e8scan 0.1.0

Cross-platform CLI tool to scan machine configuration against the ACSC Essential Eight mitigation strategies

e8scan

Cross-platform CLI tool that scans your machine's configuration against the Australian ACSC Essential Eight mitigation strategies and maps every check to official ISM (Information Security Manual) control IDs.

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Why e8scan?

The Essential Eight is Australia's baseline cybersecurity framework developed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). Despite being widely referenced, there is a notable lack of open-source tooling that allows developers and sysadmins to self-assess their machines against it.

e8scan fills that gap: it runs real checks against your system configuration — registry keys, commands, files, services — and maps each finding to its ISM control ID and maturity level. Results can be exported as a rich terminal table, JSON, SARIF (for GitHub code scanning), or a self-contained HTML report.

DISCLAIMER: Results are indicative only and do not constitute a formal ASD/ACSC Essential Eight assessment. This tool is not affiliated with the Australian Government. Always engage an accredited assessor for compliance verification.

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Install

pip install e8scan

Requires Python 3.10+. No heavy dependencies — just typer, rich, and PyYAML.

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Quickstart

# Run all checks and display a rich terminal report
e8scan scan

# Filter to a single strategy
e8scan scan --strategy configure_office_macros

# Only ML1 checks
e8scan scan --maturity-level 1

# Export to HTML
e8scan scan --format html --output report.html

# Export to SARIF for GitHub code scanning
e8scan scan --format sarif --output results.sarif

# List all available checks
e8scan list-checks

# Explain a specific check
e8scan explain E8-OM-001

Example terminal output

  e8scan — Essential Eight Configuration Scanner
  Platform: Linux

  Configure Office Macros
  ┌──────────────┬────┬────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
  │ ID           │ ML │ Status │ Title                                   │ Actual / Note                    │
  ├──────────────┼────┼────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
  │ E8-OM-001    │ 1  │ SKIP   │ Office macros from the internet blocked │ Not applicable on [windows]      │
  ...

  Scan Summary
  PASS       3
  FAIL       2
  ERROR      0
  MANUAL     4
  SKIPPED   12
  TOTAL     21

  Indicative Maturity Level: ML0

  Per-strategy pass rate:
  Configure Office Macros              ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   0.0%
  Patch Operating Systems              ████████░░░░░░░░░░░░  40.0%
  ...

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Strategy coverage

Strategy	Checks	ISM Controls
Configure Microsoft Office Macro Settings	8	ISM-1671, ISM-1488, ISM-1489, ISM-1705
Patch Operating Systems	5	ISM-1694, ISM-1695
Restrict Administrative Privileges	4	ISM-1507, ISM-1508, ISM-1684
User Application Hardening	5	ISM-1621, ISM-1622, ISM-1623, ISM-1543, ISM-1486
Multi-Factor Authentication	2	ISM-1401, ISM-1679
Regular Backups	3	ISM-1511, ISM-1512, ISM-1515
Application Control	3	ISM-1490, ISM-1491, ISM-1492
Patch Applications	3	ISM-1493, ISM-1494

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Writing custom checks

Add YAML files to any directory and pass it with --checks-dir:

e8scan scan --checks-dir ./my-checks/

See docs/check-schema.md for the full schema reference.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. All contributions are welcome — new checks, new platforms, bug fixes.

Good first issues:

• Add ML2/ML3 macro checks
• Add Linux patch recency checks
• Add macOS backup agent detection
• Improve HTML report design

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Security

See SECURITY.md for how to report vulnerabilities.