In our last discussion, we aspired for automated provisioning and continuous monitoring of Network Security Management. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has spearheaded Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) efforts for the last ten years. NIST, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, was founded in 1901 as the nation's first federal physical science research laboratory. In essence, SCAP is a NIST-sponsored effort for both pieces (automated provisioning and continuous monitoring).
As a refresher: SCAP, pronounced “S-Cap”, combines a number of open standards that are used to enumerate software flaws and configuration issues related to security. They measure systems to find vulnerabilities and offer methods to score those findings in order to evaluate the possible impact. It is a method for using those open standards for automated vulnerability management, measurement and policy compliance evaluation and was the next logical step in the evolution of our compliance automation tools for Federal Agencies. SCAP defines how the following standards (referred to as SCAP 'Components') are combined and allows results to be easily shared for Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and others.
Let’s take a deeper dive into SCAP in a two-part “Frequently Asked Questions” format.
Part 1
Q: What is the Security Content Automation Protocol in a nutshell? A: SCAP is a method for using the open standards for automated vulnerability management, measurement and policy compliance evaluation. SCAP defines how the following standards are combined:- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®)
- Common Configuration Enumeration (CCE™)
- Common Platform Enumeration (CPE™)
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
- Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format (XCCDF)
- Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL™)
- security checklist data
- vulnerability and product name related enumerations
- mappings between the enumerations
SCAP checklists and test procedures are then processed through the eight-step NIST Special Publication 800-70 IT Product Checklist Lifecycle. Subsequently, SCAP checklists and test procedures become officially acknowledged and published. All SCAP checklists are either published within, or referenced by, the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) web site. SCAP checklists conform to the SCAP XCCDF style guide and template.
Q: How does SCAP help with FISMA compliance and with compliance with other mandates?
A: SCAP checklists standardize and enable automation of the linkage between computer security configurations and the NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 1 (SP 800-53 Rev1) controls framework. The current version of SCAP is meant to perform initial measurement and continuous monitoring of security settings and corresponding SP 800-53 Rev1 controls. Future versions will likely standardize and enable automation for implementing and changing security settings of corresponding SP 800-53 Rev1 controls. In this way, SCAP contributes to the implementation, assessment and monitoring steps of the NIST Risk Management Framework. Accordingly, SCAP is an integral part of the NIST FISMA implementation project.
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