README.md

Security

Directory contents

• status.md: Current status of vulnerabilities reported on Fleet software components by security scanners (trivy). This document is currently auto-generated from files in the vex/ directory.
• code/: Files used for vulnerability scanning on Fleet's source code.
• vex/: OpenVEX files to report status of vulnerabilities detected by Trivy on Fleet docker images.

Vulnerability scanning

The following Github CI actions perform daily vulnerability scanning on Fleet software components.

• trivy-scan.yml: Scan source code for vulnerabilities.
• build-and-check-fleetctl-docker-and-deps.yml: Scans for HIGH and CRITICAL vulnerabilities in fleetctl docker image dependencies (fleetdm/fleetctl, fleetdm/wix, and fleetdm/bomutils).
• goreleaser-snapshot-fleet.yaml: Scans for HIGH and CRITICAL vulnerabilities in fleetdm/fleet docker image before pushing to the Docker registry (runs daily and is triggered for every change in Fleet's source code).
• check-vulnerabilities-in-released-docker-images.yml: Scans for CRITICAL vulnerabilities in the last 5 minor released versions of the fleetdm/fleet and on the latest release of fleetdm/fleetctl.

Process to run when a CVE is reported

1. Update report (status.md)

If trivy reports a HIGH or CRITICAL CVE on one of Fleet's docker images (reported by the previously mentioned Github Actions), then we need to assess the report and track it with a status of "not affected", "affected", "fixed", or "under investigation".

We use the OpenVEX format to track the status of reported vulnerabilities (vex/ folder).

Once the status is determined, we use the vexctl tool to create a VEX file.

brew install vexctl

Example for CVE-2023-32698 on package github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2 which we know doesn't affect fleetdm/fleetctl:

vexctl create --product="fleetctl,pkg:golang/github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2" \
  --vuln="CVE-2023-32698" \
  --status="not_affected" \
  --author="@getvictor" \
  --justification="vulnerable_code_cannot_be_controlled_by_adversary" \
  --status-note="When packaging linux files, fleetctl does not use global permissions. It was verified that packed fleetd package files do not have group/global write permissions." > security/vex/fleetctl/CVE-2023-32698.vex.json

Similarly, for CVE-2024-8260 on package github.com/open-policy-agent/opa which we know doesn't affect fleetdm/fleet:

vexctl create --product="fleet,pkg:golang/github.com/open-policy-agent/opa" \
  --vuln="CVE-2024-8260" \
  --status="not_affected" \
  --author="@luacsmrod" \
  --justification="vulnerable_code_cannot_be_controlled_by_adversary" \
  --status-note="Fleet doesn't run on Windows, so it's not affected by this vulnerability." > security/vex/fleetctl/CVE-2024-8260.vex.json

Examples of --product flag values (which accept "PURLs"):

• liblzma5 debian package: pkg:deb/debian/liblzma5.
• github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2 golang package: pkg:golang/github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2.
• xerces/xercesImpl java package: pkg:maven/xerces/xercesImpl.

When new VEX files are generated or updated we can update the security/status.md file by running:

make vex-report

2. Update software

If the detected vulnerability can be fixed by updating the base docker image or removing/changing components in the docker image then we do so and the update will be present on the next release. (It is good practice to keep software up-to-date.)

3. Process for "affected" CRITICAL vulnerabilities

fleetdm/fleet

Following is the process to run when a CRITICAL CVE affects any of the five last releases of fleetdm/fleet docker image (reported by check-vulnerabilities-in-released-docker-images.yml).

1. We will use the information reported by the scanner and update our status.md to keep users/customers informed.
2. If the CRITICAL vulnerability (that has a fix) is on the latest release, we'll file a critical/P0 bug and release a patch ASAP (within 1 business day). The previous four versions scanned won't be retroactively patched, only latest will be patched.

fleetdm/fleetctl

Following is the process to run when a CRITICAL CVE affects the released fleetdm/fleetctl:latest docker image:

1. After security/status.md is updated, notify users/customers about the CVE in the fleetdm/fleetctl image and possible remediations.
2. Create a Github issue with a P0/security label to track the fix.
3. The fix will be released on the next release of the fleetdm/fleetctl docker image.