Re: [cti-stix] Re: [cti-users] Indicator Type / Vocabulary Implementation Questions

From
Joep Gommers <>
Date
2015-10-23T19:01:57+00:00
ID
Thread
Re: [cti-stix] Re: [cti-users] Indicator Type / Vocabulary Implementation Questions
(Semi jokingly:)

The problem is having to be guys implementing the thesaurus ;)

Sent from my iPhone

On 23 Oct 2015, at 18:19, Jerome Athias <> wrote:

STIX is a language

If one word is missing in a language, it is added to the dictionary (single official reference)

If some words are removed from the dictionary however, it makes the language poorer

On Friday, 23 October 2015, Jordan, Bret <> wrote:

I think in STIX 1.x we were a bit too strict about trying to get everything to validate in schema and in the end we just made things that should be simple much more complicated.

Validate against arbitrary schema definitions that a tool may 

1) not be able to talk to get the XSDs in first place.  

2) not know what to do with as it has no code to support it.  I build a new super great extension point (xsi-type=foo) and I start using it in my 10 million indicators a day that I generate.  Now if you do not go code in support for it in your tool, then
 POOF.  

Thanks,

Bret

Bret Jordan CISSP

Director of Security Architecture and Standards | Office of the CTO

Blue Coat Systems

PGP Fingerprint: 63B4 FC53 680A 6B7D 1447  F2C0 74F8 ACAE 7415 0050

"Without cryptography vihv vivc ce xhrnrw, however, the only thing that can not be unscrambled is an egg." 

On Oct 23, 2015, at 08:20, Wunder, John A. <> wrote:

Even if we don’t choose to issue a new one for STIX 1.2.1 (I’m unclear on how that would work implementation-wise…it seems to be asking for compatibility issues) it would be awesome to come
 up with a more coherent and comprehensive list. So yeah, I say go for it.

Thinking longer term, another option would be a simpler implementation of the concepts that we cover now. For example, we could just choose to have an unvalidated vocabulary: we would
 define the vocabulary and provide an ability to indicate which vocabulary has been chosen (including no vocab), but would not validate it via schema.

I think in STIX 1.x we were a bit too strict about trying to get everything to validate in schema and in the end we just made things that should be simple much more complicated.

John

On Oct 23, 2015, at 9:38 AM, Jason Keirstead <> wrote:

Note, I have made this reply to CTI-STIX from CTI-Users

I agree pretty much 100% with what you say Bernd. I see there is a bit of a conflict here

- There is obviously a need to have a controlled vocabulary, so that tools and researchers can share categorized intelligence efficiently; however...

- The current vocabulary list is seemingly arbitrary - and has many gaps, and also redundancies, as you mentioned. Off the top of my head it should have 2x - 3x as many options, and like you mention, some are redundant. I totally agree that it makes no sense
 to have different Watchlist types when that can be inferred easily from the data.

Due to how STIX 1.X is constructed, we can easily revision this vocabulary as a non-breaking change. I would propose that the STIX TC undertake a work product to revision this vocabulary. This is a "quick win" that the TC can provide.

If desired - I would volunteer to take the initial stab at extending the vocabulary.

-

Jason Keirstead

Product Architect, Security Intelligence, IBM Security Systems

www.ibm.com/security | 
www.securityintelligence.com

Without data, all you are is just another person with an opinion - Unknown 

<graycol.gif>"Grobauer, Bernd" ---2015/10/23 07:50:32 AM---Hi, > I heard a recent proposal to remove it entirely. What would be the

From: "Grobauer, Bernd" <>

To: "" <>,
 Jason Keirstead/CanEast/IBM@IBMCA, "" <>

Cc: "" <>

Date: 2015/10/23 07:50 AM

Subject: RE: [cti-users] Indicator Type / Vocabulary Implementation Questions

Sent by: <>

Hi,

> I heard a recent proposal to remove it entirely. What would be the

> impact of that?

I had made the suggestion to remove the IncidentType entirely in

my somewhat provocative mail a few weeks ago, in which I wanted

to explore how much potential for simplification in going towards

STIX 2.0 there might be.

Why had I suggested to remove it?

The main reason is that I do not find the values that are currently part of the

standard vocabulary particularly useful:

- Why would I put 'IP Watchlist' or 'Domain Watchlist' or 'File Hash Watchlist'

 into the Indicator Type? I could understand "Watchlist", which tells you

 to watch for whatever Observable Patterns are indicated in the indicator.

- Another type is 'C2' -- at the same time I have the ability to reference

 in the indicator a kill chain phase ... and if the referenced kill chain

 is of any use, it will have something corresponding to 'C2'.

 Now I have (again) two ways of expressing the same thing ... we have

 just stumbled over this issue a few days ago in a sharing group we

 are part of: we use the reference to the killchain phase to indicate

 C2-activity, others use the indicator type.

 Similarly, "Exfiltration" -- should that not be described with a reference

 from the indicator to an TTP "Exfiltration"?

Other entries in the standard vocabulary ("Malicious Email", "Host Characteristics")

seem like there would be no end to the list of allowed vocabulary (think

"Malicious <enter CybOX object type here>" as pattern for generating vocabulary...)

My suggestion to get rid of the indicator type was really a bit of a calculated

provocation -- I have no trouble with keeping it in STIX. But we should

ensure that the standard vocabulary is defined such that it really adds

value rather than adding confusion by allowing yet more ways to describe

the same thing in different ways.

Kind regards,

Bernd

----------------

Bernd Grobauer, Siemens CERT