Terminology for Security Assessment
draft-ietf-sacm-terminology-06

Security Automation and Continuous Monitoring WG           D. Waltermire
Internet-Draft                                                      NIST
Intended status: Informational                              A. Montville
Expires: August 15, 2015                                             CIS
                                                           D. Harrington
                                                      Effective Software
                                                           N. Cam-Winget
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                                   J. Lu
                                                      Oracle Corporation
                                                                 B. Ford
                                                                 Lancope
                                                                 M. Kaeo
                                                    Double Shot Security
                                                       February 11, 2015

                  Terminology for Security Assessment
                     draft-ietf-sacm-terminology-06

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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   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 15, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terms and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Change Log  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.  ietf-sacm-terminology-01- to -02- . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.2.  ietf-sacm-terminology-01- to -02- . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.3.  ietf-sacm-terminology-02- to -03- . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.4.  ietf-sacm-terminology-03 to -04-  . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.5.  ietf-sacm-terminology-04 to -05-  . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.6.  ietf-sacm-terminology-05 to -06-  . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

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.

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.

   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."

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      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.

   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.

   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)."

   Broker

      An entity providing and/or connecting services on the behalf of
      other architectural components.  Within the SACM Architecture, for
      example, a broker may provide authorization services and find,
      upon request, entities providing requested services.

   Building Block

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      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.

   Capability

      The extent of an architectural component's ability.  For example,
      a Posture Information Provider may only provide endpoint
      management data, and then only a subset of that data.

   Client

      An architectural component receiving services from another
      architectural component.

   Collection Task

      The process by which posture attributes or values are collected.

   Consumer

      An architectural component receiving information from another
      architectrual component.

   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.

   Evaluation Task

      The process by which posture attributes are evaluated.

   Endpoint Target

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      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.

   Function

      A behavioral aspect of a particular architectural component, which
      belies that component's purpose.  For example, the Management
      Plane can provide a brokering function to other SACM architectrual
      components.

   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.

   Management Plane (TBD per list; was "Control Plane")

      Architectural component providing common functions to all SACM
      participants, including authentication, authorization,
      capabilities mappings, and the like.

   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.

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   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.

   Provider

      An architectural component providing information to another
      architectrual component.

   Proxy

      An architectural component providing functions, information, or
      services on behalf of another component, which is not directly
      participating in the architecture.

   Repository

      An architectural component intended to store information of a
      particular kind.  A single repository may provide the functions of
      more than one repository type (i.e. configuration baseline
      repository, assessment results repository, etc.)

   Role

      A label representing a collection of functions provided by a
      particular architectural component.

   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.

   Supplicant

      The entity seeking to be authenticated by the Management Plane for
      the purpose of participating in the SACM architecture.

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   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.

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.

6.4.  ietf-sacm-terminology-03 to -04-

   TODO

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6.5.  ietf-sacm-terminology-04 to -05-

   TODO

6.6.  ietf-sacm-terminology-05 to -06-

      Updated author information.

      Combined "Pre-defined Terms" with "New Terms and Definitions".

      Removed "Requirements language".

      Removed unused reference to use case draft; resulted in removal of
      normative references.

      Removed introductory text from Section 1 indicating that this
      document is intended to be temporary.

      Added placeholders for missing change log entries.

7.  Informative References

   [RFC3444]  Pras, A. and J. Schoenwaelder, "On the Difference between
              Information Models and Data Models", RFC 3444, January
              2003.

   [RFC4949]  Shirey, R., "Internet Security Glossary, Version 2", RFC
              4949, August 2007.

   [RFC5209]  Sangster, P., Khosravi, H., Mani, M., Narayan, K., and J.
              Tardo, "Network Endpoint Assessment (NEA): Overview and
              Requirements", RFC 5209, June 2008.

Authors' Addresses

   David Waltermire
   National Institute of Standards and Technology
   100 Bureau Drive
   Gaithersburg, Maryland  20877
   USA

   Email: david.waltermire@nist.gov

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   Adam W. Montville
   Center for Internet Security
   31 Tech Valley Drive
   East Greenbush, New York  12061
   USA

   Email: adam.w.montville@gmail.com

   David Harrington
   Effective Software
   50 Harding Rd
   Portsmouth, NH  03801
   USA

   Email: ietfdbh@comcast.net

   Nancy Cam-Winget
   Cisco Systems
   3550 Cisco Way
   San Jose, CA  95134
   US

   Email: ncamwing@cisco.com

   Jarrett Lu
   Oracle Corporation
   4180 Network Circle
   Santa Clara, California  95054

   Email: jarrett.lu@oracle.com

   Brian Ford
   Lancope
   3650 Brookside Parkway, Suite 500
   Alpharetta, Georgia  30022

   Email: bford@lancope.com

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   Merike Kaeo
   Double Shot Security
   3518 Fremont Avenue North, Suite 363
   Seattle, Washington  98103

   Email: merike@doubleshotsecurity.com

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