The following is a description of the elements, types, and attributes that compose the core schema for encoding Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL) Variables. This schema is provided to give structure to any external variables and their values that an OVAL Definition is expecting.
The OVAL Schema is maintained by The MITRE Corporation and developed by the public OVAL Community. For more information, including how to get involved in the project and how to submit change requests, please visit the OVAL website at http://oval.mitre.org.
Element oval-var:oval_variables
Namespace
http://oval.mitre.org/XMLSchema/oval-variables-5
Annotations
The oval_variables element is the root of an OVAL Variable Document. Its purpose is to bind together the different variables contained in the document. The generator section must be present and provides information about when the variable file was compiled and under what version. The optional Signature element allows an XML Signature as defined by the W3C to be attached to the document. This allows authentication and data integrity to be provided to the user. Enveloped signatures are supported. More information about the official W3C Recommendation regarding XML digital signatures can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/.
<xsd:element name="oval_variables"><xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>The oval_variables element is the root of an OVAL Variable Document. Its purpose is to bind together the different variables contained in the document. The generator section must be present and provides information about when the variable file was compiled and under what version. The optional Signature element allows an XML Signature as defined by the W3C to be attached to the document. This allows authentication and data integrity to be provided to the user. Enveloped signatures are supported. More information about the official W3C Recommendation regarding XML digital signatures can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/.</xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation><xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence><xsd:element name="generator" type="oval:GeneratorType"/><xsd:element name="variables" type="oval-var:VariablesType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/><xsd:element ref="ds:Signature" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/></xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType><xsd:key name="varKey"><xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>Enforce uniqueness amongst the variable ids found in the variable document.</xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation><xsd:selector xpath=".//oval-var:variable"/><xsd:field xpath="@id"/></xsd:key></xsd:element>
The VariablesType complex type is a container for one or more variable elements. Each variable element holds the value of an external variable used in an OVAL Definition. Please refer to the description of the VariableType for more information about an individual variable.
<xsd:complexType name="VariablesType"><xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>The VariablesType complex type is a container for one or more variable elements. Each variable element holds the value of an external variable used in an OVAL Definition. Please refer to the description of the VariableType for more information about an individual variable.</xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation><xsd:sequence><xsd:element name="variable" type="oval-var:VariableType" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded"/></xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>
Complex Type oval-var:VariableType
Namespace
http://oval.mitre.org/XMLSchema/oval-variables-5
Annotations
Each variable element contains the associated datatype and value which will be substituted into the OVAL Definition that is referencing this specific variable.
<xsd:complexType name="VariableType"><xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>Each variable element contains the associated datatype and value which will be substituted into the OVAL Definition that is referencing this specific variable.</xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation><xsd:sequence><xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:anySimpleType" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded"/></xsd:sequence><xsd:attribute name="id" type="oval:VariableIDPattern" use="required"/><xsd:attribute name="datatype" use="required" type="oval:SimpleDatatypeEnumeration"><xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>Note that the 'record' datatype is not permitted on variables.</xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation></xsd:attribute><xsd:attribute name="comment" type="xsd:string" use="required"/></xsd:complexType>
The binary datatype is used to represent hex-encoded data that is in raw (non-printable) form. This datatype conforms to the W3C Recommendation for binary data meaning that each binary octet is encoded as a character tuple, consisting of two hexadecimal digits {[0-9a-fA-F]} representing the octet code. Expected operations within OVAL for binary values are 'equals' and 'not equal'.
enumeration
boolean
The boolean datatype represents standard boolean data, either true or false. This datatype conforms to the W3C Recommendation for boolean data meaning that the following literals are legal values: {true, false, 1, 0}. Expected operations within OVAL for boolean values are 'equals' and 'not equal'.
enumeration
evr_string
The evr_string datatype represents the epoch, version, and release fields as a single version string. It has the form "EPOCH:VERSION-RELEASE". Comparisons involving this datatype should follow the algorithm of librpm's rpmvercmp() function. Expected operations within OVAL for evr_string values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', and 'less than or equal'.
enumeration
fileset_revision
The fileset_revision datatype represents the version string related to filesets in HP-UX. An example would be 'A.03.61.00'. For more information, see the HP-UX "Software Distributor Administration Guide" (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01919399/c01919399.pdf). Expected operations within OVAL for fileset_version values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', and 'less than or equal'.
enumeration
float
The float datatype describes standard float data. This datatype conforms to the W3C Recommendation for float data meaning it is patterned after the IEEE single-precision 32-bit floating point type. The format consists of a decimal followed, optionally, by the character 'E' or 'e', followed by an integer exponent. The special values positive and negative infinity and not-a-number have are represented by INF, -INF and NaN, respectively. Expected operations within OVAL for float values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', and 'less than or equal'.
enumeration
ios_version
The ios_version datatype describes Cisco IOS Train strings. These are in essence version strings for IOS. Please refer to Cisco's IOS Reference Guide for information on how to compare different Trains as they follow a very specific pattern. Expected operations within OVAL for ios_version values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', and 'less than or equal'.
enumeration
int
The int datatype describes standard integer data. This datatype conforms to the W3C Recommendation for integer data which follows the standard mathematical concept of the integer numbers. (no decimal point and infinite range) Expected operations within OVAL for int values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', 'less than or equal', 'bitwise and', and 'bitwise or'.
enumeration
ipv4_address
The ipv4_address datatype represents IPv4 addresses and IPv4 address prefixes (using CIDR notation). Legal values are represented in dotted-quad notation ('a.b.c.d' where 'a', 'b', 'c', and 'd' are integers from 0-255), optionally followed by a slash ('/') and either a prefix-length (an integer from 0-32) or a netmask represented in dotted-quad notation ('a.b.c.d' where 'a', 'b', 'c', and 'd' are integers from 0-255). Examples of legal values are '192.0.2.0', '192.0.2.0/32', and '192.0.2.0/255.255.255.255'. Additionally, leading zeros are permitted such that '192.0.2.0' is equal to '192.000.002.000'. Expected operations within OVAL for ipv4_address values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', 'less than or equal', 'subset of', and 'superset of'.
enumeration
ipv6_address
The ipv6_address datatype represents IPv6 addresses and IPv6 address prefixes (using CIDR notation). This datatype conforms to the IETF specification RFC 4291 for textual representations of IPv6 addresses and IPv6 address prefixes (See Section 2.2 and 2.3). Expected operations within OVAL for ipv6_address values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', 'less than or equal', 'subset of', and 'superset of'.
enumeration
string
The string datatype describes standard string data. This datatype conforms to the W3C Recommendation for string data. Expected operations within OVAL for string values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'case insensitive equals', 'case insensitive not equal', 'pattern match'.
enumeration
version
The version datatype represents a value that is a hierarchical list of non-negative integers separated by a single character delimiter. Note that any non-number character can be used as a delimiter and that different characters can be used within the same version string. So '#.#-#' is the same as '#.#.#' or '#c#c#' where '#' is any non-negative integer. Expected operations within OVAL for version values are 'equals', 'not equal', 'greater than', 'greater than or equal', 'less than', and 'less than or equal'.
<xsd:attribute name="datatype" use="required" type="oval:SimpleDatatypeEnumeration"><xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>Note that the 'record' datatype is not permitted on variables.</xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation></xsd:attribute>
