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Subject: [Fwd: Re: [was] The ID generation issue]



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FYI just in case:  W3C spec on xml:id now a CR

http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/CR-xml-id-20050208/


-rcc

---------

On Tue, 8 Feb 2005, Peter Michalek wrote:

> Jeff, Ivan,
> excellent observations and suggestions.
> --
> In order to analyze and understand what exactly we are solving here and 
> what might be the scope of a comprehensive solution, here is my 
> interpretation and comment.
> 
> The original post and response deal with these issues:
> 
> 1 - ID uniqueness and creation
>    a - make sure they are unique
>    b - make sure they are not confusing (e.g because of wasteful redundancy)
>    c - ID and vuln instance versioning - i.e. ID evolution, if any, 
> through modification of a vulnerability instance 
>         caused by auditing process and addition of new domain 
> descriptions, e.g. adding detect to analysis
> 2 - access of EVDL databases
>    a - access to vulnerability document identified by an ID and URL
>    b - access to individual security domain components, such as protect, 
> detect, analysis
> 
> Other issues that are not addressed here but whose resolution may drive 
> decision making to resolve 1 and 2:
> 
> 3 - what's going to be a typical storage model of EVDL at an enterprise?
>   a - will the company want to store multiple security domains in one 
> document instance or separate document instances?
>        - this will influence if they'd prefer 1c to be solved
> 
> My inline comments and questions are marked by "PM>" and accompanies by 
> issue number.
> 
> 
> > I agree with the idea to delete the date from the ID.  
> 
> PM> Date: Issues 2b, date could be deleted (but it doesn't improve 
> anything).
> Another approach would be to change the wording of ID creation to 
> suggest that date is optional.
> {company-specific-prefix}-foundstone.com-0001
> or foundstone.com-0001-{optional-date}-{company-specific-data}
> 
> I think the reasoning behind the original ID formula and inclusion of 
> date was similarity with CVE ids which I think contains dates to make 
> IDS more human-readable.
> 
> > I also like the idea behind the URI approach to ID's.  But I think 
> > that the ID should be separate from the location of the repository 
> > where the evdl entries are stored.
> >    http://repository.com/evdl/thinkingstone/protect/123456
> >
> 
> 
> 
> Issue 1c and 2b
> As far as having different IDs for different components, keeping it 
> simple would be nice.
> 
> Another way of accessing security domain specific part within a EVDL 
> instance is using XPATH expression, e.g.:
> $repositoryURL?id=123456#evdl/protect
> (see more on 1c below)
> 
> > Your point about different parts of the EVDL having different IDs is 
> > interesting.  Personally, I would like to make sure that all the EVDL 
> > parts related to a single vulnerability can be correlated somehow.  So 
> > if there's an analyze element, a protect element, and two different 
> > protect elements that all are related to the same problem, I want to 
> > find them all.  But I think there may be many-to-one relationships 
> > among these different pieces. That leads me to something like:
> >     http://repository.com/evdl/123456/protect/thinkingstone
> >     http://repository.com/evdl/123456/analyze/aspectsecurity
> >     http://repository.com/evdl/123456/detect/webkreator
> >
> 
> > Essentially the 123456 becomes the reference to the underlying problem 
> > being discussed.  I do not know how to solve the problem of dealing 
> > with related issues (other than listing them in the schema somewhere 
> > -- which I seem to recall we already do).
> 
> 
> >
> > --Jeff
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ivan Ristic" <ivanr@webkreator.com>
> > To: <was@lists.oasis-open.org>
> > Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 5:46 AM
> > Subject: [was] The ID generation issue
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Here are my thoughts on this issue:
> >>
> >> I don't think the current algorithm is satisfactory because it uses 
> >> the release date as part of the ID. As a reminder here's what the 
> >> schema says about this:
> >>
> >> ---
> >> The ID element provides a mechanism to declare uniquely identifiable 
> >> attributes for cataloging and referencing.
> >>
> >> The provider, author and vendor IDs allow cross referencing and trust 
> >> models to be developed based on the source of the test case.
> >>
> >> Note: Need to define the XML:DigSig for these attributes and provide 
> >> for a mechanism to sign an entire file (ie provide authenticity and 
> >> integrity of the file outside of transport security).
> >>
> >> The ID Element should be derived from the following pieces of 
> >> information:
> >>
> >>   1.  Organization Label / Name - ex: Foundstone, in the case of large
> >>       organization it is their responsibility to maintain organization
> >>       level uniqueness.  ... TODO:  Define legal characters.
> >>
> >>   2.  Current date - YYYY-MM-DD TODO:
> >>
> >> Thus a sample ID is: 2004-03-31-foundstone.com-0001
> >>
> >> The id part after the company name should be unique within the 
> >> company (i.e. last part of id namespace needs to be managed by the 
> >> company.
> >> ---
> >>
> >> What happens when there is a revision? Is the ID supposed to change 
> >> to incorporate the date of the revision release or not? In any case, 
> >> I don't see a strong point for having the date as part of the ID.
> >
> PM> Issue 1c:
> Versioning as proposed in this version doesn't change the original ID. 
> The "history" tag is intended to allow modifications to an instance 
> while keeping ID the same.
> See http://www.evdl.net/latest/examples/example-sca-1.xml
> 
> 
> >>
> >>
> >> Furthermore, we need to consider the requirement of every EVDL part 
> >> to have an ID of its own. Personally I would like to see something 
> >> like this (as an ID):
> >
> 
> >>
> >> http://www.thinkingstone.com/evdl/protect/123456
> >>
> >> or
> >>
> >>  * http://www.thinkingstone.com/evdl = unique ID of the publisher
> >>  * 123456 - instance ID (unique on the publisher level)
> >>  * protect - EVDL part name
> >>
> >> In fact, maybe it's probably better to use the following format:
> >>
> >> http://www.thinkingstone.com/evdl/123456/protect
> >> http://www.thinkingstone.com/evdl/123456/protect
> >
> 
> 
> >>
> >> Using an ID of this form would achieve the following:
> >>
> >>  1. Assign a unique ID to a schema instance
> >>
> >>  2. Allow different parts to have different IDs but
> >>     related parts to have a common base
> >>
> >>  3. Allow a device to retrieve an instance from a publisher's
> >>     web site just by accessing the URL. Therefore an ID is all
> >>     a device needs to retrieve the XML data.
> >>
> PM>
> Issues 1c
> Ivan in 3.: What happens if the same instance if stored in a different 
> location?
> 
> We could treat individual security domains  / components as revision to 
> the primary instance.
> Then we could first solve approach to revision identification which 
> would automatically include being able to identify component.
> 
> To access a particular component within an instance, given a repository 
> location and the vulnID, we could use XPATH.
> 
> 
> For those of you who haven't seen the EVDL Overview doc, please note 
> that defining how vulnerabilities are stored is a chapter  (currently 
> empty) we are working on in the EVDL overview document:
> http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/was/download.php/11288/EVDL-0.1-draft.doc
> 
>  
> 
> >
> >> -- 
> >> Ivan Ristic (http://www.modsecurity.org)
> >>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list (and be removed from the roster of the OASIS TC), go to http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/was/members/leave_workgroup.php.
> 
> 

-- 



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