The Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) is a method for using specific standards to enable automated vulnerability management, measurement, and policy compliance evaluation (e.g., FISMA compliance). The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is the U.S. government content repository for SCAP.
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Purpose
The Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP), pronounced “S-Cap”, combines a number of open standards that are used to enumerate software flaws and configuration issues related to security. They measure systems to find vulnerabilities and offer methods to score those findings in order to evaluate the possible impact. It is basically a is a method for using those open standards for automated vulnerability management, measurement, and policy compliance evaluation. SCAP defines how the following standards (referred to as SCAP 'Components') are combined:
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®)
- Common Configuration Enumeration (CCE™)
- Common Platform Enumeration (CPE™)
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
- Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format (XCCDF)
- Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL™)
Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) checklists standardize and enable automation of the linkage between computer security configurations and the NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 1 (SP 800-53 Rev1) controls framework. The current version of SCAP is meant to perform initial measurement and continuous monitoring of security settings and corresponding SP 800-53 Rev1 controls. Future versions will likely standardize and enable automation for implementing and changing security settings of corresponding SP 800-53 Rev1 controls. In this way, SCAP contributes to the implementation, assessment, and monitoring steps of the NIST Risk Management Framework. Accordingly, SCAP is an integral part of the NIST FISMA implementation project.