Keep five records for plugin and extension controls: an inventory, approval records with evidence reviewed, scheduled review dates, enforcement settings from the platform, and removal or exception logs. Together they let you show that a process exists and that it ran, without writing a long policy nobody follows.
What the question usually is
Security questionnaires and audits ask variants of one thing: how do you control third-party software that runs in your environment, including browser extensions, editor plugins and marketplace apps? An answer backed by records is stronger than a description. Our post on how to answer how you manage third-party integrations covers the wording.
Mind the claims. Do not state that you hold a certification or an attestation unless you do, and do not describe an in-progress audit as complete.
The five records
| Record | Contents | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory | Each plugin, version, owner, purpose, data reached | Admin consoles, exports, a register |
| Approval records | Requester, approver, date, tier, evidence reviewed, conditions | Ticket or form |
| Review schedule | Next review date and the last completed review | Register |
| Enforcement settings | Screenshots or exports of allowlists, org-wide settings, group scoping | Platform admin consoles |
| Removals and exceptions | What was removed and why, plus accepted risks with owner and expiry | Tickets |
A sample is enough for most audits: pick a few entries and show the full trail from request to review. See how auditors sample evidence.
Make the evidence from the work itself
Evidence works best when it is a by-product of the process. If approvals happen in a ticket with fields for tier, scopes and evidence, the ticket is the record. If enforcement settings live in an admin console that can export them, export on a schedule and store the file with a date. Avoid reconstructing records later, and never backdate. Our post on never backdating evidence explains what to do when a record is missing.
Freshness
An inventory from last year is weak evidence. Decide how often each record is refreshed, such as monthly exports for enforcement settings and quarterly review of the register. See how fresh must compliance evidence be.
Map it to your frameworks
The same five records support several frameworks' asset, supplier and change controls. The demo below shows how one piece of evidence can map across frameworks.
Try it yourself
Click through it at your own pace, or open it full screen.
Look at how a single control record lines up with more than one framework, and think about which of your five records would fill each slot.
What to leave out
Do not collect screenshots of every plugin page, or marketing PDFs from vendors you never read. Keep evidence you used to make a decision. Extra material creates review work and can contradict your records.
Safeguard's compliance and evidence automation helps collect and organize artifacts from your engineering systems, and its SBOM and dependency scanning feed the inventory. Try a free scan at gold.safeguard.sh/scan.
Quick check
Do I need a separate policy for plugins?
A short section in your third-party or acceptable use policy is enough, if the records show it is followed.
How many approvals will an auditor sample?
It varies by auditor and framework. Keep the whole population easy to list so any sample can be pulled quickly.
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
