SSVC Ore Miner

Overview

The Stakeholder-Specific Vulnerability Categorization (SSVC) Ore Miner is a tool designed to enhance vulnerability management by automating the process of calculating patch priority. It addresses the shortcomings of traditional methods like the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) by incorporating asset context and vulnerability intelligence.

Why SSVC Ore Miner?

While CVSS provides a generic risk score, it fails to consider the specific context of vulnerable assets. SSVC Ore Miner bridges this gap by:

• Accounting for the real-life implications of vulnerabilities.
• Using well-defined decision logic for prioritization.
• Allowing inspection, modification, and extension of decision criteria to fit organizational needs.
• NEW: Integrating EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores for enhanced risk assessment.

By leveraging asset context and vulnerability intelligence, the SSVC Ore Miner helps security teams focus on vulnerabilities that pose the highest risk of compromise.

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Prioritization Criteria

SSVC Ore Miner evaluates vulnerabilities using the following vectors:

1. Exploitation:
   Determines the exploit's availability and status using open-source threat intelligence feeds.

   • Possible values: active, PoC, none.

2. Exposure:
   Assesses the likelihood of exposure if an exploit is used against a vulnerable asset.

   • Possible values: unavoidable, probable, unlikely.

3. Utility:
   Evaluates the ease of exploitation based on factors like network access, user interaction, and asset discoverability.

   • Possible values: effortless, complex, laborious.

4. Impact:
   Considers the environment (e.g., production or staging), asset type, and criticality to the business.

   • Possible values: very high, high, medium, low.

5. EPSS Score:
   NEW: Exploit Prediction Scoring System score indicating the probability of exploitation within 30 days.

   • Provides percentile ranking and risk categorization.

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Patch Priority Levels

Based on the evaluation, SSVC Ore Miner assigns one of the following patch priorities:

Patch Priority	Description
act_now	Critical risk of compromise. The vulnerability affects a public-facing or critical asset, and the exploit is highly effective.
out-of-cycle	Increased risk of compromise. Patching should occur ahead of the regular schedule.
schedule	Follow the regular patching schedule.
defer	The risk is minimal; the patch can be delayed.
review	The vulnerability is new or undisclosed, and a CVSS vector has not been assigned yet. Requires further analysis.

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Internals

Open-Source Threat Intelligence

• Pulls data from the Known Exploitable Vulnerability (KEV) catalog and NVD vulnerability data from CISA and NIST.
• Analyzes CVE exploitability and CVSS scores to calculate the Exploitation and Utility vectors.
• NEW: Fetches EPSS scores from FIRST.org API for enhanced exploit prediction.

Asset Context

• Uses asset context to refine prioritization.
• Maps vulnerabilities to the first four stages of the MITRE ATT&CK® Matrix for Enterprise:
  • Reconnaissance, Resource Development, Initial Access, and Execution.
  • MITRE ATT&CK Matrix

Decision Tree

• Independently calculates vectors for Exposure, Utility, and Impact.
• Uses these vectors to generate a query for the final decision tree, producing a prioritization result.
• NEW: Incorporates EPSS scores to enhance decision-making with exploit probability data.

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Usage

Command-Line Interface (CLI)

ssvc_ore.py [-h] [--single | --datafile] [-cn CVE_NUMBER] [-p {public,public_restricted,private,None}] 
             [-e {production,non_production,None}] [-a {db,compute,storage,None,network}] 
             [-s {critical,high,medium,low}] [--file FILE] [-v]

Optional Arguments:

• -h, --help: Show help message.
• --single: Parameter-based entry.
• --datafile: Upload vulnerabilities via a CSV file using --file.
• -id, --asset_id: Asset identifier (optional).
• -cn, --cve_number: CVE numbers separated by |.
• -p, --public_status: Public status of the asset (public, public_restricted, private, none).
• -vs, --vul_severity: Vulnerability severity (critical, high, medium, low).
• -e, --environment: Asset environment (production, non_production, none).
• -a, --assetType: Asset type (db, compute, storage, network, none).
• -s, --criticality: Business criticality of the asset (critical, high, medium, low).
• --file: Provide a CSV file for batch vulnerability input.
• -v, --verbose: Increase output verbosity.

Example Usage

cd path/to/ssvc_ore_miner
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade
export PYTHONPATH=.
python3 ssvc_ore.py --datafile --file ./test/sample_vulnerabilities_data.csv -v

Single Vulnerability Analysis

ssvc_ore.py --single -id "web-server-01" -cn "CVE-2023-1234" -p "public" -e "production" -a "compute" -s "high" -v

Batch Processing with CSV File

ssvc_ore.py --datafile --file vulnerabilities.csv -v

Using Severity Instead of CVE

ssvc_ore.py --single -id "database-01" -vs "critical" -p "private" -e "production" -a "db" -s "critical" -v

CSV File Format

Your CSV file should have the following columns:

asset_id,cve_number,vul_severity,public_status,environment,assetType,assetCriticality
web-server-01,CVE-2023-1234|CVE-2023-5678,None,public,production,compute,high
database-01,None,critical,private,production,db,critical

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Use as a Python Package

Install the package:

pip install rapticoressvc

Example:

from rapticoressvc.ssvc_ore import ssvc_recommendations

# Analyze a single vulnerability
result = ssvc_recommendations(
    asset="web-server-01",
    vul_details=["CVE-2023-1234"],
    public_status="public",
    environment="production",
    asset_type="compute",
    asset_criticality="high"
)

print(f"SSVC Recommendation: {result['ssvc_rec']}")
print(f"EPSS Score: {result['epss_score']}")
print(f"EPSS Category: {result['epss_category']}")

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Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Internet connection for fetching vulnerability data
• Optional: AWS credentials for S3 storage (if using S3 storage type)

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Credits

Based on the work from:

Spring, J., Hatleback, E., Householder, A.D., Manion, A., & Shick, D. (2020).
"Prioritizing vulnerability response: A stakeholder-specific vulnerability categorization"
Presented at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, Brussels, Belgium.