system integrity check
163587·updated Sep 1, 2026A periodic or on-demand security verification process that examines a computing system's files, configurations, software, and runtime state against a known-good trusted baseline to confirm that no unauthorized or undetected alterations have occurred. It detects unauthorized changes — such as those caused by malware, intrusions, or misconfiguration — by comparing current values against known-good reference values, usually cryptographic hashes. Mechanically, this typically involves hashing executables, scripts, libraries, and other critical artifacts and checking them against a stored baseline, so that replacement by a malicious file causes an immediate failure. In practice, it supports incident detection and forensic investigation and demonstrates compliance with frameworks such as PCI DSS, which explicitly requires file integrity monitoring on critical systems.
Source
system integritythe sentence this term was read in
generalized from a web lookup of the quoted expression at proposal time Verdict: compositional.
- What is System Integrity Check? - Glossary | Training Camp
- Installation and License Management - CIS-CAT Pro Assessor v4 Guide
- www.fsis.usda.gov
- System Integrity Monitoring
- What is System integrity check | Ajax Systems Support
A definition generalized from search results is a draft to react to, not provenance. Confirm it against an authority document before this term is verified.
A web lookup ran when this term was proposed
A security verification process that evaluates whether a computing system's components — including OS files, application binaries, configurations, and firmware — remain unaltered from a known-good baseline, typically by comparing cryptographic hashes of current states against reference values. The underlying property being tested is whether a system performs its intended function in an unimpaired manner, free from unauthorized manipulation, whether intentional or accidental. In practice, integrity checking exposes changes that signature-based antivirus might miss and supports incident detection, forensic investigation, and compliance demonstrations with frameworks such as PCI DSS, which explicitly requires file integrity monitoring on critical systems. Implementations range from automated tools that hash executables and libraries at startup and compare them against a baseline, to continuous monitoring systems that alert when any component is replaced — for example, by a malicious executable — causing an immediate integrity-check failure.
Advisory only. A term this product ships is defined by an authority document, not by a search result.
Proposed during multiword review of this document in the CKI mapping queue.
Attested in
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- plural
- system integrity checks
- possessive
- system integrity check's
- pluralpossessive
- system integrity checks'
Framework definitions
- §1 · attested_usage_reviewer_confirmed
- No definition is given in NIST SP 800-171r3. The term is attested in use at 1 citation in that document; a definition is pending curation.Increment 2: attested in 800-171r3 without a glossary definition.
- §1 · web_lookup_draft
- A periodic or on-demand security verification process that examines a computing system's files, configurations, software, and runtime state against a known-good trusted baseline to confirm that no unauthorized or undetected alterations have occurred. It detects unauthorized changes — such as those caused by malware, intrusions, or misconfiguration — by comparing current values against known-good reference values, usually cryptographic hashes. Mechanically, this typically involves hashing executables, scripts, libraries, and other critical artifacts and checking them against a stored baseline, so that replacement by a malicious file causes an immediate failure. In practice, it supports incident detection and forensic investigation and demonstrates compliance with frameworks such as PCI DSS, which explicitly requires file integrity monitoring on critical systems.DR-088 backfill from the noun definition column