Cyber Posture

NIST 800-53 r5 · Controls catalogue · Family SC

SC-47Alternate Communications Paths

Establish {{ insert: param, sc-47_odp }} for system operations organizational command and control.

Last updated: 09 May 2026 03:25 UTC

Implementations targeting this control (0)

ATT&CK techniques this control mitigates (0)

Weaknesses this control addresses (8)AI

CWEs ranked by how often they appear in real CVEs. The rationale describes how this control reduces exploitability of each weakness class.

CWE Name CVEs Why this control addresses it
CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption3,324Alternate paths allow continued C2 operations when an attacker exploits resource-consumption weaknesses against the primary channel.
CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling1,979Unbounded allocation or throttling attacks on one path are contained; the alternate path preserves organizational command functions.
CWE-693Protection Mechanism Failure476Failure or compromise of the primary protection mechanism no longer results in total loss of C2 capability.
CWE-923Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints57Dedicated alternate paths enable explicit restriction of C2 traffic to intended endpoints rather than relying on a single unrestricted channel.
CWE-653Improper Isolation or Compartmentalization52Providing a distinct alternate path directly implements compartmentalization of critical command-and-control communications.
CWE-405Asymmetric Resource Consumption (Amplification)40Amplification attacks that exhaust the primary path are mitigated by the existence of an independent alternate path for command traffic.
CWE-657Violation of Secure Design Principles19Mandating redundant paths corrects the design-level omission of single points of failure for security-critical functions.
CWE-406Insufficient Control of Network Message Volume (Network Amplification)15Network-volume amplification against one channel can be bypassed via the pre-established alternate path.

Top CVEs where this control is the strongest mitigation

CVE Risk CVSS EPSS Match
No CVEs annotated to this control yet — the per-CVE backfill is in progress.

Other controls in family SC

SC-1 SC-10 SC-11 SC-12 SC-13 SC-14 SC-15 SC-16 SC-17 SC-18 SC-19 SC-2 SC-20 SC-21 SC-22 SC-23 SC-24 SC-25 SC-26 SC-27 SC-28 SC-29 SC-3 SC-30 SC-31 SC-32 SC-33 SC-34 SC-35 SC-36 SC-37 SC-38 SC-39 SC-4 SC-40 SC-41 SC-42 SC-43 SC-44 SC-45 SC-46 SC-48 SC-49 SC-5 SC-50 SC-51 SC-6 SC-7 SC-8 SC-9