Secure Automation and Continuous Monitoring (SACM) Terminology
draft-ietf-sacm-terminology-07

SACM Working Group                                           H. Birkholz
Internet-Draft                                            Fraunhofer SIT
Intended status: Informational                             July 06, 2015
Expires: January 7, 2016

     Secure Automation and Continuous Monitoring (SACM) Terminology
                     draft-ietf-sacm-terminology-07

Abstract

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

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 7, 2016.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terms and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Change Log  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   8.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Appendix A.  The Attic  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

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."

      Within SACM 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.

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   Asset Management:  The process by which assets are provisioned,
      updated, maintained and deprecated.

   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)."

   Authentication:  Defined in [RFC4949] as "the process of verifying a
      claim that a system entity or system resource has a certain
      attribute value."

   Authorization:  Defined in [RFC4949] as "an approval that is granted
      to a system entity to access a system resource."

   Broker:  A standard SACM component providing and/or connecting
      services on the behalf of other SACM components via the control
      plane.  Within the SACM Architecture, for example, a broker may
      provide authorization services and find, upon request, SACM
      components providing requested services.

   Building Block:  For SACM, a building block is a unit of
      functionality that is used to compose SACM components.  It
      contains functions and may apply to one or more use cases.  A
      Building Block can have interfaces on the data plane, the control
      plane, or on the management plane.

   Capability:  The extent of an SACM component's ability enabled by the
      building blocks it is composed of.  For example, a Posture
      Information Provider may only provide endpoint management data,
      and then only a subset of that data.

   Collection Task:  The task by which endpoint attributes and/or
      corresponding attribute values are collected.

   Consumer:  An architectural component receiving information from
      another architectrual component.

   Data Confidentiality:  Defined in [RFC4949] as "the property that
      data is not disclosed to system entities unless they have been
      authorized to know the data."

   Data Integrity:  Defined in [RFC4949] as "the property that data has
      not been changed, destroyed, or lost in an unauthorized or
      accidental manner."

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   Data Origin:  One or more properties that enable a SACM component to
      identify an Endpoint that is claimed to be the original source of
      received data.

   Data Provenance:  A historical record of the origins and evolution of
      data that is influenced by inputs, entities, functions and
      processes.

   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.

   Endpoint Attributes:  [TODO] (Definition of content, structure, and
      relationship to Posture Attributes)

   Evaluation Task:  The task by which endpoint attributes are
      evaluated.

   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 or capacity of a particular building
      block, which belies that building blocks's purpose.  For example,
      a building block on the control plane can provide a brokering
      function to other SACM components.  On the data plane, a function
      can act as a provider and/or as a consumer of information.

   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] distinguishes
      an information model as being protocol and implementation neutral
      whereas a data model would provide such details.

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   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 SACM to represent the
      configuration and state information that is collected from an
      endpoint (e.g. software/hardware inventory, configuration
      settings, dynamically assigned addresses).  This 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 configuration or 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.)

   SACM Role:  A label representing a collection of building blocks
      (containing functions and composing SACM components) residing on a
      particular endpoint.  If a particular endpoint does not contain
      any SACM components it takes on the role of a target endpoint
      unless indicated otherwise.

   SACM Component:  A composition of building blocks that contain
      control plane, data plane or management plane functions.  SACM
      defines a set of standard components (e.g. a collector, a broker,
      or a data store).  A SACM component MUST contain at least a basic

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      set of control plane building blocks and MAY contain data plane
      and managment plane building blocks.  A SACM component residing on
      an endpoint assigns one or more SACM roles to the corresponding
      endpoint.  A SACM component "resides on" an endpoint and an
      endpoint "contains" a SACM component, correspondingly.

   SACM Component Discovery:  The function by which a SACM component (or
      subsets, such as SACM roles or other functions) can be discovered.

   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.

   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.

   Target Endpoint:  A target endpoint is a SACM Role.  An endpoint that
      takes on the target endpoint role either contains no SACM
      component or contains an internal SACM component.  A target
      endpoint is an "endpoint under assessment" (even if it is not
      actively under assessment at all times).  If an endpoint takes on
      both the role of target endpoint and _Not A Target Endpoint_ [TBD]
      it is not a Target Endpoint.

      A target endpoint is similar to a device that is a Target of
      Evaluation (TOE) as defined in Common Criteria.

   Target Endpoint Discovery:  The function by which target endpoints
      can be discovered.

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.

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5.  Acknowledgements

6.  Change Log

   Changes from version 00 to version 01:

   o  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.

   Changes from version 01 to version 02:

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

   Changes from version 02 to version 03:

   o  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.

   Changes from version 03 to version 04:

   o  TODO

   Changes from version 04 to version 05:

   o  TODO

   Changes from version 05 to version 06:

   o  Updated author information.

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

   o  Removed "Requirements language".

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

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

   o  Added placeholders for missing change log entries.

   Changes from version 06 to version 07:

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   o  Added Contributors section.

   o  Updated author list.

   o  Changed title from "Terminology for Security Assessment" to
      "Secure Automation and Continuous Monitoring (SACM) Terminology".

   o  Changed abbrev from "SACM-Terms" to "SACM Terminology".

   o  Added appendix The Attic to stash terms for future updates.

   o  Added Authentication, Authorization, Data Confidentiality, Data
      Integrity, Data Origin, Data Provenance, SACM Component, SACM
      Component Discovery, Target Endpoint Discovery.

   o  Major updates to Building Block, Function, SACM Role, Target
      Endpoint.

   o  Minor updates to Broker, Capability, Collection Task, Evaluation
      Task, Posture.

   o  Relabled Role to SACM Role, Endpoint Target to Target Endpoint,
      Endpoint Discovery to Endpoint Identification.

   o  Moved Asset Targeting, Client, Endpoint Identification to The
      Attic.

   o  Endpoint Attributes added as a TODO.

   o  Changed the structure of the Change Log.

7.  Contributors

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

   Email: david.waltermire@nist.gov

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

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

   Email: jarrett.lu@oracle.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

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

   Email: merike@doubleshotsecurity.com

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8.  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.

Appendix A.  The Attic

   The following terms are stashed for now and will be updated later:

   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.

   Client:  An architectural component receiving services from another
      architectural component.

   Endpoint Identification (TBD per list; was "Endpoint Discovery"):
      The process by which an endpoint can be identified.

Author's Address

   Henk Birkholz
   Fraunhofer SIT
   Rheinstrasse 75
   Darmstadt  64295
   Germany

   Email: henk.birkholz@sit.fraunhofer.de

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