Terminology for Security Assessment
draft-ietf-sacm-terminology-04

Abstract

This memo documents terminology used in the documents produced by SACM (Security Automation and Continuous Monitoring).

Status of This Memo

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This Internet-Draft will expire on November 27, 2014.

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Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Terms and Definitions
• 2.1. Pre-defined Terms
• 2.2. New Terms and Definitions
• 2.3. Requirements Language
• 3. IANA Considerations
• 4. Security Considerations
• 5. Acknowledgements
• 6. Change Log
• 6.1. ietf-sacm-terminology-01- to -02-
• 6.2. ietf-sacm-terminology-01- to -02-
• 6.3. ietf-sacm-terminology-02- to -03-
• 7. References
• 7.1. Normative References
• 7.2. Informative References
• Authors' Addresses

1. Introduction

Our goal with this document is to improve our agreement on the terminology used in documents produced by the IETF Working Group for Security Automation and Continuous Monitoring. Agreeing on terminology should help reach consensus on which problems we're trying to solve, and propose solutions and decide which ones to use.

This document is expected to be a temporary work product, and will probably be incorporated into the architecture or other document.

2. Terms and Definitions

This section describes terms that have been defined by other RFC's and defines new ones. The predefined terms will reference the RFC and where appropriate will be annotated with the specific context by which the term is used in SACM.

2.1. Pre-defined Terms

Assessment

• Defined in [RFC5209] as "the process of collecting posture for a set of capabilities on the endpoint (e.g., host-based firewall) such that the appropriate validators may evaluate the posture against compliance policy."
• Within this document the use of the term is expanded to support other uses of collected posture (e.g. reporting, network enforcement, vulnerability detection, license management). The phrase "set of capabilities on the endpoint" includes: hardware and software installed on the endpoint."

Asset

• Defined in [RFC4949] as "a system resource that is (a) required to be protected by an information system's security policy, (b) intended to be protected by a countermeasure, or (c) required for a system's mission.

Attribute

• Defined in [RFC5209] as "data element including any requisite meta-data describing an observed, expected, or the operational status of an endpoint feature (e.g., anti-virus software is currently in use)."

Endpoint

• Defined in [RFC5209] as "any computing device that can be connected to a network. Such devices normally are associated with a particular link layer address before joining the network and potentially an IP address once on the network. This includes: laptops, desktops, servers, cell phones, or any device that may have an IP address."
• To further clarify the [RFC5209] definition, an endpoint is any physical or virtual device that may have a network address. Note that, network infrastructure devices (e.g. switches, routers, firewalls), which fit the definition, are also considered to be endpoints within this document.
• Based on the previous definition of an asset, an endpoint is a type of asset.

Information Model

• An information model is an abstract representation of data, their properties, relationships between data and the operations that can be performed on the data. While there is some overlap with a data model, [RFC3444] distinguished an information model as being protocol and implementation neutral whereas a data model would provide such details.

Posture

• Defined in [RFC5209] as "configuration and/or status of hardware or software on an endpoint as it pertains to an organization's security policy."
• This term is used within the scope of this document to represent the state information that is collected from an endpoint (e.g. software/hardware inventory, configuration settings). The state information may constitute one to many Posture Attributes.

Posture Attributes

• Defined in [RFC5209] as "attributes describing the configuration or status (posture) of a feature of the endpoint. A Posture Attribute represents a single property of an observed state. For example, a Posture Attribute might describe the version of the operating system installed on the system."
• Within this document this term represents a specific assertion about endpoint state (e.g. configuration setting, installed software, hardware). The phrase "features of the endpoint" refers to installed software or software components.

System Resource

• Defined in [RFC4949] as "data contained in an information system; or a service provided by a system; or a system capacity, such as processing power or communication bandwidth; or an item of system equipment (i.e., hardware, firmware, software, or documentation); or a facility that houses system operations and equipment.

2.2. New Terms and Definitions

This section defines terms that are not explictly defined in the IETF.

Asset characterization

• Asset characterization is the process of defining attributes that describe properties of an identified asset.

Asset Management

• The process by which assets are provisioned, updated, maintained and deprecated.

Asset Targeting

• Asset targeting is the use of asset identification and categorization information to drive human-directed, automated decision making for data collection and analysis in support of endpoint posture assessment.

Building Block

• For SACM, a building block is a unit of functionality that may apply to more than one use case and can be supported by different components of an architectural model.

Collection Task

• The process by which posture attributes or values are collected.

Evaluation Task

• The process by which posture attributes are evaluated.

Endpoint Target

• The endpoint of interest.

Endpoint Discovery

• The process by which an endpoint can be identified.

Evaluation Result

• The resulting value from having evaluated a set of posture attributes.

Expected Endpoint State

• The required state of an endpoint that is to be compared against.

Security Automation

• The process of which security alerts can be automated through the use of different tools to monitor, evaluate and analyze endpoint and network traffic for the purposes of detecting misconfigurations, misbehaviors or threats.

2.3. Requirements Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

3. IANA Considerations

This memo includes no request to IANA.

4. Security Considerations

This memo documents terminology for security automation. While it is about security, it does not affect security.

5. Acknowledgements

6. Change Log

6.1. ietf-sacm-terminology-01- to -02-

Added simple list of terms extracted from UC draft -05. It is expected that comments will be received on this list of terms as to whether they should be kept in this document. Those that are kept will be appropriately defined or cited.

6.2. ietf-sacm-terminology-01- to -02-

Added Vulnerability, Vulnerability Management, xposure, Misconfiguration, and Software flaw.

6.3. ietf-sacm-terminology-02- to -03-

Removed Section 2.1. Cleaned up some editing nits; broke terms into 2 sections (predefined and newly defined terms). Added some of the relevant terms per the proposed list discussed in the IETF 89 meeting.

7. References

7.1. Normative References

7.2. Informative References

Authors' Addresses