Difference between revisions of "How to meet verification reporting requirements"

Revision as of 15:14, 16 January 2009

Overview

If you are performing an application security verification according to the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS) verification requirements, then you will need to document the results according to ASVS reporting requirements. The ASVS prescribes four sets of reporting requirements:

• R1 - Report Introduction Reporting Requirements
• R2 - Application Description Reporting Requirements
• R3 - Application Security Architecture Reporting Requirements
• R4 - Verification Results Reporting Requirements

The ASVS reporting requirements define the type of information that is required to be present in the report. The ASVS reporting requirements do not define the structure or formatting of the report. The ASVS reporting requirements do not preclude additional information from being included in the report.

The type of information that is required by each set of ASVS reporting requirements may be named, formatted, and organized according to a verifier’s requirements. ASVS reporting requirements will still be met as long as the required information is present.

For example, a verification customer may expect a verifier’s report to look a certain way and to contain certain sections. The existing customer report structure can be updated to accommodate this situation by including the additional information required by ASVS reporting requirements: new subsections may be added to existing ones, new sections may be added at the end of the report or in appendices, and so on.

Example: Meeting Report Introduction Requirements

The R1 - Report Introduction Reporting Requirements state:

“This part of the Report shall provide sufficient information to identify both the Report and the web application that is the subject of the report. The Report introduction shall also summarize the overall verdict.”

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

   1. VERIFICATION REPORT INTRODUCTION
           
   This section identifies the Verification Report (VR) 
   and the Target of Verification (TOV). It also identifies
   VR conformance claims, and the VR organization. The TOV 
   is <insert application name> provided by <insert 
   developer name>. <insert application name> is <insert 
   1-2 sentence description of what the application does>.
        
   The Verification Report contains the following
   additional sections:
       
   *Section 2: The Target of Verification (TOV)
   Description. This section describes the TOV
   implementation.
   *Section 3: Assumptions. This section describes the 
   assumptions made during verification.
   *Section 4: Verification Requirements. This section 
   identifies the OWASP ASVS verification requirements that 
   the verification was performed against.
   *Section 5: <insert level-specific verification 
   technique name here> Process. This section describes the 
   verification methodology that was used to determine if 
   ASVS verification requirements were met or not.
   *Section 6: Verification Results. This section documents 
   the results of the verification, including pass/fail 
   verdicts for OWASP ASVS verification requirements that 
   the verification was performed against.
      
   1.1 APPLICATION AND OWASP ASVS IDENTIFICATION
     
   *Verification Report Version – <insert version of this 
   document>
   *TOV Identification – <name of the application>
   *TOV Developer – <insert name of the developer or 
   verification customer>
   *OWASP ASVS Identification – OWASP Application Security 
   Verification Standard – Web Edition 2008 (Beta), 
   December 2008
       
   1.2 CONFORMANCE CLAIMS
      
   This TOV is conformant to the following OWASP 
   specifications:
       
   *OWASP Application Security Verification Standard – Web 
   Edition 2008 (Beta), December 2008. Level <insert ASVS 
   level> Conformant.

Example: Meeting Application Description Requirements

The R2 - Application Description Reporting Requirements state:

“This part of the Report shall provide sufficient description of the web application to aid the understanding of its operation and the environment that it operates in.”

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

   2. TOV DESCRIPTION
     
   2.1 TOV OVERVIEW
     
   <insert 1-2 paragraphs describing in layman’s terms at a 
   high level what the application is and does>

Example: Meeting Application Security Architecture Reporting Requirements

The R3 - Application Security Architecture Reporting Requirements state (in part):

“This part of the Report shall provide additional detail describing the web application as the first step in providing confidence to the reader of the report that the analysis that was performed was both complete and accurate. This part of the Report provides context for the analysis. The information presented in this section will be used in the course of the analysis to identify inconsistencies.”

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

   2.1 TOV ARCHITECTURE
    
   The TOV can be described in terms of the following 
   components:
     
   *<application component name> – <1-2 sentence 
   description>
   *<application component name> – <1-2 sentence 
   description>
   *<application component name> – <1-2 sentence 
   description>
   
   The intended environment of the TOV can be described in 
   terms of the following components:
     
   *<environment component name> – <1-2 sentence 
   description>
   *<environment component name> – <1-2 sentence 
   description>
   *<environment component name> – <1-2 sentence 
   description>
   
   <insert additional description here, depending on ASVS 
   level; examples of IT environment components are 
   application servers and operating systems.>

Example: Meeting Verification Results Requirements

The R4 - Verification Results Reporting Requirements state (in part):

“This part of the Report shall provide the results of the analysis that was performed according to section “Verification Requirements” of the Standard, including description of any remediation of vulnerabilities that was required…”

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

   6. VERIFICATION RESULTS
    
   6.1 V1 – SECURITY ARCHITECTURE VERIFICATION RESULTS
    
   <insert what are likely proprietary result formats that 
   include necessary ASVS reporting requirement information 
   here, including pass/fail verdicts for each ASVS 
   verification requirement>
     
   6.2 V2 – AUTHENTICATION VERIFICATION RESULTS
     
   6.3 V3 – SESSION MANAGEMENT VERIFICATION RESULTS
       
   6.4 V4 – ACCESS CONTROL VERIFICATION RESULTS
       
   6.5 V5 – INPUT VALIDATION VERIFICATION RESULTS
   
   6.6 V6 – OUTPUT ENCODING/ESCAPING VERIFICATION 
   RESULTS
   
   6.7 V7 – CRYPTOGRAPHY VERIFICATION RESULTS
   
   6.8 V8 – ERROR HANDLING AND LOGGING VERIFICATION 
   RESULTS
   
   6.9 V9 – DATA PROTECTION VERIFICATION RESULTS
   
   6.10 V10 – COMMUNICATION SECURITY VERIFICATION 
   RESULTS
   
   6.11 V11 – HTTP SECURITY VERIFICATION RESULTS
   
   6.12 V12 – SECURITY CONFIGURATION VERIFICATION 
   RESULTS
   
   6.13 V13 – MALICIOUS CODE SEARCH VERIFICATION 
   RESULTS
   
   6.14 V14 – INTERNAL SECURITY VERIFICATION RESULTS

Helpful Hints

• Note how the above did not include sections 3, 4 or 5, as defined within the first example. This is an example of how the OWASP ASVS does not prescribe formatting or structure. The information is likely helpful for a reader of the verification report, but is not strictly required by ASVS reporting requirements.
• Try organizing verification results according to application components, then verification requirement sections with application components, if you have a complicated application.
• Try organizing verification results according to verification levels, then tool/technique, then application components, if you need to generate separate reports (e.g. code review results go to one team, architecture results go to another team).