Today, we are pleased to announce the release of CFEngine 3.23.0! This is a non-LTS (non-supported) release, where we introduce new features for users to test and give feedback on, allowing us to polish before the next LTS. (CFEngine 3.24 LTS is scheduled to release summer 2024).
The codename for this release is anniversary, as this year is CFEngine’s 30th anniversary. CFEngine was initially released in 1993, and to mark this special occasion we’ve created a limited edition anniversary coin:
Today, we are pleased to announce the release of CFEngine 3.22.0! The focus of this new version has been coordination. This is a non-LTS (non-supported) release, where we introduce new features for users to test and give feedback on, allowing us to polish before the next LTS. (CFEngine 3.24 LTS is scheduled to release summer 2024).
What’s new New host filters The host filter from inventory reports have been upgraded. You can now add rules based on classes, such as linux, windows, redhat, ubuntu, xen, policy_server, cfengine_3_21, ipv4_172_31, etc:
Having a list of software that is allowed to be installed on a host is a strategy to prevent and fix security gaps and maintain compliance with operational guidelines. This zero-trust methodology ensures that only explicitly permitted applications are allowed to be present on a host unlike package block-listing which enumerates an explicit list of software that is not allowed to be present. In fact, with a software allow-list, you are essentially block-listing everything except the software you allow.
Thank you for following along with our security themed holiday calendar. Today, we summarize the last half of the calendar, in case you missed some days.
Part 1 recap (12/25) A couple of weeks ago, on the 12th of December, we posted a recap of the first 12 days:
cfengine.com/blog/2022/security-holiday-calendar-part-1
File integrity monitoring with CFEngine (13/25) On the 13th, we took a look at how you can use File Integrity monitoring in CFEngine for similar functionality to AIDE:
Today, we are pleased to announce the release of CFEngine 3.21.0! The focus of this new version has been unification. Across our websites and UI, you should see that it’s a much more modern and unified experience, whether you’re reading this blog post on cfengine.com, browsing the new documentation site, looking for modules on the CFEngine Build website, or adding input to modules within Build in Mission Portal.
This release also marks an important event, the beginning of the 3.
When something goes wrong or looks fishy for a particular host in your infrastructure how do you know who to ask about it? In an infrastructure managed by many and used by many it is also helpful to know what each hosts’ purpose is.
In this article we show how to add maintainer and purpose information to individual hosts in your infrastructure via the CMDB feature of Mission Portal. We will also add a Build Module to add this information to the /etc/motd file for each associated host.
As it was well received last year, we decided to do another security-focused holiday calendar this year. The concept was roughly the same, but instead of only adding security hardening modules, we’ve also added in some other security advice and blog posts to improve the variety. Now that we’re halfway through to 24 (or 25), let’s recap the first half of the calendar.
The problematic remote shell (rsh) (1/25) Remote shell (rsh) allows you to log in and send commands to another computer over the network.
In CFEngine Enterprise we collect information from each system in the infrastructure as inventory. Some inventory is available by default, and more can be added using modules or writing policy. You can use inventory information to create a Compliance Report with checks that determine if the information complies with your security requirements. In this blog post, we will use some modules from CFEngine Build which provide inventory data, and build a Compliance Report on top of those.
All software of any significant size has bugs, vulnerabilities, and other weaknesses. This includes the operating system (OS), libraries, command line tools, services and graphical applications. Across your infrastructure, you should have an overview of what operating systems and software you have installed. Additionally, automated ways of upgrading the OS, as well as packages are desirable. Finally, ways of highlighting problematic hosts (with old operating systems and software) and prioritizing them helps your efforts to upgrade and secure your machines.
Our beloved cfbs CLI tool for working with CFEngine Build is rapidly evolving. At the time of writing, we are currently at version 3.2.1. Thus I would like to take this opportunity to talk a bit about the latest and greatest features; including support for users to manipulate input parameters in modules, as well as a couple of new build steps.
If you haven’t yet got a hold of the latest version of cfbs, you can update it with pip using the following command: