Power of OSCAL in Streamlining Security Assessments for Containers

OSCAL (Open Security Controls Assessment Language) is a standardized framework developed by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in collaboration with FedRAMP to digitize and automate security authorization processes. It provides a common machine-readable language for expressing security controls, assessments, and related information.

OSCAL includes several interconnected models:

• System Security Plan (SSP): Documents how security controls are implemented in a system.
• Security Assessment Plan (SAP): Outlines the approach for assessing security controls.
• Security Assessment Report (SAR): Presents the results of security control assessments.
• Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M): Tracks identified vulnerabilities and planned remediation activities

I have talked about SBOM here   . While OSCAL is not currently mandated, it offers significant value for companies doing business with the federal government:

• Alignment with FedRAMP : FedRAMP is actively involved in OSCAL development, indicating its potential future importance in federal compliance.
• Complementary to SBOM: Like Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for container security, OSCAL provides standardized security assessment information.
• Automation Potential: OSCAL enables automation of security assessment processes, including vulnerability scans and SAR generation.

Vulnerability Scans for Containers can be done in ongoing basis and Security Assessment Report (SAR) can be automated easily . Here is a simple example of this implementation

Implementaion -> Github

Containerization Github List  -> Github Containers