On 02/20/2013 07:01 PM, Jeffrey Blank wrote:
> 1) Ditto on the exporting of variables to achieve flexibility with
> regard to values.  SecState may provide some inspiration, as I believe
> they populate environment variables to handle this (see Francisco's
> earlier post).  This will have to be addressed by tooling (and careful
> sync between tooling and content authors).  Presumably the openscap
> developers can cook up something in their fix-generation.

I think this will be icky if XCCDF <Value>s are considered useful. There
is too little coordination in XCCDF for <Value>s and where they might be
used. XCCDF <Value>s were not well thought out for use in more than just
benchmark "tailoring".

It may be long-term necessary to consider alternatives.

Shorter-term, the assembly process starting from (the woefully
namespace-less, which I think I can correct) fragments can likely be
adapted to propagate variables of interest into SCAP-compliant XML. I
don't think <xccdf:sub> is the right way.

If it is now close to the time when a namespace (or two) for
scap-security-guide fragments, and a schema for those, can be
considered, I'd be willing to put up a trial balloon. This ultimately
becomes an exercise in avoiding arbitrary limitations of XCCDF by
allowing reasonable and useful expression ahead of (SP 800-126 rev 1)
XCCDF generation. As in variables that end up manifest in checks and
fixes. Ideally, the same meaning of value/variable (e.g., password
length) in all venues.

I don't think XCCDF should be levied on content authors, rather,
something useful that can be competently turned into XCCDF should be
provided. Accompanied by a schema. It can be better than XCCDF; the
shortcomings of such a transformation can be noted so that the
proto-XCCDF/OVAL content can be dumbed-down as and if necessary.

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