Vulnerability Scanning & Blocking

ProGet can automatically scan the third-party, open-source packages and container images for vulnerabilities, and allow you to assess the risk that they may pose. This allows you to not only block packages or container images that you deem too risky to us, but also identify which of your Projects and Releases are impacted by vulnerabilities. You can also warn users of vulnerabilities and receive alerts when new vulnerabilities are discovered.

This article will explain how vulnerability scanning works and how you can configure blocking rules and assessments when a package is found to be vulnerable.

ProGet Vulnerability Central (PGVC)

PGVC is available as a preview feature in ProGet 2022.20.

ProGet Vulnerability Central (PGVC) aggregates leading vulnerability databases including GitHub Security Advisories, PyPA, and Global Security Database. It's bundled as an offline database in ProGet, and is used to show which open-source packages have which vulnerabilities.

Unlike third-party vulnerability services (such as OSS Index) that require the use of an API or an overnight download, PGVC's vulnerability data is available instantly, even to remote packages. If ProGet can connect to the Internet, it downloads PGVC updates daily. Otherwise, PGVC data is updated every time you update ProGet.

Vulnerability Blocking Rules

Vulnerability blocking rules allow you to restrict the usage of packages with known vulnerabilities. When ProGet identifies a package with a known vulnerability, an authorized user creates a vulnerability assessment that determines whether the package should be blocked.

ProGet can also automatically assess vulnerabilities based on a CVSS score.

Third Party Vulnerability Sources

In addition to PGVC, ProGet also supports the use of third party vulnerability sources such as OSSIndex. ProGet runs a recurring job to scan your local (or cached from connector) packages. Note that remote connector packages that are not locally cached cannot be scanned using a third party vulnerability source, as ProGet must submit a list of all packages and versions to query, and this information is often not available from remote sources.

Vulnerability information from a third party source will not display on the package vulnerabilities tab unless the package is cached or otherwise locally stored, and the nightly scanning job has run.

Feeds & Download Blocking

After setting up a vulnerability source in ProGet, you can select which feeds you'd like to configure for vulnerability scanning and blocking by navigating to Reporting & SCA > Vulnerabilities:

When a feed is scanned by a vulnerability source, ProGet will display vulnerability information on packages and may be configured to block downloads.

Assessing Vulnerabilities

Both the manual and OSS Index workflows use vulnerability reports, which essentially identify that a particular package or versioned range of packages has a known vulnerability. This record is either manually entered or is imported from OSS Index, based on packages in a particular feed.

For container reports, Clair attempts to determining which operating system (OS) a container image was built with and then uses that OS to scan specific security databases to check for vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are then automatically associated with the container's affected layer within the registry Clair was configured to scan. Manual vulnerability records can also be added to affected container layers by specifying that layer's digest.

All newly entered or imported vulnerability reports are considered unassessed, which means that packages matching the vulnerability will be blocked until the report is assessed. An assessment involves an authorized user reviewing the report, choosing an assessment type (Ignore, Caution, Block), and leaving an optional comment.

Assessment Expiry

An "assessment" you make on a package or container image vulnerability may be configured to expire. This means that, unless it's reassessed, the vulnerability report will be considered "unassessed" after expiry.

There are two primary use-cases for expiration.

• If you permit packages or container images with unassessed vulnerabilities to be downloaded, this means that you can use an expiring assessment to temporary block a package.
• If you block unassessed vulnerabilities, then you can use an expiring assessment to temporary un-block a package.

The reason to temporarily block or unblock packages is due to the nature of security vulnerabilities. Just because a particular package or container image has a security vulnerability, it doesn't mean your application will utilize the vulnerable aspects. In fact, constantly jumping to newer versions just to avoid reported vulnerabilities is often less secure - the newer versions have unknown vulnerabilities, which you might be using.

By temporary unblocking packages and container images, you can periodically review how engineers are using them. The usage may have changed.

Blocking a Package Download

Selecting Blocked will prevent any packages within the version range or container images that include the vulnerable layer to be downloaded. From the Vulnerabilities page or the Vulnerabilities tab on the package or container image page, selecting the vulnerability, then Assess, and choose Blocked, optionally adding a comment.

Browsing to a package version within the range specified or a container image with an associated layer in the blocked vulnerability will display Blocked where the download button would normally be, and the package or container image will be not be downloadable from its associated feed API.

Note: while the package version or container image is blocked from download, it may still appear in search or list results.

Assessment Types

ProGet comes with three built-in assessment types:

• Ignore indicates that the vulnerability report is not applicable or irrelevant and therefore allows for packages to be downloaded
• Caution tells developers to be careful to avoid the vulnerability; packages may be downloaded, but a warning is issued on the web UI
• Blocked means a vulnerability is too severe to allow use, and packages are prevented from being downloaded

You can edit or create your own assessment type by going to Admin > Assessment Types, and specifying a name, expiration (days), color, whether or not packages would be blocked, and an auto-assessment range.

Automatically Assess Vulnerabilities

ProGet can automatically assess new vulnerabilities based on a vulnerability's CVE Score. You can configure this by simply creating or editing the auto-assessment range on an assessment type.

Note that auto-assessment only applies to new vulnerabilities; if an assessment expires, it will not be automatically re-assessed.

Manual Vulnerability Records

You can also add a manual vulnerability record on a specific package version (or version ranges), or on a container image layer. One reason you may wish to do this is if you discover a vulnerability that isn't yet publicly disclosed.

To add manual records, navigate to the Vulnerabilities tab on the package or container image page then click the Add Vulnerability button to specify the feed, the package ID and version(s) or the container image layer digest, and the details of the vulnerability.

Version Ranges

Manual vulnerability records may encompass multiple package versions using version range syntax, for example:

Note: versions must be specified out to their full value to match. For example, 2.0 will not match 2.0.0

Due to the inconsistency on container repository tags, container registries are not compatible with version ranges.

ProGet 2022 and Earlier

Projects and Releases, as well as vulnerability notifications are only available in ProGet 2022 and later.

ProGet Vulnerability Central (PGVC) is only available in ProGet 2022.20 and later.

The ability to Automatically Assess Vulnerabilities is only available in ProGet 6.0 and later.

In ProGet 6.0 and earlier, vulnerability sources were configured on the main Vulnerabilities, and then on each feeds Detection and Blocking tab.