Security Content Automation Protocol

Security Content Automation Protocol
Name	Security Content Automation Protocol
Developer	National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency
Released	2005
Programming language	XML, XCCDF, OVAL
Platform	Cross-platform
License	Various (open standards)

Security Content Automation Protocol

Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) is a suite of standards for automated vulnerability management, measurement, and policy compliance evaluation. It combines multiple National Institute of Standards and Technology-led specifications with input from Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, and industry consortia to enable interoperable exchange of security-related information. SCAP aims to standardize representation of configuration baselines, vulnerability identifiers, and compliance checklists so that tools from vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Cisco Systems can interoperate across enterprises, service providers, and government agencies including United States Department of Defense and General Services Administration.

Overview

SCAP bundles existing standards into an integrated framework to automate configuration assessment, patch management, and asset inventory. Core SCAP specifications include Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format, Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language, Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, Common Platform Enumeration, Common Configuration Enumeration, and Common Configuration Scoring System. SCAP content is expressed in XML and related syntaxes to allow engines from vendors such as Symantec, Tenable, Qualys, Tripwire, and McAfee to parse, evaluate, and report on security posture consistently. Agencies such as Federal Information Security Modernization Act-mandated organizations and programs at Department of Homeland Security have used SCAP to harmonize assessment workflows across heterogeneous environments.

History and Development

SCAP emerged from efforts at National Institute of Standards and Technology to codify machine-readable security content after high-profile cybersecurity incidents and policy initiatives like Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 and legislation including Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. Early work integrated standards maintained by entities such as MITRE Corporation (which manages Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and the Open Web Application Security Project. Collaborative development involved vendors, academia including Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and government laboratories such as Los Alamos National Laboratory. Subsequent refinements responded to requirements from United States Department of Defense compliance directives and interoperability testing in events hosted by National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Homeland Security.

Specifications and Components

SCAP is not a single specification but a suite that references multiple component standards: - Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format (XCCDF) for representing checklists and reporting. - Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL) for test and result encoding. - Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifiers for vulnerability naming (managed by MITRE Corporation). - Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) for naming platforms and products. - Common Configuration Enumeration (CCE) for configuration item identifiers. - Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) for severity scoring (managed by FIRST). - Asset Identification schemas and data-feed formats for inventory integration. These components reference industry and standards bodies such as Internet Engineering Task Force, Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, and International Organization for Standardization in their evolution.

Implementations and Tools

A wide ecosystem of commercial, open source, and government tools implement SCAP profiles and content. Commercial vendors include Tenable, Qualys, Rapid7, IBM, and Tripwire offering scanners and management platforms. Open-source implementations and projects such as OpenSCAP and OVAL repositories are maintained by communities and organizations including Red Hat and MITRE Corporation. Government toolchains used in federal programs integrate SCAP engines into endpoint management suites like those from Microsoft (System Center Configuration Manager) and configuration management projects such as Puppet and Chef via connectors or exporters. Interoperability testing events and interoperability labs at National Institute of Standards and Technology have validated conformance among multiple vendors.

Adoption and Use Cases

SCAP adoption spans federal agencies, critical infrastructure operators, financial institutions, and managed security service providers. Programs at United States Department of Defense and General Services Administration have mandated SCAP content for baseline compliance and continuous diagnostics. Service providers and enterprises use SCAP for vulnerability assessment, patch verification, configuration auditing, and automated reporting to auditors such as Office of Management and Budget review teams. SCAP-based profiles have been developed for platforms including Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Solaris, and network devices from Cisco Systems to enable repeatable hardening and certification processes for systems subject to frameworks like Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.

Security and Privacy Considerations

While SCAP standardizes assessment content, implementation details raise operational security and privacy concerns. Centralized feeds of SCAP content and vulnerability identifiers such as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures may expose timing information that adversaries can use to prioritize exploits; coordination with disclosure policies like those practiced by MITRE Corporation and CERT Coordination Center is critical. Telemetry produced by SCAP scans may include asset identifiers and configuration metadata that intersect with privacy laws overseen by bodies such as Office of Management and Budget and require data handling controls aligned with standards from National Institute of Standards and Technology special publications. Supply chain integrity for SCAP content, provenance verification, cryptographic signing, and secure distribution have been subjects of work with stakeholders including Department of Homeland Security and industry consortia to reduce tampering risk.

Category:Computer security standards