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Table of Contents

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Applying Actions to a Library

The Action is the operation the policy runs on a matched library.

NOTE: A library or request can be matched to only one type and execute only one action.

You can apply one of the following actions on a matched library:

Action

Description

Approve

Automatically approves the library.

The request will be automatically closed.

Reject

Automatically rejects the library:

  • By default, a Policy Violation alert is created in the system.

  • In the case of a policy violation, the build will fail (if the build server is configured to do this).

Reassign

Workflow: reassigns the request to a designated user or group in the system which is not the default approver.

NOTE: For a Reassign action to take effect, the Open tasks for new libraries check box (Integrate tab > Advanced Settings) must be selected.

Conditions

Workflow: automatically assigns conditions and open tasks on libraries.

NOTE: For a Conditions action to take effect, the Open tasks for new libraries check box (Integrate tab > Advanced Settings) must be selected.

A request is opened for the default approver and sub-tasks are opened as “conditions” for the different assignees according to the policy definition. Conditions will be automatically sent to assignees when libraries are matched.

Conditions can be assigned to a single user/group or to different members of a group/organization.

The Conditions are added to the Tasks panel and the Request Details page where assignees can view the original library request and update the status of the conditions after handling their assigned conditions.

By clicking one of the following check boxes, you can choose to set conditions to trigger the automatic approval or rejection of the original request based on the resolution of the relevant assignees:

  • Automatically approve when all conditions are satisfied

  • Automatically reject when one condition is rejected

The assignee can mark the condition as Satisfied or Rejected. The assignee can also suggest to the approver another user to review the condition, by clicking Propose Reassignment. Only the approver is allowed to change assignees.

The Default Approver can perform the following actions on conditions: Edit, Reassign, Override and Approve, or Override and Reject.

Issue

Workflow: Issue tracker integration.

WhiteSource provides the ability to integrate with issue Issue tracking systems in order to automatically create issues in those systems when a policy match occurs. As a result, issues automatically open in the issue Issue tracking system and are automatically filled with the relevant WhiteSource information required to mitigate the risks triggering that triggered the creation of the issue.

When a policy is matched with a library (as a result of a scan or when applying policy changes to existing inventory), an issue creation is triggered created in the WhiteSource application. The Jira plugins periodically (once an hour) fetch this information and create the corresponding issues in Jira.The Jira query the WhiteSource application for “Issue” matches. These matches represent issues that the plugin should create in Jira. A corresponding WhiteSource issue (of type WS_Issue) is created in Jira for each match with all the relevant information in dedicated fields that can be sorted and filtered.

The ticket created by WhiteSource describes the level and match type of the policy, including the organization, product and project to which the library belongs. Additional information is also displayed that can help to identify why this library matched the policy (for example, if the policy match type is high severity vulnerability, the vulnerability severity and link will appear).

NOTES:

  • Issue type policies Issues created in WhiteSource will only take effect once the plugin has been set up by your administrator. For more information, see Issue Tracker Integration Generic Platform and Plugins.

  • For an Issue action issue to take effect, the Open tasks for new libraries check box (Integrate tab > Advanced Settings) must be selected.After Jira issues are created, there are no further updates between WhiteSource and Jira. If the issue status is changed (for example, Done/Obsolete) it will not be updated in WhiteSource. If the policy changes or the project is deleted, the issue will remain in Jira and will not be closed by WhiteSource.

  • Information about created issues is stored in the WhiteSource database and is used to prevent creating duplicate issues for the same library and policy name in a specific project. If the policy name is modified, another Jira issue will be created when the mechanism is triggered.  

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NOTE: A Product Admin has higher permissions than an ORG Admin, as project and product policies are the first policies that WhiteSource will look at for a match.

Managing Policies

Organizational policies are managed via the Policies menu item from the main menu. 

In the Policies page, you can view, add, edit, change the priority of, enable/disable, and remove policies.

Product-level policies are available for products that want to set their own policies which override the organizational ones. Product policies are managed from the product page, under the Policies button.

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Creating a New Policy

To create a new WhiteSource policy, do as follows:

  1. In the Policies page, click the Add Policy button. The Add Policy page is displayed.

  2. Match your policy to a library. From the Match drop-down list, select the library type to which you want to match the policy. 

  3. Specify the action to be performed on the matched library. In the Action section, click the action you want to apply to the library. 

  4. Click the Add button to revert to the Policies page showing the newly-created policy.

  5. If required, you can reorder the policy according to priority by selecting it and clicking the Raise Priority/Lower Priority buttons. 

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WhiteSource integrates with issue Issue tracking systems to automatically create tickets for tracking issues in those systems when a policy match occurs. As a result, issues automatically open in the issue Issue tracking system and are automatically filled with the relevant WhiteSource information required to mitigate the risks triggering that triggered the creation of the issue.

This use case provides an example of a ticket creation flow from the time a high-security vulnerability (as defined by the NVD) is discovered when scanning the user’s open source library code. This high security vulnerability needs to be fixed in the user’s code.  An Issue policy issue is created in the WhiteSource application. The plugins will fetch this information and create the corresponding issue in a Jira project which can be assigned to the relevant team in your organization. This allows you to seamlessly integrate remediation tasks into your development process.   

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  1. In the Policies page, click the Add Policy button.

  2. Create the required policy and select the Issue action.

  3. Select the Fail plugin policy check check box if you want to fail the scanned policies that have the Reject action type according to the Unified Agent configuration, before they are uploaded to the WhiteSource server.

  4. In the Issue Settings, select the Tracker Type as Issue Tracker Plugin.

  5. Click Add to revert to the Policies page showing the Issue policy issue created in WhiteSource.

In the Jira itself, the issue will describe the level and match type of the policy, including the organization, product and project to which the library belongs to. Additional information will also be displayed that helps to identify why this library matched the policy (in this example, since the policy match type was High Severity Vulnerability, the vulnerability severity and link appears).

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  1. Reject libraries with vulnerabilities.

    • Any vulnerability can be exploited, so we cannot recommend a “minimum level.” You will need to decide for yourself how to set this, but you can always start with High Severity vulnerabilities and create policies down the line for less severe vulnerabilities.

  2. Consult with a legal expert and reject any licenses that are too restrictive.

    • Again, while we cannot provide legal advice, Risk Scores are available for a subset of licenses - determined by legal experts that specialize in open source compliance, so that is a good place to start!

  3. Enable tasks to ensure that any new libraries which are introduced are subject to manual review, if they are not resolved by the existing policies. And then…

  4. Create a group(s) of users as necessary that should review the tasks and assign the these users to the relevant Products (via Product>>Product Default Approvers) . These groups should be restricted to personnel with the authority to make decisions, such as security experts, managers or team leaders. The more you delegate to reviewers, the more visibility you will have, resulting in fewer neglected tasks. Groups are more easily administered and as such, they are more highly recommended than individual user assignments.

  5. Consult with a legal expert and approve any licenses that are deemed permissible. This will help to resolve any tasks for new libraries.

  6. Ensure that the order of your policies correctly reflect the Priority you require. The higher the policy on the list, the higher the priority. A library will be subject to the first policy it matches.

  7. Establish organization-level policies and only use product and project-level policies where there are exceptions, to limit complexity. 

  8. Issue” policies at the product or project-level that create JIRA or Work Item tickets can be assigned to the relevant team in your organization. This allows you to seamlessly integrate remediation tasks into your development process.   

Unified Agent 

The Unified Agent is a Java command-line tool that scans directories' open source components for vulnerable libraries and source files, as well as license compliance, and uploads the results to the WhiteSource web application. 

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