* Can you describe most common problems that you have to face when you create the OVAL content? -Lack of working knowledge of the OVAL schema. The repetitiveness of the XML syntax. (These problems are taken care of by SSG in a way)

* How do you usually solve these problems? -Manually look up the OVAL schema for reference. Lots of copying & pasting, or come up with other creative solutions.

* Can you tell me an example when did you run into issues with OVAL? -Debugging OVAL may not get same results with different scanners (e.g. works in one scanner but not on another vendor's scanner due to case sensitivity).

* Imagine an ideal tool for an OVAL developer. What should it be able to do? What would be its features? -I think you covered most of the desired features. I would add the ability to map out dependencies (definition->test->object->state)

Will this be a cross-platform solution or exclusive to Linux? You may want to cross post these questions over at oval-developer-list@list.mitre.org to get more feedback.

Thanks,

Wei Chen Security Engineer Office of Information Security (OIS) U.S. Census Bureau Email: wei.n.chen@census.gov

________________________________________ Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2015 03:15:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Jan Cerny jcerny@redhat.com To: SCAP Security Guide scap-security-guide@lists.fedorahosted.org Subject: A tool for support of SCAP content development Message-ID: 1732516322.13429325.1433402142321.JavaMail.zimbra@redhat.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Hello,

Nowadays, there is almost no support for OVAL content development. The developers have to edit the XML files manually, there is no analysis tool, no debugger or any other tool that could make the content development faster and easier. I have started working on a new utility that will be able to debug OVAL checks, show step-by-step how they are evaluated, browse collected objects and system characteristics, communicate with probes, etc. I'm working on design of the utility now. I'm considering many alternatives, so I would like to ask you a few questions. * Can you describe most common problems that you have to face when you create the OVAL content? * How do you usually solve these problems? * Can you tell me an example when did you run into issues with OVAL? * Imagine an ideal tool for an OVAL developer. What should it be able to do? What would be its features? I would appreciate any suggestions, remarks or other inputs. Thank you very much for your reply.

Regards

Jan Černý Security Technologies | Red Hat, Inc.