SECURITY EXCEPTION TEMPLATE
Write the expiry before anyone calls it a waiver.
A security exception is permission to deviate from a named control. This template keeps the policy, the system, the expiry, and the reviewer on the card so a launch date cannot quietly become policy.
Argumont supports security analysis and decision-making. It does not guarantee security or replace qualified professional judgment where required.
The Decision this template frames
Question: approve, deny, time-box, or require a compensating control. Owner: usually the control owner or CISO. Stakeholders: the requester, the service owner, legal, and audit.
If the exception has no expiry, it is not an exception. It is an unwritten policy change.
What must be named before anyone signs
The control being waived, the system, residual exposure, the compensating control if any, and the review date. Evidence required: why the control cannot be met now, not a launch slide. Known unknowns: untested compensating controls.
Material risks include an exception that gets copied onto other systems and a waiver nobody reviews.
Hinges, approvals, reversal, and Outcome
Decision Hinges: whether the control can be met in this window, and whether the exception is scoped. Required approvals: Decision Owner and the person who can waive the control.
What could reverse the Verdict: a new exposure path, a missed expiry, or a failed compensating control. Outcome review: on the expiry date.
How the method uses this frame
Champion can defend the exception. Challenger attacks an open-ended waiver. Red Teamer tries to walk through the hole. Inspector will not treat a ticket comment as policy. Judge can leave deny on the table.
This is not the same frame as residual risk acceptance
This is not the same frame as residual risk acceptance.
Champion and Challenger test the case, Inspector checks the evidence, and Judge records the Verdict for the Decision Owner.
What to write on the card
Waive the control for 30 days, require a compensating control, or deny. Name the system and the expiry. If the Verdict favors deny and the owner time-boxes a waiver, write who reviews it.
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Record a security exception