Nathanael,

I had the same problem getting started with scanning and auditing. Below are a couple of starting points.

Getting Started with scanning/auditing CentOS 6 with SCAP-Security-Guide
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For a quick start on auditing CentOS, see the CentOS 6 QuickStart in the README at: https://github.com/GovReady/govready

The QuickStart installs my pure Bourne shell app, "GovReady," which installs OpenSCAP, SCAP-Security-Guide (SSG). Follow the QuickStart steps to make the adjustments in the OVAL test so the SSG tests for RedHat will run correctly on CentOS instead of returning "not applicable" results.

The GovReady toolkit displays all OpenSCAP commands it runs, so it can be helpful little training tool to acquaint you the specifics of using OpenSCAP.

Getting Started with SCAP-Security-Guide in General
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Forgive me if this is too basic, but I think it is good to start from zero.

The SCAP-Security-Guide project is a project to produced open-source SCAP (Security Content Automation Protocol) for RedHat and now other Linux systems.

SCAP is best thought of machine-readable "security content". That is, XML content describing machine-readable checks for software configuration and vulnerabilities.

SCAP is composed of several interrelated XML standards (XCCDF, OVAL, OCIL, ARF, CCE, CPE, CVE, CVSS, CCSS) -- but trying to understand how the why and how of these separate standards is confusing.

What you really want to do is audit your CentOS server for vulnerabilities and configuration settings, right? To do that, you need the following:

1. "scanning software" that non-intrusively ​scans and audits ​server nerd knob settings; 

 2. "security content" (or "SCAP content") that describes the tests to apply to audit the server; 

3. "security report" that indicates which tests passed, which tests failed, and why. 


Examples of "scanning software" include RedHat's OpenSCAP, OpenVAS, FarnHall Ventures's jOVAL and Teneble's Nessus. Most "security content" is provided either by a software vendor or by a third party such as Tenable that sells enterprise scanning software. This list, of course, offers SCAP-Security-Guide, which is security content in SCAP format with an open source license (Hurray!).

​ ​

The "security reports" indicating which tests have passed is generally a module built into the scanning software. Most scanning software also produces standardized XML reporting results so the content can be aggregated in other tools.


Scanning/auditing a system is not really any different from installing Virus scanning software and Virus signatures content to scan your computer for viruses.  But it's been my experience that SCAP feels much more complicated.  I think there are three reasons why. First, the government cyber security community is a bit insular by nature. Second, scanning software is designed for scanning thousands of "end points" in the enterprise and a lot of knowledge is assumed. Finally, SCAP has not yet been packaged to be user friendly and has a steep learning curve as a standard. (It's easy to get to over 8 standards when you are trying to juggle different platforms, supporting variables, standardized tracking of vulnerabilities, etc.)

Anyway, the whole point of SCAP is to automate security scanning, to have computers check other computers. That process involves the following steps:

1. Install NIST-certified SCAP scanning software
2. Download/install desired SCAP Content (e.g. security content) for your platform
3. Choose the correct profile (e.g., checklist of tests)
4. Run the scan
5. Look at results
6. Fix results
7. Repeat as necessary

Here are some links that discuss the specifics of these seven steps. 

- http://github.com/govready - a toolkit designed to make server auditing friendly to developers use to work with Git.
http://myopensourcelife.com/2013/09/08/scap-and-remediation/ (ignore the installation information and jump down to "running a scan" to see commands
- http://people.redhat.com/swells/docs/en-US/SCAP_Security_Guide/0.1/html-single/User_Guide/index.html - the SSG manual

It is pretty easy to install the scanning software of your choice, but it can be a real challenge to finding the SCAP content for your platform. Lots of SCAP is proprietary, but the SCAP-Security-Guide is working to make more scanning content available for more platforms under open source licenses. (Or at least, I think of it that way.)

A big gotcha that I ran into with SCAP-Security-Guide is the fact that tests are associated with RedHat platform specifically. (One of the SCAP standards, CPE, or Common Platform Enumeration, provides an explicit way of universally identifying a platform. And the SSG basic distribution tests for RedHat. So it is necessary to adjust CPE-dictionary file and the associated CPE test in the OVAL XML to get RedHat SSG tests to work properly on CentOS.)

Send more questions if you have them...

best, 

Greg Elin
GovReady PBC
e gregelin@gitmachines
m 917-304-3488


On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 2:24 PM, Nathanael D. Noblet <nathanael@gnat.ca> wrote:
Hello,

  We tend to use CentOS for most of our servers. All legacy servers are
6, we have two new v7 servers.

  I would like to learn how to perform some of these audits that the
guide provides. I looked at it a few months back but never got to the
point of having it work successfully.

  Does anyone know of documentation on how to use the guide with CentOS?
I know v7 isn't quite ready? I'm also wondering if there are public
locations for standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, or other high security
'generally accepted' standards etc.

--
Nathanael

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