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Proposal: Expand VulnerabilityType in Exploit Target

John Wunder edited this page Jan 6, 2014 · 7 revisions

Status: Accepted with modifications
Comment Period Closes: 1/3/2014
Affects Backwards Compatibility: NO
Relevant Issue: https://github.com/STIXProject/schemas/issues/53

Background Information

The ExploitTarget component has a field called Vulnerability that is used to represent a vulnerability that is the target of a particular threat. Currently, that field is essentially either an external reference to a vulnerability defined in CVE or OSVDB or a representation of that vulnerability defined inline in CVRF.

Proposal

It has been suggested that this type be expanded to include metadata about vulnerabilities. In particular, the following fields were suggested:

Field Datatype Description
@is_known Boolean A flag for whether the vulnerability is known (not a 0-day) at the time of characterization
Title String The name/identifier of the vulnerability, especially useful if no vulnerability database ID is available
Description String A description of the vulnerability, especially useful if no vulnerability database ID is available
Short_Description String A short description of the vulnerability, especially useful if no vulnerability database ID is available
Discovered Datetime The date and time that the vulnerability was discovered
Published Datetime The date and time that the vulnerability was published
Source String The source of the CVE description, as a textual description
References List[URI] A list of external references describing the vulnerability
Affected_Software List[CybOX Observables] A list of software products that are vulnerable

Impact

There is no expected compatibility impact. Producers will have the option to use the new fields and consumers can choose to handle them or not as with any other field in STIX.

Requested Feedback

  1. Should this capability be added to STIX?
  2. Is the list of suggestions correct?
  3. If not, what should be added or removed?

Resolution

This proposal was accepted with some modifications. Specifically, the @is_known attribute will be renamed to @is_publicly_acknowledged and the annotations will state that the field is used to denote whether the vulnerability is publicly acknowledged by the vendor.

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