On 12/11/13, 6:47 PM, joescap@mm.st wrote:
Thank you, that does help, but a few followup questions.  In the SCAP
content on the https://fedorahosted.org/scap-security-guide/ there are
several profiles in the ssg-rhel6-xccdf.xml:
server, stig-rhel6-server, usgcb-rhel6-server

I'm trying to understand if these are profiles that have been submitted
to NIST or DISA and are waiting for approval? Are these the accepted
baselines for a RH Server at this point? Should I use the usgcb or stig
profile?   Just trying to wrap my head around this since we want to
start using one of these.

In regards to formal government baselines, the SSG community collaborates with the government and often acts as upstream. We work very closely with DISA FSO on the STIG; however, to be very clear, SSG serves as the upstream for content development. The official baselines are always posted by the relevant agency (e.g. @ http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/os/unix/red_hat.html). As bugs are reported against the DISA FSO STIG, we aspire to fix them within SSG, and those changes will be picked up during the next DISA FSO code rebase.

You can read some background of the STIG process here, though note it's a personal blog and not 'official' of SSG/RedHat/the gov:
http://blog-shawndwells.rhcloud.com/dont-miss-the-point-of-the-rhel6-stig/


In your statement below "The DISA STIG content is based on the SCAP
Security Guide (SSG) content." Does that mean that the Content on the
https://fedorahosted.org/scap-security-guide/ was used by DISA to create
the Standalone XCCDF - RedHat 6 STIG, Version 1, Release 2"?

Yes. We (RedHat/DISA/NSA) derived the official RHEL6 STIG from the SCAP Security Guide project. Every so often DISA FSO aspires to rebase the STIG from SSG.

The RHEL6 STIG still followed the same development process: there was a DoD Consensus meeting (which involved representatives from the various DoD elements), formal signoff by the NSA, acceptance from DoD CIO, etc. Instead of developing the RHEL6 STIG in a closed fashion, we wanted to open source the entire process. As such, SSG was born.

Obviously new to this and trying to understand.  Thanks
Welcome!

SSG is best known as the upstream for the RHEL6 STIG, however SSG really represents a large body of individual security controls. These controls can be logically grouped into profiles -- such as common, STIG, or USGCB -- and are not specific to government. Collaboration on commercial standards, such as PCI, would be most welcome.

-- 
Shawn Wells
Director, Innovation Programs
shawn@redhat.com | 443.534.0130
@shawndwells