SRTool User Page

This page summarizes the Security Response Tool (SRTool) user documentation.

Goals

• A common system to track and share security issues, combining community CVEs
• A simple yet flexible interface for reporting and exploring the security issues
• A place to upload and share attachments, including patches, fixes, emails, and documents
• The ability to generate accurate and up-to-date reports and exports
  • Status on a given CVE and its defects, for a specific product or for all affect products
  • Compliance reports on sensitive CVEs, for example the chain of events and who-knew-what-when
  • Status of each product, for the related CVE defects Compliance reports on sensitive CVE's, for example the chain of events and who-knew-what-when
  • Ability to easily export that data to spreadsheets and to the public CVE database
• The ability to securely store embargoed CVEs and data, complete with user protection and data encryption
• Tools to help manage the ongoing influx of CVEs (around 1000 per month) so that expert time is not wasted and crucial CVE's are not lost
• In general, a managed and automated tool set based on open source to replace splintered email threads and brittle manual systems

Basic introduction to the interface

• Initial data set: This initial data set contains the integrated CVE, Defect, and Sustaining data for 'CVE-2015-*' to 'CVE-2018-*'
• Home page: The title bar "SRTool:Security Response Tool" will always link you back to the home page
• Tables: In tables there are three ways to adjust the data set, and they can be used separately and/or together to get the best results
  • The search bar: most of the text fields are searchable. Enter a value (like 'meltdown'), all records that have that string in those fields will appear
  • The column sort: all column titles that appear in blue can be used to sort using that column. Click a second time to reverse the sort
  • The column filter: when you click on the 'cone' symbol in a column title you can select a filter based on that column's data
  • At the bottom of each table you can set the page size and jump to diff pages
• User Model: The SRTool uses the Django User Access Model

SRTool Record Types

CVE Record

• A CVE record is the representation of an upstream CVE that comes from MITRE, NIST, or other sources
• The data in a CVE record is intended to be pristine, however you can superimpose local edits to the CVE records to fix upstream errors
• You can create "local" CVEs for issues that do not yet have a formal CVE number

Vulnerability Record

• A "Vulnerability" is a SRTool record that tracks a given issue across the orgainzation's products and releases
• It normally tracks a single CVE, but it can also attach to multiple CVEs that may be duplicates or overlaps
• Pertinate data like patches, reproducers, or documents can be attached and thus shared
• A Vulnerability can be created without a CVE, in case the CVE does not yet exist or is currently embargoed

Investigation Record

• An "Investigation" is a SRTool record that tracks a given Vulnerability to a specific product and defect
• It normally attaches to a single defect, but it can also be attached to multiple defects in case (for example) the vulnerability is broken across several functional teams (e.g. kernel, user space, hardward, ...)
• Pertinate data like patches, reproducers, or documents can be attached and thus shared
• An Investigation can be created without a defect, in case the issue is still being investigated or is currently embargoed from the public defect database

Defect Record

• A "Defect" is the representation of the organization’s defect (Jira, Bugzilla)
• It connects to a CVE via the parent Investigation record and Vulnerability record

Overview of the SRTool Records

Here is a picture of the high level SRTool record structure:

Usage Guide

Working with CVEs

• The CVE page is based on the NIST public page, and includes the V3 and V2 severities information, download links, and CPEs
• There are tabs to see (a) the original NIST source data, (b) alternate CVE sources, and (c) SRTool edits (if added)
• At the top is a place for the internal tags to help lookups and track status
• At the top is a place to see the publishing state. It can include future dates, plus a "Publish Now" button
• The "New CVE" link createa a new custom local CVE record
• The "Fetch alt data" link adds Mitre, Debian, and other data to this CVE
• The "Export" link provides CVE specific reports

Working with Vulnerabilities

• Vulnerability records track the overall status of CVE (or a group of tightly related CVEs)
• Multiple related CVE's can be attached
• Multiple Investigations can be attached, one per product
• Comments and attachments can be added by logged-in users (for traceability)
• Users can sign up for change notification emails
• Vulnerabilities can be public, or locked to an invitation-only list of users
• The "Edit Status ..." button allow changes to the fields like the status, priority, comments
• The "Create Notification..." button is for notifying owners of status changes for the record
• The "Delete" button is for deleting this record
• The "Add product ..." button is for attaching a product and creating a respective Investigation record
• The "New Vulnerabilities" link createa a new vulnerability record
• The "Export" link provides Vulnerability specific reports

Working with Investigations

• Investigation records track the status of a CVE for a given product
• Multiple defect links can be attached
• Comments and attachments can be added by logged-in users
• Users can sign up for change notification emails
• Investigation can be public, or locked to a controlled list of users
• The "Edit Status ..." button allow changes to the fields like the status, priority, comments
• The "Create Notification..." button is for notifying owners of status changes for the record
• The "Delete" button is for deleting this record
• The "Export" link provides Investigation specific reports

Working with Defects

• This table lists all of the defects being tracked by the Vulnerabilities and Investigations
• A quick status overview of the defects is provided
• A quick summary page per defect is provided, with a link to the actual defect

Working with Products

• The Products page shows the organization's products that are attached to the SRTool
• Links are provided to view the product's Vulnerabilities, Investigations, and Defects

Working with User Accounts

• By default you will be logged in as an anonymous "Guest"
• Click log-in in the top bar:
  • Select to log in with your credentials
  • Select to create your own Guest account
• When logged in, click your user name in the top bar to:
  • Select to log out. This will return you to the anonymous 'Guest' account
  • Select to edit your account settings
  • Select to edit your password