Vulnerabilities

Purpose

This document provides users with an overview of Findings. 

Introduction

Findings are the potential risks and recommended reconfiguration suggestions found during automatic and manual assessments of the target asset. These vary from security best practices which lower the attack surface of the target to exploitable vulnerabilities that were verified and confirmed as being present and relevant for the target.

Findings include their classification, risk score and information describing what it is, why it was found and how an attacker might be able to exploit the vulnerability as well as provide clear solutions to remediate the risk.

The Findings view will be visible without an Appsec subscription, but the view will be empty and you will not be able populate the view.

Requirements

It is assumed that the reader has basic access to the OUTSCAN™/HIAB account with Appsec subscription. 

Findings 

The Findings view shows the vulnerabilities identified during the scans.

Click on a finding to view its details on the right side of the window.

Details

The Details tab shows the description of the selected finding along with the solution. 

The first row displays the CVSS score in a color coded icon, the name of the vulnerability, and the blue/grey eye icon indicating if this vulnerability is being watched or not. See Notificationsfor more information.

Asset

The affected asset. Clicking the asset name takes you to the asset view for more information.

CVSS Score

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) provides a way to capture the principal characteristics of a vulnerability and produce a numerical score reflecting its severity. The numerical score can then be translated into a qualitative representation (such as Low, Medium, High, and Critical) to help organizations properly assess and prioritize their vulnerability management processes.^[1] 

In the solution field both CVSS v2 and CVSS v3 base scores are displayed. If Environmental vector exists, it is displayed as a second section with metrics and the score is adjusted.

Both the CVSS score fields are collapsible by clicking the down arrow in the upper right corner.

Description

Detailed explanation of the finding with information about the nature of the vulnerability and its potential impact on the affected system.

Solution

The solution section provides an actionable advice how to remediate the vulnerability as well as detailed information about the context of the vulnerability where it was found.

Solution Patches

The Solution Patches card shows a patch number recommended to remediate the vulnerability that was found. This is the same patch as can be found in the Solution Patch column.

Classifications

A list of references to widely recognized vulnerability categorization values. 

CWE™

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) is a community-developed list of common software and hardware weaknesses that have security ramifications. A weakness is a condition in a software, firmware, hardware, or service component that, under certain circumstances, could contribute to the introduction of vulnerabilities.^[2]

CAPEC™

Common Attack Pattern Enumerations and Classifications (CAPEC™) is a catalog of known cyber security attack patterns used to prevent attacks.^[3]

OWASP

The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 is a standard awareness document for developers and web application security, and represents a broad consensus about what the most critical web application security flaws are. ^[4]

SANS Top 25

The SANS value shows the vulnerability score in the 2023 CWE™ Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses.

It is also described at the bottom of the page.

First seen

When the vulnerability was first discovered on the specific asset.

Last Seen

When the vulnerability was last seen on the specific asset.

Exploits

Shows if there are any known public exploits from various sources.

Only visible to Farsight users. To use Farsight you first need to enable the function in your subscription. Contact Outpost24® Support for more information on how you can enable the Farsight feature.

Farsight

The Likelihood feature in Outpost24® Farsight provides an easier way to address vulnerabilities which are relevant and may impact an organization irrespective of the CVSS score or the presence of an exploit for a vulnerability.

By focusing on the likelihood, you are mitigating vulnerabilities that, based on the machine learning model, are predicting an increased risk even though it may not currently be exploited.

Risk classification of assets serves a purpose and should be conducted to further distinguish where to focus most efforts. This task can be time-consuming and may not produce viable results in the first couple of iterations. Farsight enables you to filter out some unlikely vulnerabilities with little to no prior knowledge about the vulnerabilities or assets, getting you on track with your vulnerability program faster. 

Risk Score - Likelihood 

Likelihood is a risk indicator that shows how many times more likely a vulnerability is to be exploited compared to average, where approximately 95% of all vulnerabilities are never exploited. This is displayed in the Likelihood column in the Findings view. The value can go from 1 to 100 where 100 is the equivalent of saying it will be (or has been already) exploited in the wild in the next 12 months. The benefit to the customer is the ability to drive more aggressive risk-based remediation, focusing on even fewer vulnerabilities that reach a particular likelihood.  It is also worth noting that any vulnerability already exploited in the wild will have the risk value of 100 as it has been exploited already.

Since risk score is machine learning driven, based on several factors the risk rating can decrease as well as increase based on activity in the wild.

Exploits

Comments

Enables you to post comments on findings as well as send messages to the Outpost24® Appsec team for review and response about the selected vulnerability.

Discussions about a finding are normally customer-internal. Only when eligible (via associated subscription) may a dialog between customer and the Outpost24 AppSec team be initiated.

Starting a Discussion

You can start a discussion about a finding:

1. Select a finding.
2. Click the Comments tab on the right side. The Comments tab shows all your ongoing discussions.
3. Add a new comment and click the blue Start Discussion button.
   
   

   

   
   
   
4. To reply to a discussion, enter your reply on the Reply to conversation line and click the blue Reply button.
   
   

   

   
   
   

Starting a Discussion with the Outpost24 AppSec Team

You can start a discussion about the findings with the Outpost24 AppSec Team for review and response. 

1. Select a finding.
2. Click the Comments tab on the right side. The Comments tab shows all your ongoing discussions.

3. Toggle the Start a discussion with Outpost24 switch.
   
   

   

   

   The Start a discussion with Outpost24 toggle is displayed if and when the underlying finding is eligible.

4. Add a new comment and click the blue Start Discussion button.
   The comment is sent to the Outpost 24 AppSec team.
   
   

5. To reply to an ongoing discussion, enter your reply on the Reply to conversation line and click the blue Reply button.

   

   When discussing with an Outpost 24 AppSec representative, the discussion card is marked clearly with a blue sign i the top left corner of the discussion card.

   
   

   

Deleting a Single Comment

To delete a comment in a discussion, click on the Bin icon to the right. This removes the comment from the discussion.

The deleted comment is marked with the text "This message has been deleted".

You can only delete your own comments.

Deleting a Discussion Tree

To delete the entire discussion tree, click on the Bin icon to the right on the first line in the card. This removes all conversation in the card.

The deleted discussion and all replies is marked with the text "This message has been deleted".

Removing the top discussion will remove all the following replies in that discussion recursively.

If no comment is given, a default message/comment stating “Transitioned finding status from <original status> to <new status> without user's comment." is saved as a activity log to assist with the reviewing of the finding’s history.

Customer can also transition non-SWAT findings from other status like FALSE_POSITIVE, FIXED or ACCEPTED.

Example:

Starting discussions with Outpost24® Appsec team requires an active Appsec subscription.

Tip

To access existing comments, click on the comment icon in any row to quickly launch the comments window. 

Manage Findings

Select one or more findings, and choose one of the actions that is displayed on the bottom bar:

Right clicking a finding or a selected group of findings opens a menu where the same tasks can be performed.

The possible user actions are:

• Click on Start watching finding to start keeping track of notifications for that finding.
• Click on Stop watching finding to stop keeping track of notifications for that finding.

• Click on Edit tags to add a tag to the selected finding.

  

  See Tags for more information.
• Click on Mark as Fixed icon, and confirm by clicking YES, to update the status of that finding as fixed. 

• Click on Unmark as Fixed icon, and confirm by clicking YES, to revert the status of that finding to not fixed.

• Click on Request verification icon to add a comment and send to the technical service team for verification regarding that finding.
• Click on Change risk icon to change the change the risk information of that finding. 
• Click on Accept risk icon to accept the risk. You can also select a date and add comment.
• Click on Unaccept risk icon to revert the accepted status of that finding.
• Click on Mark as false positive icon to mark a finding as false positive.
• Click on Unmark false positive icon to unmark a finding as false positive.

Columns

By clicking the Filter bar next to the Main Menu, you expand the column list available to Findings. Select any Column to view in the main window.

Select a specific column to know that information about a finding. All selected columns are displayed in the Findings tab. The available options are described below.

Option	Format	Description
Accepted		Time since when finding transitioned from present to accepted. If a finding cannot be mitigated right away, that finding can be accepted so that it will not be picked up by the tool every time a scan runs.
Accepted comment		Comment when accepting a finding
Accepted until		Time until when findings acceptance ends. The finding can be accepted for ever or for a short period of time. It is customizable to what ever period of time is needed, if the finding cannot be mitigated right away.
Active subscriptions		The Active subscription column indicates which currently active subscriptions are associated with the asset.
Age		Shows how old the vulnerability is in regards to when then it was first discovered in a scan.
Alternative recreation		See Recreation
Asset ID		The unique identifier of the Asset the Finding belongs to.
Asset name		Name of the asset associated to the finding. Could consist of  among others: FQDN IP-address Agent ID Container image name
Attachment IDs		List of IDs to files such as screenshots or text files attached to the finding uploaded by the Appsec team.
BugTraq		Bugtraq ID of the vulnerability.
CAPEC		Common Attack Pattern Enumerations and Classifications (CAPEC™) is a catalog of known cyber security attack patterns used to prevent attacks. Same information as in the Detailed tab.
Check ID		The rule ID that triggered the finding.
Comments		Number of comments associated to the finding.
Created		When the finding object was first created. Counted from when a scan first resulted in this finding or when the Appsec team pushed it.
Created by		Who created it: System if it was from a scan Appsec team if they created it
Custom BugTraq		Configurable BugTraq field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom CVE		Configurable CVE field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom CVSS v2 vector		Configurable CVSS v2 vector field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom CVSS v3 vector		Configurable CVSS v3 vector field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom CWE		Configurable CWE field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom description		Configurable Description field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom name		Configurable Name field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Custom solution		Configurable Solution field to “override” the default values set based on what is found in the scan.
Customer ID		ID of the Outpost 24 customer account this finding belongs to.
CVE		Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) entry of the vulnerability. CVE is a list of publicly disclosed computer security flaws that's been assigned a CVE ID number. Same information as in the Detailed tab.
CVSS score	CRITICAL - 9.0-10.0 HIGH - 7.0-8.9 MEDIUM - 4.0-6.9 LOW - 0.1-3.9 RECOMMENDATION - 0 UNKNOWN	The CVSS score is a numerical value that quantifies the severity of a security vulnerability. It consists of three main components: the Base Score (intrinsic severity), the Temporal Score (current risk), the Environmental Score (customized based on an organization's environment). The Base Score ranges from 0.0 to 10.0 and is determined by assessing various metrics. The CVSS score column combines score from both CVSS v2 and CVSS v3 where v3 have priority. However, when v3 is not available, v2 is shown. The CVSS score is shown as default, but previous CVSS-specific columns are still available.
CVSS Severity	The format is based on a combination of CVSS V2 and V3 Severities. Note that a 9.5 score in V2 may result in only a HIGH mark in severity if V3 values is not available.	CVSS severity is a qualitative assessment of the overall seriousness of a security vulnerability based on its CVSS Base Score. The severity levels range from "RECOMMENDATION" to "CRITICAL" . These levels help to quickly understand the potential risk posed by a vulnerability and prioritize the response efforts accordingly. However, organizations should also consider their specific context when assessing and addressing vulnerabilities. The CVSS Severity is a coalesced value on the different CVSS versions (currently version 2 and 3) with the higher version taking priority.
CVSS v2 base score	HIGH 7.0-10.0 MEDIUM 4.0-6.9 LOW 0.0-3.9 RECOMMENDATION	The CVSS v2 Base Score is a numerical value that quantifies the intrinsic severity of a security vulnerability. It is calculated based on various metrics like how the vulnerability can be exploited, based on Access Complexity (AC), Authentication (AU) requirements, and the potential Confidentiality Impact (C), Integrity (I), and Availability Impact (AI). The score ranges from 0.0 (LOW severity) to 10.0 (HIGH severity).
CVSS v2 environmental score	HIGH 7.0-10.0 MEDIUM 4.0-6.9 LOW 0.0-3.9	CVSS v2 Environmental Score represents the characteristics of a vulnerability that are relevant and unique to a particular environment. It takes into account factors such as the importance of Confidentiality Requirement (CR), Integrity Requirement (IR), and Availability Requirement (AR) for the affected asset, as well as adjustments based on an organization's security controls and configurations.
CVSS v2 score	HIGH 7.0-10.0 MEDIUM 4.0-6.9 LOW 0.0-3.9 RECOMMENDATION	The CVSS v2 score is a numerical value used to assess the severity of a security vulnerability. It consists of three main components Base Score which quantifies the vulnerability's intrinsic severity ranging from 0.0 to 10.0. Temporal Score (optional) that considers temporal factors like exploitability, patch availability, and report confidence to assess the current risk associated with the vulnerability. Environmental Score (optional) component that allows organizations to customize the score based on their specific environment, considering factors like asset importance and security controls.
CVSS v2 severity	HIGH 7.0-10.0 MEDIUM 4.0-6.9 LOW 0.0-3.9 RECOMMENDATION	CVSS v2 severity is a qualitative assessment of the overall seriousness of a security vulnerability. It categorizes vulnerabilities into levels like Low, Medium, High, or Critical to provide a quick understanding of the risk they pose. The Base Score quantifies the intrinsic severity of the vulnerability based on various metrics such as
CVSS v2 temporal score	HIGH 7.0-10.0 MEDIUM 4.0-6.9 LOW 0.0-3.9	CVSS v2 Temporal Score represents the characteristics of a vulnerability that change over time but not among user environments. These characteristics include the likelihood of Exploitation (E), the availability of fixes or workarounds Remediation Level (RL), and the Report Confidence (RC) level in the vulnerability report. The Temporal Score is used to understand the real-world impact and urgency of addressing a vulnerability at a given time.
CVSS v2 vector		The CVSS v2 vector is a textual representation used to describe the key characteristics of a security vulnerability. It consists of metrics and values that assess factors like how the vulnerability can be accessed, its complexity, authentication requirements, and the potential impact on data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This vector string is used to calculate the CVSS v2 Base Score, which quantifies the vulnerability's intrinsic severity, and it serves as a standardized way to communicate detailed information about the vulnerability's attributes.
CVSS v3 base score	CRITICAL - 9.0-10.0 HIGH - 7.0-8.9 MEDIUM - 4.0-6.9 LOW - 0.1-3.9 RECOMMENDATION - 0 UNKNOWN	The CVSS v3 Base Score represents the intrinsic severity of a security vulnerability. It is determined by assessing metrics such as  Attack Vector (AV), Attack Complexity (AC), Privileges Required (PR), User Interaction (Ui), Scope (S), and impact on Confidentiality (C), Integrity (I), and Availability (A). The Base Score does not consider specific environment or mitigating factors. CVSS v3 combines these metrics to calculate the Base Score, which provides a standardized way to understand the severity of a vulnerability. The score is then used to prioritize their vulnerability management efforts.
CVSS v3 environmental score	CRITICAL - 9.0-10.0 HIGH - 7.0-8.9 MEDIUM - 4.0-6.9 LOW - 0.1-3.9 RECOMMENDATION - 0 UNKNOWN	The CVSS v3 Environmental Score is bases of an organization's specific circumstances when assessing the severity of a vulnerability. The Environmental Score considers factors like confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements, as well as an organization's security controls and configurations. It provides a customized risk assessment for a vulnerability within a specific organizational context, helping to prioritize response efforts accordingly.
CVSS v3 score	CRITICAL - 9.0-10.0 HIGH - 7.0-8.9 MEDIUM - 4.0-6.9 LOW - 0.1-3.9 RECOMMENDATION - 0 UNKNOWN	The CVSS v3 score is a numerical value that quantifies the severity of a security vulnerability. It consists of three main components: the Base Score (intrinsic severity), the Temporal Score (current risk), the Environmental Score (customized based on an organization's environment). The Base Score ranges from 0.0 to 10.0 and is determined by assessing various metrics.
CVSS v3 severity	CRITICAL - 9.0-10.0 HIGH - 7.0-8.9 MEDIUM - 4.0-6.9 LOW - 0.1-3.9 RECOMMENDATION - 0	CVSS v3 severity is a qualitative assessment of the overall seriousness of a security vulnerability based on its CVSS Base Score. The severity levels range from "RECOMMENDATION" to "CRITICAL" . These levels help to quickly understand the potential risk posed by a vulnerability and prioritize the response efforts accordingly. However, organizations should also consider their specific context when assessing and addressing vulnerabilities.
CVSS v3 temporal score	CRITICAL - 9.0-10.0 HIGH - 7.0-8.9 MEDIUM - 4.0-6.9 LOW - 0.1-3.9 RECOMMENDATION - 0	The CVSS v3 Temporal Score is used to assess the current risk of a security vulnerability. It considers factors like the likelihood of Exploitability (E), Remediation Level (RL), and Report Confidence (RC) . By adjusting the Base Score with these temporal factors, organizations can better understand the urgency and real-world impact of a vulnerability, helping to prioritize response efforts effectively.
CVSS v3 vector		The CVSS v3 vector is a text-based representation that encodes key details about a security vulnerability. It includes fields for Base metrics, Temporal metrics , and Environmental metrics. These metrics describe attributes like how the vulnerability can be accessed, its exploitability, the availability of fixes, and more. The CVSS v3 vector is used to calculate the CVSS scores
CWE		Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) is a list of common software and hardware weaknesses that have security ramifications. Same information as in the Detailed tab.
Description		Detailed explanation of the finding with information about the nature of the vulnerability and its potential impact on the affected system. Same as in Details tab.
Exploits available		Determines if there is a publicly available exploit present for this vulnerability.
False positive		Shows if the vulnerability has been marked as a false positive. A false positive refers to a situation where a system or tool incorrectly identifies something as a problem or issue when it is not. False positives can lead to wasted resources and may require efforts to reduce their occurrence for better accuracy in automated systems and processes.
False positive comment		Comments left when identifying a false positive.
First scan ID		ID of the scanlog entry this finding was first found in.
First seen		Date shows when the finding was first discovered on a specific asset during recurring scans. When not found in a scan, the first seen date resets.
Fixed		Timestamp of when the finding was marked as fixed by the customer or the Appsec team.
ID		Unique identifier of the finding.
Impact		Describes the potential impact of the identified vulnerability. Same information as in the Detailed tab.
Is accepted		Whether the finding has been marked as an accepted risk or not, since the launch of the status field.
Last scan ID		This is the last (latest) scan this finding was found in.
Last seen		Date shows when the finding was last seen on a specific asset. Checks if the finding is present in recurring scans. If it is not found in one scan, the last seen date resets.
Match IDs		Reference ID to the scanners raw data output that the finding is generated from and contains in depth information such as vhost, port, pattern, url, product versions, and so on.
Name		Name of the vulnerability.
OWASP 2004		The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 is a standard awareness document for developers and web application security, and represents a broad consensus about what the most critical web application security flaws are. Each column presents the numerical value shown in the Detailed tab.
OWASP 2007
OWASP 2010
OWASP 2013
OWASP 2017
OWASP 2021
Potential		Flags if this finding has been marked as a potential false positive by customer or Appsec team.
Recreation		Shows the information on how to recreate the identified vulnerability. Same information as in the Detailed tab.
SANS 25		The SANS value shows the vulnerability score
Seen last scan		Boolean value that shows if the finding was detected during the last scan of the linked asset.
Solution		The Solution column provides an actionable advice how to remediate the vulnerability as well as detailed information about the context of the vulnerability where it was found.
Solution Patches		The Solution Patches column provides an patch number to remediate the vulnerability that was found.
Solution product		Identifies the affected product or software solution.
Solution title		Provides a concise title for the solution or patch.
Solution type		Categorizes the type of solution (e.g., patch, update).
Solution UUID		Universally Unique Identifier for tracking the solution.
Source		Which source scanner or product type does the finding originate from.
Status		Indicates the different statuses for a finding. Can be marked as: Accepted - Displays if the risk is accepted or not False Positive - The scanner is finding a risk that has been marked by someone to be a false positive and is not supposed to pick up on. Fixed - Shows if the vulnerability has been marked as fixed. Irreproducible - AppSec not able to reproduce finding Pending Verification - Shows if there is any pending verification request Present - (Default) Shows that a Finding is present after scanning
Tags		Displays the available tags associated with the finding.
Updated		Timestamp of when the finding was last updated at all for any reason, system- or user-initiated.
Updated by		Who did the last updating action, system, user, or AppSec team and so on.
Watching		Indicates that there is a Notification associated with this finding. See Notification Settings for more information.

Filtering

The vulnerability findings can be filtered by Asset & Web Application by expanding the filter menu.

1. To expand the filter menu, left click and drag the bar labeled Web Applications & Assets to the right.
   
   

   

2. In the menu there are two areas, Web Applications and Assets are separated in two areas.
   
   

   

   
   
   
3. When selecting a Web Application, the list of Assets from that Web Application is automatically selected and the vulnerabilities are filtered to cover only those vulnerabilities associated with the selected assets.
   
   

   

4. When deselecting any of the assets or selecting another asset outside the selected group, the Web Application is automatically being cleared. This also resets the filtered vulnerabilities.
   
   

   

5. The "You do not have the correct type of subscription to filter by Web Applications." error message in Web Application area indicates that the user lacks the the required subscription to see Web Applications.
   
   

   

A maximum of 500 findings can be selected at one time.

References

1. https://www.first.org/cvss/
2. https://cwe.mitre.org/about/index.htm
3. https://capec.mitre.org/index.html
4. https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/

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