Tag Archives: PCI ASV

What is a vulnerability and what is not?

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It looks like a pretty simple question. I used it to started my MIPT lecture. But actually the answer is not so obvious. There are lots of formal definitions of a vulnerability. For example in NIST Glossary there are 17 different definitions. The most popular one (used in 13 documents) is:

Vulnerability is a weakness in an information system, system security procedures, internal controls, or implementation that could be exploited or triggered by a threat source
NISTIR 7435 The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and Its Applicability to Federal Agency Systems

But I prefer this one, it’s from the glossary as well:

Vulnerability is a bug, flaw, weakness, or exposure of an application, system, device, or service that could lead to a failure of confidentiality, integrity, or availability.

I think the best way to talk about vulnerabilities is to treat them as bugs and errors. Because people deal with such entities more often in a form of software freezes and BSODs. 😉

You probably heard a joke, that a bug can be presented as a feature if it is well-documented and the software developers don’t want to fix it.

Bug, feature and vulnerability

Vulnerability is also a specific bug that can lead to some security issues. Or at least it is declared.

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Who wants to be a PCI ASV?

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I think, most of financial and trade companies know about vulnerability scanning mainly because of PCI DSS. Vulnerability Assessment is, of course, an important issue, but when regular scanning is prescribed in some critical standard it become much more important for businesses.

This post will be about PCI ASV from the point of view of a scanning vendor. I decided to figure out what technical requirements exist for ASV solutions and how difficult/expensive it is to become an ASV.

Perimeter scanning

Basically, PCI ASV scan is a form of automated network perimeter control, performed by an external organization. All Internet-facing hosts of merchants and service providers should be checked 4 times a year (quarterly) with Vulnerability Scanner by PCI ASV (PCI DSS Requirement 11.2.2.). It is necessary to check the effectiveness of patch management and other security measures that improve protection against Internet attacks.

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