Name of Your Organization:
Tenable Network Security Inc.
Web Site:
www.tenablesecurity.com
Compatible Capability:
Nessus Security Scanner
Capability home page:
http://www.tenablesecurity.com/nessus/
Product Accessibility <CR_2.4>
Provide a short description of how and where your capability is made available to your customers and the public (required):
Tenable’s SecurityCenter uses CVE identifiers for referencing vulnerabilities detected by the Nessus vulnerability scanner and the Passive Vulnerability Scanner. SecurityCenter users can research vulnerabilities based on CVE name, reference them in vulnerability report output and serve vulnerability scan results based on CVE entry.
Map Currency Indication <CR_5.1>
Describe how and where your capability indicates the most recent CVE version used to create or update its mappings (required):
Tenable synchronizes CVE entries with National Vulnerability Database information daily. If new, missing or corrected CVE entries exist, we modify our content accordingly.
Map Currency Update Approach <CR_5.2>
Indicate how often you plan on updating the mappings to reflect new CVE versions and describe your approach to keeping reasonably current with CVE versions when mapping them to your repository (required):
Tenable products do not include CVE entry content. Tenable only includes links to the CVE identifier. Mappings are provided by Tenable’s Research team and audited both internally and from customer product use. Any discrepancy in CVE references are typically resolved the same day.
Map Currency Update Time <CR_5.3>
Describe how and where you explain to your customers the timeframe they should expect an update of your capability’s mappings to reflect newly available CVE content (required):
Tenable describes its CVE usage, along with other standards, in a document available on its Support Portal titled "Standards Declarations". This document details how Tenable updates CVE, CVSS, XCCDF and many other standards.
Map Content Selection Criteria <CR_5.4>
Describe the criteria used for determining the relevance of a given CVE Identifier to your Capability (required):
Tenable’s Research team creates Nessus plugins (vulnerability test scripts) to test for a specific issue or set of issues. During the plugin authoring, CVE identifiers are added to the plugin if the identifier description matches the vulnerability check.
Map Currency Update Mechanism <CR_5.4>
Describe the mechanism used for reviewing CVE for content changes (required):
Tenable products do not include CVE entry content. Tenable only include links to the CVE identifier. Mappings are provided by Tenable’s Research team and audited both internally and from customer product use. Any discrepancy in CVE references are typically resolved the same day.
Map Content Source <CR_5.5>
Describe the source of your CVE content (required):
Tenable’s Research team monitors the SecurityFocus Bugtraq (BID) database and the Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB), understanding that each database has strengths in tracking mail lists, change logs, vendor advisories and more.
CVE and Compatibility Documentation<CR_4.1>
Provide a copy, or directions to its location, of where your documentation describes CVE and CVE compatibility for your customers (required):
Tenable describes its CVE usage, along with other standards, in a document available on our Support Portal titled "Standards Declarations". This document details how Tenable updates CVE, CVSS, XCCDF and many other standards.
Documentation of Finding Elements Using CVE Names <CR_4.2>
Provide a copy, or directions to its location, of where your documentation describes the specific details of how your customers can use CVE names to find the individual security elements within your capability’s repository (required):
Tenable describes its CVE usage, along with other standards, in a document available on its Support Portal titled "Standards Declarations". This document details how Tenable updates CVE, CVSS, XCCDF and many other standards and also how CVE can be used to search for specific vulnerabilities.
Documentation of Finding CVE Names Using Elements <CR_4.3>
Provide a copy, or directions to its location, of where your documentation describes the process a user would follow to find the CVE names associated with individual security elements within your capability’s repository (required):
Tenable describes its CVE usage, along with other standards, in a document available on its Support Portal titled "Standards Declarations". This document details how Tenable updates CVE, CVSS, XCCDF and many other standards and also how CVE can be used to search for specific vulnerabilities.
Documentation Indexing of CVE-Related Material <CR_4.4>
If your documentation includes an index, provide a copy of the items and resources that you have listed under "CVE" in your index. Alternately, provide directions to where these "CVE" items are posted on your web site (recommended):
Current Tenable documentation does not have an index entry for CVE. CVE is also not mentioned on the current website except for when searching Nessus plugins. This link is available by visiting http://www.nessus.org, clicking on ‘Plugins’, and then ‘Search’. One of the search criteria is to look for vulnerabilities based on CVE ID.
Type-Specific Capability Questions
Finding Tasks Using CVE Names <CR_A.2.1>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how a user can locate tasks in the tool by looking for their associated CVE name (required):
Tenable Network Security uses Common Vulnerability Enumeration nomenclature for many different processes accomplished by SecurityCenter.
- All vulnerabilities identified by Tenable’s Research group for the Nessus vulnerability scanner or the Passive Vulnerability Scanner have relevant CVE entries, where available.
- Tenable publishes our total count of covered CVE entries as well as a public web interface that can be used to search CVE entries.
- Within SecurityCenter, for any vulnerability displayed in "Detailed Vulnerability List" mode, all relevant CVE links are listed and the user can click on them to have direct information displayed in the web browser from the online CVE content. This data is also displayed in reporting and exporting via CSV content.
- Within SecurityCenter, the text of any CVE value can be used as a search. For example, one could enter in "CVE-2002" and would be presented with all matching vulnerabilities that had a CVE entry from the year 2002. Specific CVE entries can be used as well.
- When browsing vulnerability descriptions within SecurityCenter, CVE entries are also indicated.
- For vulnerability to IDS event correlation, SecurityCenter employs CVE as one of the correlation matrices, such that an IDS event from a non-Tenable vendor could be correlated with all discovered vulnerabilities that have the same CVE entry.
Finding CVE Names Using Elements in Reports <CR_A.2.2>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how, for reports that identify individual security elements, the tool allows the user to determine the associated CVE names for the individual security elements in the report (required):
When creating a PDF report that contains vulnerability information, if the "raw vulnerability detail" chapter is enabled, it will contain CVE entries, if one or more CVE entries are available for the vulnerability in question. This can be seen in the following screen shot:
Getting a List of CVE Names Associated with Tasks <CR_A.2.4>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how a user can obtain a listing of all of the CVE names that are associated with the tool’s tasks (recommended):
- Within Security Center, CVE identifiers can be used to search existing PVS and Nessus plugins to see if a check exists for a desired CVE entry.
- After a scan, when viewing vulnerability details, all associated CVE entries are displayed.
- CVE identifiers can be used as a filter such that only vulnerabilities related to a certain CVE will be shown.
Selecting Tasks with a List of CVE Names <CR_A.2.5>
Describe the steps and format that a user would use to select a set of tasks by providing a file with a list of CVE names (recommended):
- Within a vulnerability policy, a user would search all available plugins for relevant CVE entries and then enable the plugins (tasks) that they desired to be included in their audit.
- This process would be repeated iteratively, each time adding more relevant plugins to the list.
Selecting Tasks Using Individual CVE Names <CR_A.2.6>
Describe the steps that a user would follow to browse, select, and deselect a set of tasks for the tool by using individual CVE names (recommended):
A user would simply search a list of plugins (there may be more than one) for individual CVE names and then create a vulnerability policy that enabled just that (or those) plugins.
Non-Support Notification for a Requested CVE Name <CR_A.2.7>
Provide a description of how the tool notifies the user that task associated to a selected CVE name cannot be performed (recommended):
SecurityCenter, Nessus and the PVS include a variety of diagnostic methods to determine if and why a scan did not complete its audit. For example, if a CVE task requires credentials to perform a patch audit but those credentials are not supplied, an error is shown in the scan results.
Finding Online Capability Tasks Using CVE Names <CR_A.4.1>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how a "find" or "search" function is available to the user to locate tasks in the online capability by looking for their associated CVE name or through an online mapping that links each element of the capability with its associated CVE name(s) (required):
- A Plugin Search tool exists at http://www.nessus.org that can use CVE IDs to search for relevant plugins.
- A PDF document lists all PVS plugins, including CVE entries. CVE IDs can be used for searching within the document.
Finding CVE Names Using Online Capability Elements <CR_A.4.2>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how, for reports that identify individual security elements, the online capability allows the user to determine the associated CVE names for the individual security elements in the report. (required):
All reports and vulnerability details include relevant CVE data, so an online mapping function of Nessus or PVS plugins to CVE entries is not required.
Online Capability Element to CVE Name Mapping <CR_A.4.3>
If details for individual security elements are not provided, give examples and explanations of how a user can obtain a mapping that links each element with its associated CVE name(s), otherwise enter N/A (required):
Tenable describes its CVE usage, along with other standards, in a document available on its Support Portal titled "Standards Declarations". This document details how Tenable updates CVE, CVSS, XCCDF and many other standards and also how CVE can be used to search for specific vulnerabilities.
Finding Elements Using CVE Names <CR_A.5.1>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how a user can associated elements in the capability by looking for their associated CVE name (required):
Within Security Center, the text of any CVE value can be used as a search. For example, one could enter in "CVE-2002" and would be presented with all matching vulnerabilities that had a CVE entry from the year 2002. Specific CVE entries can be used as well.
Finding CVE Names Using Elements in Reports <CR_A.5.2>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how, for reports that identify individual security elements, the capability allows the user to determine the associated CVE names for the individual security elements in the report (required):
In A.2.2), an example PDF report is shown that indicates relevant CVE entries. CVE identifiers can be used as strings to search a report.
Getting a List of CVE Names Associated with Tasks <CR_A.5.4>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how a user can obtain a listing of all of the CVE names that are associated with the capability’s tasks (recommended):
SecurityCenter includes a description for each task. If this task also references one or more CVEs, it will be indicated. This data can be displayed by searching the vulnerability database, or linking to it when analyzing actual discovered vulnerabilities.
Selecting Tasks with a List of CVE Names <CR_A.5.5>
Describe the steps and format that a user would use to select a set of tasks by providing a file with a list of CVE names (recommended):
Please see A.2.5)
Selecting Tasks Using Individual CVE Names <CR_A.5.6>
Describe the steps that a user would follow to browse, select, and deselect a set of tasks for the capability by using individual CVE names (recommended):
Please see A.2.6)
Electronic Document Format Info <CR_B.3.1>
Provide details about the different electronic document formats that you provide and describe how they can be searched for specific CVE-related text (required):
- SecurityCenter reports that include vulnerability detail will have CVE entries in them. This allows users to search within a PDF file for relevant CVE data.
- If data in SecurityCenter’s user interface includes CVE data (for example, when listing vulnerability detail information, but not when summarizing open port information), CVE information will also be included in the comma separated value (CSV) file.
Electronic Document Listing of CVE Names <CR_B.3.2>
If one of the capability’s standard electronic documents only lists security elements by their short names or titles provide example documents that demonstrate how the associated CVE names are listed for each individual security element (required):
Please see A.2.2), which includes a screen shot of the report that references CVE data for each unique element.
Electronic Document Element to CVE Name Mapping <CR_B.3.3>
Provide example documents that demonstrate the mapping from the capability’s individual elements to the respective CVE name(s) (recommended):
N/A. SecurityCenter does not readily provide a global mapping of CVE to tasks.
Finding Elements Using CVE Names Through the GUI <CR_B.4.1>
Give detailed examples and explanations of how the GUI provides a "find" or "search" function for the user to identify your capability’s elements by looking for their associated CVE name(s) (required):
- For any detected vulnerability, if there is one or more CVE entries associated with it, they will be listed in the vulnerability detail view. To test this, view either the raw scan results or the cumulative database results and select raw detail. The CVE entries will be listed as in the screen shot below.
- Vulnerabilities with CVE entries can also be queried by selecting "Show Filters" and then entering the specific CVE string (or partial string) into the "Vulnerability Text" box.
- CVE data is viewable in raw CVS spreadsheet exports from the cumulative view as well.
- In raw PDF reports, if the "vulnerability details" chapter is enabled, CVE data will also be present.
Below is a screen shot of viewing raw vulnerability information with relevant CVE information:
Below is another screen shot of SecurityCenter using a text field to filter matching events with specific CVE entries:
GUI Element to CVE Name Mapping <CR_B.4.2>
Briefly describe how the associated CVE names are listed for the individual security elements or discuss how the user can use the mapping between CVE entries and the capability’s elements, also describe the format of the mapping (required):
All Nessus and Passive Vulnerability Scanner plugins receive mappings to CVE, Bugtraq and other identifiers. Although not exposed to end users, the full mapping of plugin IDs to CVE entries can be obtained from a directories named /opt/sc4/data/nas and /opt/sc4/data/pvs/console/plugins/. Within the GUI, all users can search existing plugins for CVE names, including performing searches for items like "CVE-2008" which would list all CVE entries available in 2008.
Also below is a screen shot of example CVE data being listed in an available vulnerability check:
GUI Export Electronic Document Format Info <CR_B.4.3>
Provide details about the different electronic document formats that you provide for exporting or accessing CVE-related data and describe how they can be searched for specific CVE-related text (recommended):
SecurityCenter exports data three ways:
- Within the SecurityCenter GUI, any set of data (port summaries, vulnerability details, lists of IP addresses, list of vulnerabilities, etc.) can be exported via CSV. When exporting the data with all vulnerability detail, the column of "raw data" includes any CVE mappings. Spreadsheet tools such as Excel can search elements for various CVE patterns.
- For PDF reports produced by SecurityCenter, if the "raw vulnerability chapter" is included, it will list any associated CVE mappings.
- SecurityCenter can also export vulnerability data in the .nessus format. When loaded into Nessus, specific CVE entries can be searched for by looking for CVE strings within the data results.
Statement of Compatibility <CR_2.7>
Have an authorized individual sign and date the following Compatibility Statement (required):
"As an authorized representative of my organization I agree that we will abide by all of the mandatory CVE Compatibility Requirements as well as all of the additional mandatory CVE Compatibility Requirements that are appropriate for our specific type of capability."
Name: Ron Gula
Title: CEO, Tenable Network Security
Statement of Accuracy <CR_3.4>
Have an authorized individual sign and date the following accuracy Statement (recommended):
"As an authorized representative of my organization and to the best of my knowledge, there are no errors in the mapping between our capability’s Repository and the CVE entries our capability identifies."
Name: Ron Gula
Title: CEO, Tenable Network Security
Statement on False-Positives and False-Negatives <CR_A.2.8 and/or CR_A.3.5>
FOR TOOLS ONLY - Have an authorized individual sign and date the following statement about your tools efficiency in identification of security elements (required):
"As an authorized representative of my organization and to the best of my knowledge, normally when our capability reports a specific security element, it is generally correct and normally when an event occurs that is related to a specific security element our capability generally reports it."
Name: Ron Gula
Title: CEO, Tenable Network Security
