# SC-39 Process Isolation

NIST SP 800-53 control. Family: SC System and Communications Protection. Function: preventative. Baselines: low, moderate, high. Mapping licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Statement: Maintain a separate execution domain for each executing system process.
Guidance: Systems can maintain separate execution domains for each executing process by assigning each process a separate address space. Each system process has a distinct address space so that communication between processes is performed in a manner controlled through the security functions, and one process cannot modify the executing code of another process. Maintaining separate execution domains for executing processes can be achieved, for example, by implementing separate address spaces. Process isolation technologies, including sandboxing or virtualization, logically separate software and firmware from other software, firmware, and data. Process isolation helps limit the access of potentially untrusted software to other system resources. The capability to maintain separate execution domains is available in commercial operating systems that employ multi-state processor technologies.

## Enhancements (2)
- SC-39(01) Hardware Separation
- SC-39(02) Separate Execution Domain Per Thread
Each enhancement's statement: /api/v1/controls/SC-39?fields=enhancements

## Patterns that use it (2)
- Important (1): SP-047 Secure Agentic AI Frameworks
- Standard (1): SP-029 Zero Trust Architecture

## Clauses by framework (24 frameworks)
- nist_csf_2: PR.DS-01, PR.DS-10, PR.IR-03
- rbi_csf: Annex1.4
- fisc: FISC.T14
- hkma_tme1: TME1.7.3
- cra: CRA.I.2k
- swift_cscf: SWIFT.1.3
- cbb_tm: TM-8
- cbuae: CR-7
- qatar_nia: CS
- bog_cisd: CISD-VI
- bom_ctrm: 3.2
- cbe_csf: CTO-6
- cbn_csf: Part3.3
- sa_js2: JS2-7.2
- bot_cyber: Ch2.4
- cpmi_pfmi: CG.PR
- ecb_croe: CROE.2.3.5
- ffiec_is: II.C.2, II.C.15(a)
- iosco_cyber: PROT-2
- sebi_cscrf: PR.NS
- cmmc_2: SC
- ferc_cip: Order 887
- fips_140: FIPS 140-3 §7.6
- nhs_dspt: NDG-9.2
OSA's mapping for nist_csf_2 takes NIST's published crosswalk as its base. A clause not marked as OSA's own is in that crosswalk.

## More
- This control as JSON, with guidance and ATT&CK techniques: /api/v1/controls/SC-39
- Clauses only: /api/v1/controls/SC-39?fields=mappings
- Page for people: /controls/sc-39/
- Found an error? Open an issue at https://github.com/opensecurityarchitecture/osa-data/issues with the id, what OSA says and what the source says.