How to meet verification reporting requirements

How to meet verification reporting requirements
If you are performing an application security verification according to the OWASP ASVS verification requirements, then you will need to document the results according to ASVS reporting requirements. The ASVS prescribes four sets of reporting requirements:

R1 - Report Introduction Reporting Requirements R2 - Application Description Reporting Requirements R3 - Application Security Architecture Reporting Requirements R4 - Verification Results Reporting Requirements

The ASVS reporting requirements define the type of information that is required to be present in the report. The ASVS reporting requirements do not define the structure or formatting of the report. The ASVS reporting requirements do not preclude additional information from being included in the report.

The type of information that is required by each set of ASVS reporting requirements may be named, formatted, and organized according to a verifier’s requirements. ASVS reporting requirements will still be met as long as the required information is present.

For example, a verification customer may expect a verifier’s report to look a certain way and to contain certain sections. The existing customer report structure can be updated to accommodate this situation by including the additional information required by ASVS reporting requirements: new subsections may be added to existing ones, new sections may be added at the end of the report or in appendices, and so on.

Example: Meeting Report Introduction Requirements
The R1 - Report Introduction Reporting Requirements state:

''“This part of the Report shall provide sufficient information to identify both the Report and the web application that is the subject of the report. The Report introduction shall also summarize the overall verdict.”''

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below. '''Please remember that the type of information that is required by each set of ASVS reporting requirements may be named, formatted, and organized according to a verifier’s requirements. The following are examples only. ASVS reporting requirements will still be met as long as the required information is present.'''

1. VERIFICATION REPORT INTRODUCTION

This section identifies the Verification Report (VR) and the Target of Verification (TOV). It also identifies VR conformance claims, and the VR organization. The TOV is provided by. is .

The Verification Report contains the following additional sections:

Section 2: The Target of Verification (TOV) Description. This section describes the TOV implementation.

Section 3: Assumptions. This section describes the assumptions made during verification.

Section 4: Verification Requirements. This section identifies the OWASP ASVS verification requirements that the verification was performed against.

Section 5:  Process. This section describes the verification methodology that was used to determine if ASVS verification requirements were met or not.

Section 6: Verification Results. This section documents the results of the verification, including pass/fail verdicts for OWASP ASVS verification requirements that the verification was performed against.

1.1 APPLICATION AND OWASP ASVS IDENTIFICATION

Verification Report Version – 

TOV Identification –

TOV Developer – 

OWASP ASVS Identification – OWASP Application Security Verification Standard – Web Edition 2008 (Beta), December 2008

1.2 CONFORMANCE CLAIMS

This TOV is conformant to the following OWASP specifications:

OWASP Application Security Verification Standard – Web Edition 2008 (Beta), December 2008. Level  Conformant.

Example: Meeting Application Description Requirements
The R2 - Application Description Reporting Requirements state:

“This part of the Report shall provide sufficient description of the web application to aid the understanding of its operation and the environment that it operates in.”

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

2. TOV DESCRIPTION

2.1 TOV OVERVIEW



Example: Meeting Application Security Architecture Reporting Requirements
The R3 - Application Security Architecture Reporting Requirements state (in part):

''“This part of the Report shall provide additional detail describing the web application as the first step in providing confidence to the reader of the report that the analysis that was performed was both complete and accurate. This part of the Report provides context for the analysis. The information presented in this section will be used in the course of the analysis to identify inconsistencies.”''

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

2.1 TOV ARCHITECTURE

The TOV can be described in terms of the following components:

– <1-2 sentence description>

– <1-2 sentence description>

– <1-2 sentence description>

The intended environment of the TOV can be described in terms of the following components:

– <1-2 sentence description, e.g. “Java Virtual Machine – Provides Java Virtual Machine (JVM) runtime environment for ”>

– <1-2 sentence description>

– <1-2 sentence description>



Example: Meeting Verification Results Requirements
The R4 - Verification Results Reporting Requirements state (in part):

“This part of the Report shall provide the results of the analysis that was performed according to section “Verification Requirements” of the Standard, including description of any remediation of vulnerabilities that was required…”

The above requirements can be met by including sections that look like the sample stub sections below.

6. VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.1 V1 – SECURITY ARCHITECTURE VERIFICATION RESULTS



6.2 V2 – AUTHENTICATION VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.3 V3 – SESSION MANAGEMENT VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.4 V4 – ACCESS CONTROL VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.5 V5 – INPUT VALIDATION VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.6 V6 – OUTPUT ENCODING/ESCAPING VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.7 V7 – CRYPTOGRAPHY VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.8 V8 – ERROR HANDLING AND LOGGING VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.9 V9 – DATA PROTECTION VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.10 V10 – COMMUNICATION SECURITY VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.11 V11 – HTTP SECURITY VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.12 V12 – SECURITY CONFIGURATION VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.13 V13 – MALICIOUS CODE SEARCH VERIFICATION RESULTS

6.14 V14 – INTERNAL SECURITY VERIFICATION RESULTS

Postscript
Note how the above examples did not include example sections 3, 4 or 5, as defined within the first example. This is an example of how the OWASP ASVS does not prescribe formatting or structure. The information is likely helpful for a reader of the verification report, but is not strictly required by ASVS reporting requirements.

The author of this article can be reached at boberski_michael(at)bah.com

Good luck!