View →
          NIST-CSF NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) The NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides high-lev... Clause: PR.PS – Platform Security | PR.PS-06 – Secure software development practices are integrated, and their performance is monitored throughout the software development life cycle PR.PS – Platform Security | PR.PS-01 – Configuration management practices are established and applied DE.CM – Continuous Monitoring | DE.CM-09 – Computing hardware and software, runtime environments, and their data are monitored to find potentially adverse events
          NIST
          Framework
          v2 View →
          NIST80053 NIST SP 800-53 NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 presents control families, i... Clause: 3.18 – SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION, 3.7 – IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION; SC-12 – CRYPTOGRAPHIC KEY ESTABLISHMENT AND MANAGEMENT, IA-5 – AUTHENTICATOR MANAGEMENT
          NIST
          Control Catalog
          vRev. 5 View →
          NPCI-ISR NPCI Information Security Requirements NPCI information-security requirements define cont... Clause: Security Measures / Controls; Application Security Life Cycle
          India
          Standard
          vLatest View →
          SOC2 SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria SOC 2 is an independent examination and reporting... Clause: CC6.1 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity implements logical access security software, infrastructure, and architectures over protected information assets to protect them from security events to meet the entity's objectives. CC6.3 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity authorizes, modifies, or removes access to data, software, functions, and other protected information assets based on roles, responsibilities, or the system design and changes, giving consideration to the concepts of least privilege and segregation of duties, to meet the entity’s objectives. CC4.1 – Monitoring of Controls – COSO Principle 16: The entity selects, develops, and performs ongoing and/or separate evaluations to ascertain whether the components of internal control are present and functioning. CC4.2 – Monitoring of Controls – COSO Principle 17: The entity evaluates and communicates internal control deficiencies in a timely manner to those parties responsible for taking corrective action, including senior management and the board of directors, as appropriate.
          AICPA
          Audit Framework
          vLatest View →

          Parent Domain Context

          Governance Domain Baseline
          Domain Name:
          Application Security (APP)
          Purpose:
          To ensure the security of internally developed and acquired applications.
          Scope:
          Enterprise

          Parent Control Context

          Control Baseline
          Control Name:
          Secrets Management (APP-009)
          Summary:
          Establishes secrets management including inventory, secure storage, rotation, distribution, monitoring, audit, reporting, review, and continuous improvement for application secrets.
          Business Description:
          Establish and maintain secure processes for managing application secrets including passwords, cryptographic keys, API keys, tokens, certificates, and credentials throughout their lifecycle.