Baseline Immutability

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Baseline Immutability is the characteristic of an identified Baseline Revision whose content cannot be modified after the Revision enters the state governed by the applicable immutability rule.

The applicable rule may establish immutability when the Baseline Revision is:

• Approved
• Released
• Published
• Selected for deployment
• Used to create an operational subject
• Recorded as an authoritative reference
• Associated with generated Evidence

Baseline Immutability preserves the exact content associated with an identified Baseline Revision.

A required change does not modify the immutable Baseline Revision. The change produces a new Revision with its own identifier.

Baseline Immutability differs from access control:

• Access control determines who may perform an operation
• Baseline Immutability prohibits modification of the governed Baseline Revision regardless of ordinary modification permission

Baseline Immutability also differs from Baseline stability:

• Baseline Immutability prevents modification of an identified Revision
• Baseline stability concerns the frequency or significance of change across successive Revisions

immutability of an identified baseline revision that prevents modification of its content after the revision enters a defined controlled state

Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

Baseline Immutability does not prohibit creation of a succeeding Baseline Revision.

An immutable Baseline Revision may still be:

• Retrieved
• Read
• Compared
• Selected
• Reused
• Superseded
• Retired
• Archived

The applicable requirements determine:

• The state that activates immutability
• The content protected by immutability
• Permitted metadata changes
• The mechanism used to verify immutability
• The retention period
• The process for creating a succeeding Revision

After approval, a Security Baseline Revision cannot be modified. A required control change produces a new Security Baseline Revision while the approved earlier Revision remains unchanged and retrievable.