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Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Advanced

Authorization Boundary

All components of a system authorized for operation by an authorizing official, excluding separately authorized connected systems.

Definition

The authorization boundary defines what is in scope for categorization, control selection, assessment, and authorization. Drawing it well affects cost and risk: too broad increases scope, too narrow omits relevant components. FedRAMP and CMMC assessments similarly depend on scoping.

Example

A cloud service's boundary includes its application tier, databases, and management plane, but not the customer's endpoints.

Exam tip

Boundary determination happens early, in the Prepare step.

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