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Question about product risk assessments #407
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@rjb4standards I guess that questions is more for the VEX group than the CSAF TC... Let me answer that from a CSAF point of view: Your assumption is correct. PSIRTs, at least at the moment, usually work event-driven. The trigger of such an event is usually a vulnerability report (or a 3rd party security advisory). That could be external (an external security researcher found something) or internal (product pen-testing found something) or through dependency monitoring (a vulnerability in a 3rd party software was discovered/ a security advisory released). Therefore, security advisories are usually vulnerability-based. Note: The CSAF standard does not require CSAF documents to be vulnerability-centric - they can also be product-centric (all known/investigated vulnerabilities for one product). IMHO, that is currently not requested by customers, therefore nobody produces that. @santosomar, @tolim, @mprpic: Correct me, if I'm wrong. |
Thomas, thanks for confirming my understanding based on the materials I was able to locate and analyze. I was not able to locate any actual VEX artifacts that contained a complete vulnerability analysis for a software product. I've recently confirmed with Steve Springett that CycloneDX VEX does indeed support the use case presented as a question in the original posting and have added CDXVEX to the list of viable Vulnerability Reporting Options within the open-source Vendor Response File (VRF) used by software vendors to communicate SBOM and other evidence data to customers for NIST SP 800-161 and Executive Order 14028: https://github.com/rjb4standards/REA-Products/blob/master/SAGVendorSchema.xsd https://github.com/rjb4standards/REA-Products/blob/master/SAGVendorResponseSAMPLE.xml Thanks for your quick response. Please let me know if CSAF VEX does produce a solution to the use case presented and I'll happily add the CSAF solution as a viable option to the open-source VRF Vulnerability Reporting options. |
@rjb4standards I might have been not clear enough about that: CSAF can convey that information. You can create a single CSAF document per product listing all statements that where ever made about that product. It is not a limit in CSAF. However, as IMHO this format is not requested by customers from their vendors today, PSIRTs are not compiling that information. Therefore, you didn't find examples. Again: The limit here is not CSAF, but customer requests. @santosomar, @tolim, @mprpic: Correct me, if I'm wrong about the customer requests. |
Thanks Thomas. If someone is willing to produce a CSAF VEX that answers this question, then I will be happy to add this to the list of viable vulnerability reporting options in the VRF, just like was done for CDXVEX. The VRF Vulnerability info URL is intended to answer this question: What is the vulnerability status of product P, version V from Supplier S at time(t) at the SBOM component level? This is representative of the question being asked for NIST C-SCRM risk assessments today before any attempt to install product P. The question may be specific to NIST C-SCRM use cases and may not be applicable to other use cases. |
@rjb4standards Thomas is correct, CSAF is just a delivery vehicle of information, not an evaluator of different parts of information to answer a question. There are several scanning solutions that implement exactly this and as far as I know are implemented in the way you suggest: construct an internal database of all vulnerability information from disparate sources and provide APIs that compute answers to questions like "is component X in product Y affected or fixed". There is also a spec for assessment of vulnerabilities: https://oval.cisecurity.org/, but it's a bit limited in the way it can assess a system's component state. |
Thanks, Martin. I think CSAF is a well engineered solution for the purpose it was designed for. Thanks for sharing your insights. |
Interested in @sparrell input on this thread. @rjb4standards Am i correct based on above thread that the only actual gap here is not in the standard itself, but for a VEX example using CSAF to be provided? |
Good question @JasonKeirstead Siemens has provided an excellent use case with Log4j. I would be interested in a VEX that can answer this question: Are there any known vulnerabilities in “Siemens/Industrial Edge Management OS (IEM-OS)/1.4.41”, before installing? or More generically: What is the vulnerability status of product P, version V from Supplier S at time(t) at the SBOM component level? Before any attempt to install a software product by a consumer. This question in not theoretical, it's what the 2/4/2022 NIST Guidance is attempting to address via "software vendor attestations" along with other objectives, i.e. adherence to SDLC practice and policies and much more, |
@rjb4standards The part I am starting to think is missing however, is the negative assertion. Because until recently PSIRT teams never needed to communicate a negative assertion, it wasn't really considered with CSAF. However, negative assertion (this software is not susceptible to CVE X) is just as important in VEX as positive assertions. So this would need to be opened as a workstream in CSAF to address it. Also, Log4J highlighted the need for PSIRT teams to communicate out negative assertions to the public - so CSAF needs this anyway. |
@JasonKeirstead we are in agreement that software vendors need to show that they have examined each component in an SBOM for vulnerabilities and report the results, positive and negative, as part of the software vulnerability attestation, per the 2/4/2022 NIST guidelines. |
@JasonKeirstead The product status The TC is, most likely, implementing the work of the VEX subgroup in terms of the "not affected" part. The ongoing discussions are also part of this repo... The assertion part, which was described by @rjb4standards, could be implemented in CSAF as a specific profile.... |
@tschmidtb51 Thomas, just to be clear; the attestation requirements are coming from NIST and were not initiated by me. I was examining CSAF as a means to address the NIST attestation requirements, ref: https://www.nist.gov/itl/executive-order-improving-nations-cybersecurity/software-supply-chain-security-guidance-1 |
@rjb4standards Thanks for the clarification. |
I will be happy to add a new CSAF profile to the open-source Vulnerability Disclosure Report format, like I did for CDXVEX, if a CSAF solution is produced to answer the generic question: |
@rjb4standards, to your question:
We are using our own internal content management system to produce the Siemens CSAF advisories. So the answer is at our fingertips, but it is not directly available to you due to the CSAF interface you are accessing. And this interface depends on the way how we group vulnerabilities and products in each published advisory. Depending on the use case (and the question asked), we could, at the extreme cases, produce one advisory per product (with all known vulnerabilities), or one advisory per vulnerability (with all known affected/unaffected products). However, the grouping is currently done in the 'traditional' way that is influenced by the vulnerability handling and advisory publication process inside the company. So what is the best way now to group vulnerabilities and products when publishing advisories as vendor?
As we are coping with a quite complex ecosystem involving OSS creators, vendors, national CERTs as distributors, many different variants of users, etc., I think we need to gather some experience with CSAF/VEX/SBOMs before taking the next step. Please comment, I am looking forward to your opinions! |
Tobias, thanks for providing these insights. You nailed it; we're dealing with a complex ecosystem. What is the vulnerability status of product P, version V from Supplier S at time(t) at the SBOM component level? I looked at using CSAF VEX to answer this question and it became obvious that I would have to download every single VEX and examine the product/status materials to answer the question, which I determined was too inefficient and a better solution was needed. I developed the open-source SBOM Vulnerability Disclosure Report (SBOM VDR) to answer this one question that my customers as asking. SBOM VDR is like a CARFAX for SBOM, providing up to the second status, provided by a software vendor, of the vulnerability status associated with a specific SBOM. We are in the process of adding support for CycloneDX VEX to our vulnerability assessment step, which currently processes SBOM VDRs. We will also support whatever SPDX decides to use for vulnerability reporting, which is being discussed presently for the SPDX version 2.3 release. We will also support whatever CSAF produces to answer this question directly, without having to download every VEX that's been produced. I'm not bashing CSAF VEX, it's well engineered for the use case it supports, but it was not designed for the particular use case I'm working on. |
Not to sound like a broken record - but the issue here from my perspective, is not the CSAF format itself, it is how it is often being produced & level of detail contained. If it is indeed true that CSAF can not be used for VEX, then it also can't be used for PSIRT because the world is being mandated to evolve to have PSIRTs output SBOM+VEX. So there is an intrinsic issue here IMO |
@JasonKeirstead I found that CSAF VEX is effective and efficient at answering the question, Given Vulnerability V, which products from Supplier S are known to be exploitable by V and which are not? But not this question: What is the vulnerability status of product P, version V from Supplier S at time(t) at the SBOM component level? I hope someone with deeper knowledge of CSAF VEX will confirm/correct this. |
@rjb4standards Aren't those the same information - just in the latter case you would query a database and output it? IE this discussion to me is not about data formats it is about how you are querying the database. |
@JasonKeirstead it's conceivable that a dynamically produced vulnerability report can be produced, as Tobias is already doing internally when a new vulnerability is reported. CSAF VEX, as it is currently being used today to report on product status per vulnerability event is not conducive to answering the second question. It appears the CycloneDX VEX is able to answer both questions and I'm anticipating that SPDX's solution, under development for V 2.3, will also be able answer both questions. |
FYI: information on SPDX Version 2.3 is available here: https://github.com/spdx/meetings/blob/master/general/2022-02-03.md |
This question can definitely be answered by CSAF: product P in version V and all its SBOM components are listed as individual full product names with their corresponding relationship (e.g. "default_component_of"). The document then references from one or multiple vulnerabilities with product status 'known_affected' to the components. |
@dick ***@***.***>, I’m not following the requirements traceability you mentioned. I just reread the NIST doc. Doesn’t how Siemens mentioned they use CSAF meet what the NIST assertion requests?
A single VEX artifact with N vulnerabilities over M products meets the requirements as well as N*M artifacts does. And Siemens could put out N*M artifacts (or N artifacts or M artifacts) but IMHO they are all equivalent in a machine2machine environment since any of the above are the saw data.
What am I missing?
iPhone, iTypo, iApologize
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Subject: Re: [oasis-tcs/csaf] Question about product risk assessments (Issue #407)
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@tolim I agree with this conclusion: (note: this would not adhere to profile VEX but to other CSAF profiles), I'll add the CSAF profile that answers the second question to the list of options for vulnerability reporting to the open-source vendor response file (VRF) option for vulnerability reporting, and will code in support for this method within SAG-PM. |
@sparrell I refer you to @tolim to provide the clarity you seek: #407 (comment) The Siemens product was provided as an example and is not contained as a specific item in NIST documents. Perhaps I should have been clearer to indicate that the question I was posing is simply an example of the question people are beginning to ask. My apologies for the confusion. |
FYI: for those interested, I was able to create a CDX VEX with the help of Steve Springett; an example is provided here, for those interested in seeing what a CDX VEX looks like: |
@rjb4standards Sorry for the long radio silence. It was on my list but I wasn't able to reply earlier. Please find an excerpt for the CSAF VEX below (it just lists the first 2 vulnerabilities to avoid a long blob here but still show the example): {
"document": {
"category": "csaf_vex",
"csaf_version": "2.0",
"notes": [
{
"category": "other",
"text": "This artifact answers the question: What is the vulnerability status of product P, version V from Supplier S at time(NOW) at the SBOM component level?",
"title": "Author comment"
}
],
"publisher": {
"category": "other",
"contact_details": "dick@reliableenergyanalytics.com",
"name": "Reliable Energy Analytics LLC",
"namespace": "https://reliableenergyanalytics.com"
},
"title": "\"CARFAX\" example",
"tracking": {
"current_release_date": "2022-03-21T11:00:00.000Z",
"generator": {
"date": "2022-03-21T10:27:46.866Z",
"engine": {
"name": "Secvisogram",
"version": "1.12.1"
}
},
"id": "REA-2022-0001",
"initial_release_date": "2022-02-21T21:46:00.000Z",
"revision_history": [
{
"date": "2022-02-21T21:46:00.000Z",
"number": "1",
"summary": "Initial version."
},
{
"date": "2022-03-21T11:00:00.000Z",
"number": "2",
"summary": "CSAF version."
}
],
"status": "final",
"version": "2"
}
},
"product_tree": {
"branches": [
{
"branches": [
{
"branches": [
{
"category": "product_version",
"name": "1.1.8",
"product": {
"name": "Reliable Energy Analytics LLC SAG-PM (TM) 1.1.8",
"product_id": "CSAFPID-0001"
}
}
],
"category": "product_name",
"name": "SAG-PM (TM)"
}
],
"category": "vendor",
"name": "Reliable Energy Analytics LLC"
}
],
"full_product_names": [
{
"name": "cryptography 3.3.1",
"product_id": "CSAFPID-0002"
},
{
"name": "idna 2.10",
"product_id": "CSAFPID-0003"
}
]
},
"vulnerabilities": [
{
"cve": "CVE-2020-36242",
"cwe": {
"id": "CWE-787",
"name": "Out-of-bounds Write"
},
"flags": [
{
"date": "2021-07-21T00:00:00.000Z",
"label": "vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path",
"product_ids": [
"CSAFPID-0001"
]
}
],
"notes": [
{
"category": "description",
"text": "In the cryptography package before 3.3.2 for Python, certain sequences of update calls to symmetrically encrypt multi-GB values could result in an integer overflow and buffer overflow, as demonstrated by the Fernet class."
}
],
"product_status": {
"known_not_affected": [
"CSAFPID-0001"
]
},
"references": [
{
"summary": "NVD - CVE-2020-36242",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-36242"
}
],
"scores": [
{
"cvss_v3": {
"attackComplexity": "LOW",
"attackVector": "NETWORK",
"availabilityImpact": "HIGH",
"baseScore": 9.1,
"baseSeverity": "CRITICAL",
"confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
"integrityImpact": "NONE",
"privilegesRequired": "NONE",
"scope": "UNCHANGED",
"userInteraction": "NONE",
"vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H",
"version": "3.1"
},
"products": [
"CSAFPID-0002"
]
}
],
"threats": [
{
"category": "impact",
"details": "This vulnerability is exploited during file encryption. SAG-PM does not perform file encryption using this component and is most likely not vulnerable to this CVE.",
"product_ids": [
"CSAFPID-0001"
]
}
]
},
{
"cve": "CVE-2014-8564",
"cwe": {
"id": "CWE-787",
"name": "Out-of-bounds Write"
},
"flags": [
{
"date": "2022-02-21T00:00:00.000Z",
"label": "vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path"
}
],
"notes": [
{
"category": "description",
"text": "The _gnutls_ecc_ansi_x963_export function in gnutls_ecc.c in GnuTLS 3.x before 3.1.28, 3.2.x before 3.2.20, and 3.3.x before 3.3.10 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds write) via a crafted (1) Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) certificate or (2) certificate signing requests (CSR), related to generating key IDs."
}
],
"product_status": {
"known_not_affected": [
"CSAFPID-0001"
]
},
"references": [
{
"summary": "NVD - CVE-2014-8564",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-8564"
}
],
"scores": [
{
"cvss_v2": {
"baseScore": 5,
"vectorString": "AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P",
"version": "2.0"
},
"products": [
"CSAFPID-0003"
]
}
],
"threats": [
{
"category": "impact",
"details": "This vulnerability is exploited when Elliptic curve certificates are used. SAG-PM does not perform any elliptic curve certificate functions from this component and is most likely not vulnerable to this CVE.",
"product_ids": [
"CSAFPID-0001"
]
}
]
}
// ...
]
} |
When using the "product_tree": {
"branches": [
{
"category": "vendor",
"name": "Keycloak",
"branches": [
{
"category": "product_name",
"name": "Keycloak",
"branches": [
{
"category": "product_version",
"name": "10.0.2",
"product": {
"product_id": "CSAFPID-0001",
"name": "Keycloak Keycloak 10.0.2",
"product_identification_helper": {
"sbom_urls": [
"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CycloneDX/bom-examples/master/SBOM/keycloak-10.0.2/bom.json"
],
"x_generic_uris": [
{
"namespace": "https://cyclonedx.org/docs/1.4/json/#serialNumber",
"uri": "urn:uuid:411dafd2-c29f-491a-97d7-e97de5bc2289"
}
]
}
}
}
]
}
]
}
],
"full_product_names": [
{
"product_id": "CSAFPID-0002",
"name": "jboss-logging",
"product_identification_helper": {
"x_generic_uris": [
{
"namespace": "https://cyclonedx.org/capabilities/bomlink/",
"uri": "urn:cdx:411dafd2-c29f-491a-97d7-e97de5bc2289/1#pkg:maven/org.jboss.logging/jboss-logging@3.4.1.Final?type=jar"
}
]
}
}
]
} This allows you to reference each component from the SBOM. Note: You could also use This example is just for CycloneDX. However, each format has its own way to uniquely identify the SBOM (in this case the Edit: I updated the example to conform with the CSAF spec. |
@rjb4standards To answer your question: Yes, CSAF can answer that question. (However, you probably have to ask specifically for that format as it is not published by vendors today - or generate it yourself and sell it to your customers ;-)). A profile in CSAF could be defined as follows (just a rough draft - details could be discussed): 4.X Profile X: SBOM CARFAXThis profile SHOULD be used to answer the question: "What is the vulnerability status of product P, version V from Supplier S at time(NOW) at the SBOM component level?" A CSAF document SHALL fulfill the following requirements to satisfy the profile "SBOM CARFAX":
Notes:
|
Thomas,
There is a VEX debate underway on LinkedIn that you may be interested in:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6953324236971122688?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28ugcPost%3A6953324236971122688%2C6953701446135508993%29
I stated my position on VEX (profile 5), as follows:
IMO there are some very real, practical reasons why software vendors will not issue VEX artifacts. Vendors are already producing security advisories when a new vulnerability is reported. CSAF security advisories are an automated, machine readable artifact that is very effective at disclosing which products are impacted by a CVE. We should anticipate that software vendors will issue CSAF security advisories to notify consumers of risk when a new CVE is reported. Now the VEX cohorts, under the direction of Allan Friedman, come along and say "Hey, software vendors we want you to produce this VEX thing that lists all of your software products that aren't affected by a new vulnerability and you need to provide justification why these software products are not affected". Producing a VEX listing all of the software products that aren't affected and providing justification as to why this is so would be a tremendous amount of work on the software vendor to create this VEX artifact. It seems a software vendor can communicate the impact of a new vulnerability by simply distributing a CSAF security advisory (profile 4) listing only the products that are affected.
Thanks,
Dick Brooks
Active Member of the CISA Critical Manufacturing Sector,
Sector Coordinating Council – A Public-Private Partnership
<https://reliableenergyanalytics.com/products> Never trust software, always verify and report! ™
<http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com/> http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com
Email: ***@***.***> ***@***.***
Tel: +1 978-696-1788
From: tschmidtb51 ***@***.***>
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 4:27 AM
To: oasis-tcs/csaf ***@***.***>
Cc: Dick Brooks ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***>
Subject: Re: [oasis-tcs/csaf] Question about product risk assessments (Issue #407)
@rjb4standards <https://github.com/rjb4standards> I guess that questions is more for the VEX group than the CSAF TC...
Let me answer that from a CSAF point of view: Your assumption is correct. PSIRTs, at least at the moment, usually work event-driven. The trigger of such an event is usually a vulnerability report (or a 3rd party security advisory). That could be external (an external security researcher found something) or internal (product pen-testing found something) or through dependency monitoring (a vulnerability in a 3rd party software was discovered/ a security advisory released). Therefore, security advisories are usually vulnerability-based.
Note: The CSAF standard does not require CSAF documents to be vulnerability-centric - they can also be product-centric (all known/investigated vulnerabilities for one product). IMHO, that is currently not requested by customers, therefore nobody produces that.
@santosomar <https://github.com/santosomar> , @tolim <https://github.com/tolim> , @mprpic <https://github.com/mprpic> : Correct me, if I'm wrong.
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Hi Dick; RE “Producing a VEX listing all of the software products that aren't affected and providing justification as to why this is so would be a tremendous amount of work on the software vendor to create this VEX artifact.”
A a vendor, we have to provide this information to clients anyway, because they demand it.
The issue today is whenever a vuln drops, clients scan for said vuln, and often find it before you have even published your advisory. There are then thousands of clients coming at you from all different angles, asking if product XYZ is vulnerable to issue ABC because they have the problem-child library. Since there is no widely adopted and accepted way to communicate and post it in advance – such as VEX – all the responses to these requests are a mountain of work. IE – producing VEX that is accepted, is not a cost to vendors - it would be a huge savings over the status quo actually.
I do not see this as contrary to CSAF. CSAF is actually a form of a VEX – CycloneDX is using CSAF for VEX.
-
Jason Keirstead
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From: Dick Brooks ***@***.***>
Date: Friday, July 15, 2022 at 10:50 AM
To: oasis-tcs/csaf ***@***.***>
Cc: Jason Keirstead ***@***.***>, Mention ***@***.***>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [oasis-tcs/csaf] Question about product risk assessments (Issue #407)
Thomas, There is a VEX debate underway on LinkedIn that you may be interested in: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6953324236971122688?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28ugcPost%3A6953324236971122688%2C6953701446135508993%29
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Thomas,
There is a VEX debate underway on LinkedIn that you may be interested in:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6953324236971122688?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28ugcPost%3A6953324236971122688%2C6953701446135508993%29<https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6953324236971122688?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28ugcPost%3A6953324236971122688%2C6953701446135508993%29>
I stated my position on VEX (profile 5), as follows:
IMO there are some very real, practical reasons why software vendors will not issue VEX artifacts. Vendors are already producing security advisories when a new vulnerability is reported. CSAF security advisories are an automated, machine readable artifact that is very effective at disclosing which products are impacted by a CVE. We should anticipate that software vendors will issue CSAF security advisories to notify consumers of risk when a new CVE is reported. Now the VEX cohorts, under the direction of Allan Friedman, come along and say "Hey, software vendors we want you to produce this VEX thing that lists all of your software products that aren't affected by a new vulnerability and you need to provide justification why these software products are not affected". Producing a VEX listing all of the software products that aren't affected and providing justification as to why this is so would be a tremendous amount of work on the software vendor to create this VEX artifact. It seems a software vendor can communicate the impact of a new vulnerability by simply distributing a CSAF security advisory (profile 4) listing only the products that are affected.
Thanks,
Dick Brooks
Active Member of the CISA Critical Manufacturing Sector,
Sector Coordinating Council – A Public-Private Partnership
<https://reliableenergyanalytics.com/products><https://reliableenergyanalytics.com/products%3E> Never trust software, always verify and report! ™
<http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com/><http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com/%3E> http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com<http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com>
Email: ***@***.***> ***@***.***
Tel: +1 978-696-1788
From: tschmidtb51 ***@***.***>
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 4:27 AM
To: oasis-tcs/csaf ***@***.***>
Cc: Dick Brooks ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***>
Subject: Re: [oasis-tcs/csaf] Question about product risk assessments (Issue #407)
@rjb4standards <https://github.com/rjb4standards><https://github.com/rjb4standards%3E> I guess that questions is more for the VEX group than the CSAF TC...
Let me answer that from a CSAF point of view: Your assumption is correct. PSIRTs, at least at the moment, usually work event-driven. The trigger of such an event is usually a vulnerability report (or a 3rd party security advisory). That could be external (an external security researcher found something) or internal (product pen-testing found something) or through dependency monitoring (a vulnerability in a 3rd party software was discovered/ a security advisory released). Therefore, security advisories are usually vulnerability-based.
Note: The CSAF standard does not require CSAF documents to be vulnerability-centric - they can also be product-centric (all known/investigated vulnerabilities for one product). IMHO, that is currently not requested by customers, therefore nobody produces that.
@santosomar <https://github.com/santosomar><https://github.com/santosomar%3E> , @tolim <https://github.com/tolim><https://github.com/tolim%3E> , @mprpic <https://github.com/mprpic><https://github.com/mprpic%3E> : Correct me, if I'm wrong.
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I’m working to implement VEX (both CSAF and CDX) as part of SAG-PM’s risk assessment and the deeper I look into the VEX model, the more I question its viability/scalability/efficiency. Let me explain and please tell me if I’m off base.
I assume that VEX objects are “born” when a new vulnerability is reported and a Company issues the VEX containing status (affected or not) for each product the company offers. For example Microsoft’s VEX for a given CVE would list over 1000 products based on product name and versions that are supported. Each new vulnerability results in another VEX file listing every product/status. I’m basing this on my observations of how Siemens issues VEX’s today:
https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/csaf/ssa-661247.json
Now a customer acquires Siemens (Industrial Edge Management OS (IEM-OS) version 1.4.41) and wants to ask the question:
Are there any known vulnerabilities in “Siemens/Industrial Edge Management OS (IEM-OS)/1.4.41”, before installing?
A risk assessment solution, like SAG-PM, MUST download each VEX document produced by Siemens and examine the product tree and vulnerability/status tree for intersections under the known affected status branch in order to determine which CVE’s the Siemens/Industrial Edge Management OS (IEM-OS)/1.4.41 product may be vulnerable to. This could require the downloading and examination of “lots” of VEX files in order to answer this one question. Theoretically there is the potential for a VEX file per reported CVEID that would each have to be examined to answer the question. I base this on my understanding from analyzing Siemens use of VEX, per the example at the link above. There is no upper bound as to the number of VEX files that can be produced as this depends on the discovery of new vulnerabilities,
Are my analysis and assumptions correct that a risk assessment would require the downloading of every VEX file issued by a software vendor in order to answer the question posed above?
Thanks,
Dick Brooks
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