qualystbx 0.47.0

Qualys Tool Box - Tools for running various functions in Qualys.

Test Release - QualysTBX - Qualys Toolbox Project

Note: This is a test release and should not be used in production.

QualysTBX is a comprehensive toolbox project designed to provide various utilities for interacting with Qualys services. The initial offering within this project is the Policy Merge tool, which allows users to selectively merge Control IDs (CIDs) from one policy into another, ensuring streamlined and consistent policy updates. As the project evolves, additional tools will be developed and integrated to meet emerging needs and enhance functionality.

Qualys Tools Included in QualysTBX

1. Policy Merge

Description: The Policy Merge tool in QualysTBX allows you to seamlessly merge specific Control IDs (CIDs) from an existing policy into a new policy. This tool is essential for maintaining up-to-date and consistent security policies, especially when integrating changes from legacy policies into current ones. It supports efficient policy management by allowing selective merging of controls, ensuring that only relevant and necessary updates are incorporated.

Prerequisites Python Module Linux/Mac or Windows

- Install Python Latest Version, greater than 3.9

First time install or upgrade of QualysTBX

Step Number	Code to Run (Linux/Mac)	Code to Run (Windows)	Description
1	cd [your data storage directory]	cd [your data storage directory]	Change to your data storage directory where you want to store your environment and logs.
2	python -m venv qtbx_venv	python -m venv qtbx_venv	Create a Python virtual environment named qtbx_venv for the qualystbx tool.
3	source ./qtbx_venv/bin/activate	.\qtbx_venv\Scripts\activate	Activate the Python virtual environment. This step needs to be done each time you want to run qualystbx.
4	python -m pip install --upgrade psutil qualystbx lxml requests xmltodict	python -m pip install --upgrade psutil qualystbx lxml requests xmltodict	Install the necessary packages: qualystbx, lxml, requests, and xmltodict.

Linux/Mac Example (bash script)

#!/bin/bash
cd /path/to/your/data/storage        # Change to your data storage directory
python -m venv qtbx_venv             # Create a Python virtual environment
source ./qtbx_venv/bin/activate      # Activate the Python virtual environment
python -m pip install --upgrade psutil qualystbx lxml requests xmltodict   # Install the necessary packages

Windows Example (batch script)

cd \path\to\your\data\storage
python -m venv qtbx_venv
.\qtbx_venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install --upgrade psutil qualystbx lxml requests xmltodict   # Install the necessary packages

Operations You Can Perform with QualysTBX

Prerequisites

Before running qualystbx, the following environment variables need to be set:

• PYTHONUNBUFFERED: Set to 1
• q_username: Your Qualys API username
• q_password: Your Qualys API password
• q_api_fqdn_server: The Qualys API FQDN server (e.g., qualysapi.qualys.com)

Setting Environment Variables

Linux/Mac

To set the environment variables on Linux/Mac, use the following commands:

export PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
export q_username=[qualys api user]
export q_password=[qualys api password]
export q_api_fqdn_server=[qualys api fqdn server]
cd /path/to/your/storage
source ./qtbx_venv/bin/activate 

Windows

To set the environment variables on Windows, use the following commands:

set PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
set q_username=[qualys api user]
set q_password=[qualys api password]
set q_api_fqdn_server=[qualys api fqdn server]
cd \path\to\your\data\storage
.\qtbx_venv\Scripts\activate

Policy Merge

Description: Execute the policy_merge command in qualystbx with the specified new policy ID, old policy ID, and comma-separated CID list. Optionally, add --log_to_console to log to the console. If not specified, logs will be saved to [your data storage directory]/qtbx_venv/qualystbx/qtbx_home/policy_merge/log/policy_merge.log.

Command:

qualystbx --execute policy_merge --new_policy_id=[new policy id] --old_policy_id=[old policy id] --cid_list=[comma separated cid list] [--log_to_console]

Explanation of Each Option

• new_policy_id: The ID of the new policy into which the CIDs will be merged.
• old_policy_id: The ID of the old policy from which the CIDs will be sourced.
• cid_list: A comma-separated list of CIDs to be merged from the old policy to the new policy.
• --log_to_console: (Optional) If this flag is included, logs will be printed to the console. If not, logs will be saved to the specified log file.

Path Differences Between Windows and Linux/Mac

• Linux/Mac Log Path: [your data storage directory]/qtbx_venv/qualystbx/qtbx_home/policy_merge/log/policy_merge.log
• Windows Log Path: [your data storage directory]\qtbx_venv\qualystbx\qtbx_home\policy_merge\log\policy_merge.log

Example Command

• Linux/Mac:

  qualystbx --execute policy_merge --new_policy_id=12345 --old_policy_id=67890 --cid_list=111,222,333 --log_to_console
  

  or without logging to console:

  qualystbx --execute policy_merge --new_policy_id=12345 --old_policy_id=67890 --cid_list=111,222,333
  

• Windows:

  qualystbx --execute policy_merge --new_policy_id=12345 --old_policy_id=67890 --cid_list=111,222,333 --log_to_console
  

  or without logging to console:

  qualystbx --execute policy_merge --new_policy_id=12345 --old_policy_id=67890 --cid_list=111,222,333
  

Policy Merge Directories and Paths

After executing the policy_merge command, several files are created and updated within the qtbx_venv/qualystbx/qtbx_home/policy_merge/data directory. These files contain the results and details of the merge operation. Here’s a detailed explanation of each result file:

Directory/File Path	Description
qtbx_venv [qtbx_venv]	This is the virtual directory for the QualysTBX environment and tools.
qtbx_venv/qualystbx/qtbx_home [home_dir]	The home directory for QualysTBX where configuration, credentials, logs, binaries, and data related to the tool are stored.
[home_dir]/policy_merge [policy_merge]	This directory specifically contains all the files and subdirectories related to the policy_merge operation within QualysTBX.
[policy_merge]/log	This directory stores log files generated during the policy_merge operation.
[policy_merge]/log/policy_merge.log	The main log file where the policy_merge operation logs its activities, errors, and status updates. If the --log_to_console option is not used, logs are saved here.
[policy_merge]/config	This directory contains configuration files for the policy_merge operation. These configurations might include settings or parameters that control how the merge process is executed.
[policy_merge]/cred	This directory stores credential files used by the policy_merge operation to authenticate with the Qualys API. These files are essential for secure access.
[policy_merge]/bin	This directory contains executable files or scripts required by the policy_merge operation.
[policy_merge]/data	This directory holds data files related to the policies being merged. These files include XML files representing different policies and their components.
[policy_merge]/data/import_new_policy_results_file.xml	This file contains the results of importing the new policy, which is used in the merge operation.
[policy_merge]/data/old_policy_id.xml	This file contains the details of the old policy, identified by its policy ID, from which CIDs will be sourced for merging.
[policy_merge]/data/merged_policy_id_file.xml	This will be loaded into Qualys with a new policy name, prefixed with. The file stores the results of the merge operation, including the newly created policy that combines elements from the old and new policies.
[policy_merge]/data/new_policy_id.xml	This file contains the details of the new policy, identified by its policy ID, into which CIDs will be merged.
[policy_merge]/data/old_policy_id_cid_list_for_merge.xml	This file lists the CIDs from the old policy that are selected for merging into the new policy.
[policy_merge]/data/merged_policy_results_file.xml	This file contains the final results of the policy merge operation, showing the outcome of combining the old and new policy loaded into Qualys.

Naming Convention for Uploaded Merged Policy

The merged_policy_id_file.xml will be uploaded to Qualys with a naming convention that includes the date and time of the merge operation and the title of the new policy. The location in the Qualys UI is under Policy Compliance -> Policies -> Policies.

The format of the new merged policy is as follows:

MERGED_POLICY_YYYYMMDDThhmmssZ_[TITLE OF NEW POLICY NAME FROM new_policy_id.xml]

• YYYYMMDDThhmmssZ: Represents the date and time when the policy merge was executed.
• [TITLE OF NEW POLICY NAME FROM new_policy_id.xml]: The title of the new policy as specified in the new_policy_id.xml file.

This naming convention helps in easily identifying and managing merged policies within Qualys.

Example

If the merge operation was executed on March 25, 2024, at 14:30:45 UTC, and the title of the new policy from new_policy_id.xml is "Security Policy v2", the uploaded file name would be:

MERGED_POLICY_20240325T143045Z_Security_Policy_v2.xml

QualysTBX Activity Diagram

• 

Policy Merge Tool

Policy Merge is a Policy Comliance Function that merges an old policies CID list into a new Policy. This is useful when customers want to easily merge in their customizations made to existing policies

Policy Merge Activity Diagram

• 

Roadmap

Capability                    | Target    | Description
----------                    | ------    | -----------
Policy Merge                  | May 2024 | Automate Policy Merge of specific CID's between old and new policy.
Other Tools                   | TBD      | Other Qualys Tools

Application Directories

Path	Description
[user storage dir]	Your python virtaul environment entered at runtime.
[user storage dir]/qualystbx/qtbx_home/	Directory of Tools Data
qtbx_home/[tool]	Tool Home Directory. Ex. qtbx_home/policy_merge
[tool]/bin	TBD
[tool]/cred	TBD
[tool]/config	TBD
[tool]/log	Logs - Directory of all run logs
[tool]/data	Application Data - Directory containing results of tool execution.

Logging

Logging fields are pipe delimited with some formatting for raw readability. You can easily import this data into excel, a database for analysis or link this data to a monitoring system.

Format	Description
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss,ms	UTC Date and Time. UTC is used to match internal date and time within Qualys data.
Logging Level	INFO, ERROR, WARNING, etc. Logging levels can be used for troubleshooting or remote monitoring for ERROR/WARNING log entries.
Module Name: YYYYMMDDHHMMSS	Top Level qetl Application Module Name that is executing, along with date to uniquely identify all log entries associated with that job.
User Name	Operating System User executing this application.
Function Name	qetl Application Function Executing.
Message	qetl Application Messages describing actions, providing data.

Application Monitoring

• To monitor the application for issues, the logging format includes a logging level.
• Monitoring for ERROR will help identify issues and tend to the overall health of the applicaiton operation.

Securing Your Application in the Data Center

Follow your corporate procedures for securing your application. A key recommendation is to use a password vault or remote invocation method that passes the credentials at run time so the password isn't stored on the system.

Password Vault

QualysTBX provides options to inject credentials at runtime in memory.

Qualys recommends customers move to a password vault of their choosing to operate this applications credentials. By creating functions to obtain credentials from your corporations password vault, you can improve the security of your application by separating the password from the machine, injecting the credentials at runtime.

One way customers can do this is through a work load management solution, where the external work load management system ( Ex. Autosys ) schedules jobs injecting the required credentials into application at runtime. This eliminates the need to store credentials locally on your system.

If you are unfamiliar with password vaults, here is one example from Hashicorp.

• Hashicorp Products Vault
• Hashicorp Getting Started

License

Apache License

Copyright 2021  David Gregory and Qualys Inc.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

ChangeLog

Version | Date of Change      | Description of Changes
------- | --------------      | ----------------------
0.1.0  | 2024-05-17 10:00 ET | Test release, do not use.
0.50.0  | 2024-05-17 10:00 ET | Test release, do not use.

Release Notes Log

• 0.1.0 thru 0.50.0 initial test releases, do not use.