OSCAL 1.0.0 Release Candidate 2

We are pleased to announce the publication of OSCAL 1.0.0 Release Candidate (RC) 2. This is the second full draft release of OSCAL 1.0.0 which is made available for public review and feedback before releasing the final OSCAL 1.0.0.

Please provide feedback by May 7, 2021 by emailing the NIST OSCAL team at [email protected] or by creating an issue on our GitHub repository.

The OSCAL 1.0.0 RC 2 includes:

• Updated stable versions of catalog and profile models which provide a structured representation of control catalogs and baselines or overlays.
• Updated stable version of the system security plan model which provides a structured representations of a system's control-based implementation.
• Updated stable version of the component definition model which provides a stand-alone structured representation of the controls that are supported in a given implementation of a hardware, software, service, policy, process, procedure, or compliance artifact (e.g., FIPS 140-2 validation).
• Updated stable versions of the assessment plan, assessment results, plan of action and milestones (POA&M) models, which support the structured representation of information used for planning for and documenting the results of an information system assessment or continuous monitoring activity.
• Updated tools to convert between OSCAL XML and JSON formats, and to up convert content from previous releases to RC2.

Changes in this release are focused on the following major areas:

• Simplification of key OSCAL features
  • Properties and annotations have been merged into a single prop that now allows an optional remarks and uuid.
  • In the assessment plan and assessment results models, the concepts of a task and action have been combined.
  • Use of local-definitions in the assessment plan, assessment results, and POA&M models has been simplified and made more consistent.
• Model documentation improvements
  • Some usage descriptions were enhanced to provide more detail and to be more consistent overall.
  • Formal names were updated in some places where the names did not match the data element.
  • Many spelling errors were corrected.
• Removed the use of XML <any> and JSON additonalProperties for arbitrary extensions based on community discussion. Extended data can still be provided using link declarations to external content. This decision can be revisited in future revisions once there is more implementation experience with the OSCAL models.
• Added the following link relations: latest-version, predecessor-version, and successor-version to allow an OSCAL document to link to latest, previous, and next document revisions.
• Fixed a few bugs in the profile resolver code and updated the resolver to work with new profile import/insert structures.
• Provided support for data insertion points for data other than parameters in markup content.

To download this release, click on Assets below and download either the .zip or the *.tar.bz2 bundle. These bundles contain the resources described above. There are also release notes containing a summary of changes in this and previous releases.

These changes were made based on all the excellent feedback we received from the OSCAL community. The NIST OSCAL team is very thankful for all of the great feedback we have received.

OSCAL 1.0.0 Release

The NIST Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) team is pleased to announce the release of OSCAL 1.0.0. This first official, major release of OSCAL provides a stable OSCAL 1.0.0 for wide-scale implementation. This release marks an important milestone for the OSCAL project and for the earlier adopters and implementers of security automation with OSCAL.

This release incorporates changes based on feedback from the OSCAL community. The NIST OSCAL team is very thankful for all of the great ideas and feedback we have received to date.

Looking forward, the NIST OSCAL team is excited to work with the OSCAL community to continue to enhance OSCAL through additional minor releases.

For additional information on the OSCAL project, please see the NIST’s Cybersecurity Insights blog: “The Foundation for Interoperable and Portable Security Automation is Revealed in NIST’s OSCAL Project” and the OSCAL website.

OSCAL 1.0.0 Release Candidate 1

We are pleased to announce the publication of OSCAL 1.0.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). This is a full draft release of OSCAL 1.0.0 which is made available for public review and feedback before releasing the final OSCAL 1.0.0.

The OSCAL 1.0.0 RC1 includes:

• Updated stable versions of catalog and profile models which provide a structured representation of control catalogs and baselines or overlays.
• Updated stable version of the system security plan model which provides a structured representations of a system's control-based implementation. This model has been enhanced to support documenting how controls from an existing authorized system can be leveraged in another information system, which supports common control provider and platform as a service (PaaS) use cases.
• Updated stable version of the component definition model which provides a structured representation of the controls that are supported in a given implementation of a hardware, software, service, policy, process, procedure, or compliance artifact (e.g., FIPS 140-2 validation).
• Revised drafts of the assessment plan, assessment results, plan of action and milestones (POA&M) models, which support the structured representation of information used for planning and documenting the results of an information system assessment or continuous monitoring activity. These models have been enhanced to better support continuous assessment; to provide more traceability between the assessment schedule, specific assessment activities, collected data, and resulting findings and identified risks; and to improve the extensibility of these models.
• Updated tools to convert between OSCAL XML and JSON formats, and to up convert content from milestone 3 to RC1.

These changes were made based on all the excellent feedback we received from the OSCAL community. The NIST OSCAL team is very thankful for all of the great feedback we have received.

The NIST team is also maintaining OSCAL content that is updated to the latest OSCAL 1.0.0 RC1. The OSCAL content repository provides OSCAL examples, in addition to the final NIST SP 800-53 revision 5 catalog and the final security and privacy NIST SP 800-53B baselines. All this content is provided in XML, JSON and YAML formats, including the following:

• Updated content for the NIST SP 800-53 revision 4 catalogs, and for the three NIST baselines.
• Updated content in OSCAL XML, JSON and YAML formats of the FedRAMP SP 800-53 revision 4 baselines. Please note, these baselines are also available on GSA/fedramp-automation repository.

To download this release, click on Assets below and download either the .zip or the *.tar.bz2 bundle. These bundles contain the resources described above. There are also release notes containing a summary of changes in this and previous releases.

The OSCAL team is working to release OSCAL 1.0.0 FINAL. To this end, we appreciate any feedback you have on the updated RC1 models. Receiving your comments is instrumental for our team to make the OSCAL 1.0.0 FINAL release as robust as is feasible, and to address any gaps that might cause backwards compatibilities between future OSCAL minor releases (e.g., 1.1.0, 1.2.0) and OSCAL 1.0.0.

At our end, we will continue the development of OSCAL focusing our full attention on providing a more complete set of documentation for all the OSCAL layers and models, creating more examples, and providing a diverse set of tutorials.

NIST is also seeking tool developers, vendors, and service providers that would like to implement the OSCAL 1.0.0 models in commercial and open-source offerings. To provide feedback, to ask questions, or to let us know about an OSCAL implementation you are working on, please email the NIST OSCAL team at [email protected]. You can also post publicly to the OSCAL development list: [email protected] or create an issue on our GitHub repository.

Please find instructions for joining the OSCAL development and update lists on our contacts page.

OSCAL 1.0.0 Milestone 3 Release

We are pleased to announce the release of OSCAL 1.0.0 Milestone 3. This is the third official milestone pre-release of OSCAL, and marks the last pre-release milestone for OSCAL v1. At this point we have drafts of all the models we intended to produce for OSCAL v1 and will now start working towards producing a full initial release of OSCAL v1, which will be v1.0.0.

This release contains:

• A new component definition model, which allows for the definition of a set of components that each provide a description of the controls supported by a specific implementation of a hardware, software, or service; or by a given policy, process, procedure, or compliance artifact (e.g., FIPS 140-2 validation).
• Creation of draft models for the assessment and assessment result layers. Drafts of the assessment plan, assessment results, and plan of action and milestones (POA&M) models were created. These drafts were slated for the OSCAL v2 release cycle and are being released early as drafts ahead of schedule.
• Updated stable versions of the OSCAL catalog, profile, and system security plan (SSP) models, along with associated XML and JSON schemas. These changes were made based on all of the feedback we received from the OSCAL community. The NIST OSCAL team is very thankful for all of the great feedback we have received.
• New OSCAL content in XML, JSON, and YAML formats for the draft NIST SP 800-53 revision 5 catalog.
• Updated content in OSCAL XML, JSON, and YAML formats for the NIST SP 800-53 revision 4 catalog, and for the three NIST and four FedRAMP baselines.
• Provides tools to convert OSCAL catalog, profile, and SSP content between OSCAL XML and JSON formats, and to up convert content from milestone 2 to milestone 3.

To download this release, click on "Assets" below and download either the .zip or the .tar.bz2 bundle. These bundles contain the resources described above. There are also release notes containing a summary of changes in this and previous releases.

The OSCAL team will continue the development of OSCAL focusing our full attention on providing a more complete set of documentation for all the OSCAL layers and models, creating more examples, and providing a diverse set of tutorials. We will continue to collect feedback from the community on the OSCAL models. We are also seeking tool developers, vendors, and service providers that would like to implement the OSCAL models in commercial and open source offerings. To provide feedback, to ask questions, or to let us know about an OSCAL implementation you are working on, please email the NIST OSCAL team at [email protected]. You can also post publicly to the OSCAL development list: [email protected].

There are instructions for joining the OSCAL development and update lists on our contacts page.

OSCAL 1.0.0-milestone2 Release

We are pleased to announce the release of OSCAL 1.0.0 Milestone 2. This is the second official release of OSCAL, and marks another important milestone for the OSCAL project.

This release contains:
• A new system security plan (SSP) model that allows organizations to document the security and privacy control implementation of their systems using a rich OSCAL model.
• Updated stable versions of the OSCAL catalog and profile models, along with associated XML and JSON schemas.
• Updated content in OSCAL XML, JSON, and YAML formats for the NIST SP 800-53 revision 4 catalog, and for the three NIST and four FedRAMP baselines.
• Provides tools to convert OSCAL catalog, profile, and SSP content between OSCAL XML and JSON formats.

To download this release, click on "Assets" below and download either the .zip or the .tar.bz2 bundle. These bundles contain the resources described above. There is also release notes containing a summary of changes in this release.

The OSCAL team will continue the development of OSCAL focusing our full attention on finalizing the Component model as part of the implementation layer. The OSCAL Component model will allow organizations producing hardware, software, services, policies, processes, and proceedures to document information on the controls implemented in these offerings. Organizations can import component definitions into an OSCAL SSP, saving time and improving the richness of the documented system implementation. Stable versions of this work will be featured in our next release, OSCAL 1.0.0 Milestone 3.

We are seeking feedback from the community on the current OSCAL Catalog, Profile, and SSP models. We are also seeking tool developers and vendors that would like to implement these models in commercial and open source offerings. To further validate the implementation layer's functionality and flexibility, NIST is seeking software and service providers that are willing to work with us to represent control implementation information about their products. To provide feedback or to ask questions, please email the NIST OSCAL team at [email protected]. You can also post publicly to the OSCAL development list: [email protected].

There are instructions for joining the OSCAL development and update lists on our contributing page.

OSCAL 1.0.0-milestone1 Release

We are pleased to announce the release of OSCAL 1.0.0 Milestone 1. As the first official release of OSCAL, this release marks an important milestone for the OSCAL project.

The release contains:

• Stable versions of the OSCAL catalog and profile models in XML and JSON formats, along with associated XML and JSON schemas.
• Includes draft versions of the NIST SP 800-53 revision 4 OSCAL content and FedRAMP baselines in OSCAL XML, JSON, and YAML formats.
• Provides content converters that are capable of accurately converting between OSCAL catalog and profile content in OSCAL XML to OSCAL JSON format and vice versa.

To download this release, click on "Assets" below and download either the .zip or the .tar.bz2 bundle. These bundles contain the resources described above.