compliance-trestle

Projects that follow the best practices below can voluntarily self-certify and show that they've achieved an Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) best practices badge.

There is no set of practices that can guarantee that software will never have defects or vulnerabilities; even formal methods can fail if the specifications or assumptions are wrong. Nor is there any set of practices that can guarantee that a project will sustain a healthy and well-functioning development community. However, following best practices can help improve the results of projects. For example, some practices enable multi-person review before release, which can both help find otherwise hard-to-find technical vulnerabilities and help build trust and a desire for repeated interaction among developers from different companies. To earn a badge, all MUST and MUST NOT criteria must be met, all SHOULD criteria must be met OR be unmet with justification, and all SUGGESTED criteria must be met OR unmet (we want them considered at least). If you want to enter justification text as a generic comment, instead of being a rationale that the situation is acceptable, start the text block with '//' followed by a space. Feedback is welcome via the GitHub site as issues or pull requests There is also a mailing list for general discussion.

We gladly provide the information in several locales, however, if there is any conflict or inconsistency between the translations, the English version is the authoritative version.
If this is your project, please show your badge status on your project page! The badge status looks like this: Badge level for project 9408 is passing Here is how to embed it:
You can show your badge status by embedding this in your markdown file:
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These are the Silver level criteria. You can also view the Passing or Gold level criteria.

Baseline Series: Baseline Level 1 Baseline Level 2 Baseline Level 3

        

 Basics 17/17 ●

  • General

    Note that other projects may use the same name.

    An opinionated tooling platform for managing compliance as code, using continuous integration and NIST's OSCAL standard.

    Please use SPDX license expression format; examples include "Apache-2.0", "BSD-2-Clause", "BSD-3-Clause", "GPL-2.0+", "LGPL-3.0+", "MIT", and "(BSD-2-Clause OR Ruby)". Do not include single quotes or double quotes.
    If there is more than one language, list them as comma-separated values (spaces optional) and sort them from most to least used. If there is a long list, please list at least the first three most common ones. If there is no language (e.g., this is a documentation-only or test-only project), use the single character "-". Please use a conventional capitalization for each language, e.g., "JavaScript".
    The Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) is a structured naming scheme for information technology systems, software, and packages. It is used in a number of systems and databases when reporting vulnerabilities.

  • Prerequisites


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST achieve a passing level badge. [achieve_passing]

  • Basic project website content


    Enough for a badge!

    The information on how to contribute MUST include the requirements for acceptable contributions (e.g., a reference to any required coding standard). (URL required) [contribution_requirements]

    https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/CONTRIBUTING.md#code-style-and-formating


  • Project oversight


    Enough for a badge!

    The project SHOULD have a legal mechanism where all developers of non-trivial amounts of project software assert that they are legally authorized to make these contributions. The most common and easily-implemented approach for doing this is by using a Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO), where users add "signed-off-by" in their commits and the project links to the DCO website. However, this MAY be implemented as a Contributor License Agreement (CLA), or other legal mechanism. (URL required) [dco]
    The DCO is the recommended mechanism because it's easy to implement, tracked in the source code, and git directly supports a "signed-off" feature using "commit -s". To be most effective it is best if the project documentation explains what "signed-off" means for that project. A CLA is a legal agreement that defines the terms under which intellectual works have been licensed to an organization or project. A contributor assignment agreement (CAA) is a legal agreement that transfers rights in an intellectual work to another party; projects are not required to have CAAs, since having CAA increases the risk that potential contributors will not contribute, especially if the receiver is a for-profit organization. The Apache Software Foundation CLAs (the individual contributor license and the corporate CLA) are examples of CLAs, for projects which determine that the risks of these kinds of CLAs to the project are less than their benefits.

    The project uses the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) 1.1 — the same mechanism used by the Linux Kernel community (https://developercertificate.org). This is documented in CONTRIBUTING.md (https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/CONTRIBUTING.md), which explains what Signed-off-by means for this project, provides an example trailer (Signed-off-by: John Doe john.doe@example.com), and instructs contributors to use git commit --signoff. DCO sign-off is technically enforced on every pull request by a dedicated CI workflow (https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/.github/workflows/verify-signoff.yml) that checks every non-merge commit to confirm the Signed-off-by trailer is present and matches the commit author's email address, blocking the PR if it does not.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST clearly define and document its project governance model (the way it makes decisions, including key roles). (URL required) [governance]
    There needs to be some well-established documented way to make decisions and resolve disputes. In small projects, this may be as simple as "the project owner and lead makes all final decisions". There are various governance models, including benevolent dictator and formal meritocracy; for more details, see Governance models. Both centralized (e.g., single-maintainer) and decentralized (e.g., group maintainers) approaches have been successfully used in projects. The governance information does not need to document the possibility of creating a project fork, since that is always possible for FLOSS projects.

    URL (primary):
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md

    URL (secondary — roles):
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/MEMBERSHIP.md

    Justification text:

    The compliance-trestle project is governed under the OSCAL Compass community governance model, documented at https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md. This document defines all key roles (Member, Reviewer, Maintainer, Oversight Committee), the two-tier decision-making process (lazy consensus for day-to-day decisions; explicit simple or supermajority voting via GitVote for formal decisions), dispute resolution (escalation to the Oversight Committee with binding authority), and the process for electing and removing leadership. Detailed role requirements and responsibilities are in https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/MEMBERSHIP.md. Active project maintainers are listed in the project-level MAINTAINERS.md.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST adopt a code of conduct and post it in a standard location. (URL required) [code_of_conduct]
    Projects may be able to improve the civility of their community and to set expectations about acceptable conduct by adopting a code of conduct. This can help avoid problems before they occur and make the project a more welcoming place to encourage contributions. This should focus only on behavior within the community/workplace of the project. Example codes of conduct are the Linux kernel code of conduct, the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct, the Debian Code of Conduct, the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, the Fedora Code of Conduct, the GNOME Code Of Conduct, the KDE Community Code of Conduct, the Python Community Code of Conduct, The Ruby Community Conduct Guideline, and The Rust Code of Conduct.

    URL:
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

    Justification text:

    The project adopts the CNCF Code of Conduct, hosted at the OSCAL Compass community level at https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md. It is referenced from the project README.md ("Participation in the OSCAL Compass community is governed by the Code of Conduct") and from the project's documentation site at https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/latest/contributing/code_of_conduct/.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST clearly define and publicly document the key roles in the project and their responsibilities, including any tasks those roles must perform. It MUST be clear who has which role(s), though this might not be documented in the same way. (URL required) [roles_responsibilities]
    The documentation for governance and roles and responsibilities may be in one place.

    URL (primary — role definitions):
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/MEMBERSHIP.md

    Justification text:

    Key roles and their responsibilities are defined in https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/MEMBERSHIP.md, which documents the Member, Reviewer, Maintainer, and Oversight Committee roles — including requirements to hold each role, specific responsibilities, and privileges. Who holds each role is publicly named in two places: project-level maintainers (Maintainer role) are listed with their GitHub handles in https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/MAINTAINERS.md, and org-level role holders (Oversight Committee, Org Admins, Community Maintainers) are listed with their GitHub handles and affiliations in https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST be able to continue with minimal interruption if any one person dies, is incapacitated, or is otherwise unable or unwilling to continue support of the project. In particular, the project MUST be able to create and close issues, accept proposed changes, and release versions of software, within a week of confirmation of the loss of support from any one individual. This MAY be done by ensuring someone else has any necessary keys, passwords, and legal rights to continue the project. Individuals who run a FLOSS project MAY do this by providing keys in a lockbox and a will providing any needed legal rights (e.g., for DNS names). (URL required) [access_continuity]

    Access Continuity Explanation for OpenSSF Best Practices [access_continuity]

    The project satisfies the access continuity requirement through shared organization administration, distributed maintainership, and documented governance procedures:

    1. Multi-Admin and Multi-Org Redundancy: Administrative access, credentials, and repository rights across the oscal-compass organization are shared among multiple Org Admins from different member organizations, plus a Linux Foundation backstop account (thelinuxfoundation). This ensures that operations (managing issues, merging pull requests, releasing software) can proceed without disruption if any single person is lost.
    2. Succession and Vacancy Rules: Formal vacancy appointment and governance policies allow the multi-member Oversight Committee to reallocate responsibilities and maintain uninterrupted project continuity within one week.

    Reference URLs


    Enough for a badge!

    The project SHOULD have a "bus factor" of 2 or more. (URL required) [bus_factor]
    A "bus factor" (aka "truck factor") is the minimum number of project members that have to suddenly disappear from a project ("hit by a bus") before the project stalls due to lack of knowledgeable or competent personnel. The truck-factor tool can estimate this for projects on GitHub. For more information, see Assessing the Bus Factor of Git Repositories by Cosentino et al.

    OpenSSF Silver — bus_factor Justification
    Project: OSCAL Compass · Criterion ID: bus_factor

    Criterion
    The project SHOULD have a bus factor of 2 or more.
    URL
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#access-continuity
    Justification
    OSCAL Compass maintains a bus factor of 2 or more. The project's Access Continuity governance section documents that no single person is a point of failure. A six-member Oversight Committee drawn from at least three independent organizations (IBM, Red Hat, Sunstone Secure) collectively holds all necessary repository access, credentials, and legal rights. Multiple Org Admins — including a Linux Foundation backstop — ensure continuity of operations. Project knowledge is actively distributed across contributors from different organizations, so the project can continue to function within one week of losing any individual contributor. Vacancies are filled by appointment per the documented Vacancies process.


  • Documentation


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST have a documented roadmap that describes what the project intends to do and not do for at least the next year. (URL required) [documentation_roadmap]
    The project might not achieve the roadmap, and that's fine; the purpose of the roadmap is to help potential users and contributors understand the intended direction of the project. It need not be detailed.

    ROADMAP.md is a dedicated, top-level file that explicitly describes what the OSCAL Compass project intends to do (5 named goals covering codebase maintenance, agentic authoring, community growth, OpenSSF Best Practices, and CNCF Incubation) and not do (enterprise support, certification authority functions, vulnerability scanning, and legacy format support) over the next year.

    Key URL:

    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/ROADMAP.md
    The document is intentionally high-level (not feature-by-feature), which is exactly what the criterion expects — enough for potential users and contributors to understand the project's direction without requiring exhaustive detail.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST include documentation of the architecture (aka high-level design) of the software produced by the project. If the project does not produce software, select "not applicable" (N/A). (URL required) [documentation_architecture]
    A software architecture explains a program's fundamental structures, i.e., the program's major components, the relationships among them, and the key properties of these components and relationships.

    documentation_architecture — Compliance Evidence
    Project: compliance-trestle (oscal-compass) · Criterion: The project MUST include documentation of the architecture (high-level design) of the software it produces.

    Requirement Summary
    A software architecture explains a program's fundamental structures — its major components, the relationships among them, and the key properties of those components and relationships. The criterion requires at least one URL pointing to that documentation.

    Primary URL (Published Documentation)
    Live architecture page
    https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/latest/architecture/
    This is the publicly hosted, versioned architecture page rendered from the project's MkDocs-Material documentation site. It is permanently accessible under the latest alias managed by mike.

    Secondary URL (Repository Source)
    Markdown source in repository (develop branch)
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/docs/architecture.md
    The architecture document is tracked under version control alongside the code it describes at docs/architecture.md.

    What the Architecture Document Covers
    The document addresses all three elements the criterion requires.

    1. Major Components
      Eight distinct architectural layers are identified and mapped to their source locations:

    Layer Location in codebase
    Plugin Extension Point trestle/core/plugins.py
    Entry Points — CLI & Python API trestle/cli.py, trestle/core/repository.py
    Command Layer trestle/core/commands/
    Catalog API trestle/core/catalog/
    Profile Resolver trestle/core/profile_resolver.py, trestle/core/resolver/
    Validator Framework trestle/core/validator.py, trestle/core/validator_factory.py
    Markdown / Jinja / DrawIO Authoring trestle/core/control_{reader,writer}.py, trestle/core/markdown/, trestle/core/jinja/, trestle/core/draw_io.py
    Signing & Canonicalization trestle/core/signing.py, trestle/core/canonicalization.py
    Transform & Task Pipeline trestle/transforms/, trestle/tasks/
    OSCAL Object Model trestle/oscal/, trestle/core/base_model.py
    Workspace & Remote I/O trestle/common/, trestle/core/remote/cache.py
    2. Relationships Among Components
    A full ASCII component map in the document diagrams how the layers connect, with named, annotated edges:

    Plugin packages inject CommandBase subclasses into Trestle.subcommands at module import time.
    The CLI and Python API both dispatch to the Command Layer.
    Commands delegate business logic to Core Services (Catalog API, Profile Resolver, Validators, Authoring, Signing).
    All Core Services read and write through the OSCAL Object Model.
    The OSCAL Object Model serialises to/from Workspace & Remote I/O.
    3. Key Properties of Components and Relationships
    Five named design properties are documented:

    Property Description
    Workspace-centric storage A .trestle/-rooted directory tree; documents may be single files or split into sub-directory hierarchies following the object hierarchy.
    Schema-enforced I/O Every disk read/write passes through the Pydantic v2 model layer, guaranteeing schema validity at the boundary between disk and memory.
    Composable pipelines Pipeline / Filter pattern (trestle/core/pipeline.py) used for profile resolution and OSCAL assembly; stages are independently testable and reusable.
    Separation of concerns: CLI vs. API Commands delegate to core service classes; repository.py exposes the same services to Python callers without going through the CLI argument layer.
    Extensibility via plugins The trestle_* package naming convention allows third-party command packages to be auto-discovered without any core dependency on them.
    The document also includes a Security Requirements & Guarantees section specifying what users can and cannot rely on: input validation, SSRF protection, Jinja sandboxing, cryptographic provenance (DSSE / in-toto), supply chain integrity (SLSA), plugin trust boundaries, and encryption-at-rest limitations.

    Integration with Broader Documentation Site
    The architecture page is a top-level navigation item in the project's documentation site at https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/latest/, which is referenced from the project README.md:

    "Complete documentation, tutorials, and background on compliance can be found here."
    Criterion Satisfaction Summary
    Criterion element Status Evidence
    URL to architecture documentation ✅ Met oscal-compass.github.io/…/architecture/
    Source file in repository ✅ Met docs/architecture.md (develop branch)
    Major components identified ✅ Met 11 layers named and mapped to source paths
    Relationships among components ✅ Met ASCII component map with labeled directional edges
    Key properties of components/relationships ✅ Met 5 named design properties + security guarantees section
    Versioned & publicly accessible ✅ Met MkDocs-Material + mike, always available at /latest/architecture/


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST document what the user can and cannot expect in terms of security from the software produced by the project (its "security requirements"). (URL required) [documentation_security]
    These are the security requirements that the software is intended to meet.

    documentation_security — Compliance Evidence
    Project: compliance-trestle (oscal-compass) · Criterion: The project MUST document what the user can and cannot expect in terms of security from the software produced by the project (its "security requirements"). (URL required)

    Requirement Summary
    The project must publish documentation that explicitly states the security properties the software is designed to provide (guarantees) and the security properties it explicitly does not provide (boundaries and user responsibilities). At least one URL is required.

    URL 1 — Architecture: Security Requirements & Guarantees Section
    Published documentation page (direct anchor)
    https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/latest/architecture/#security-requirements-guarantees
    Markdown source in repository (develop branch)
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/docs/architecture.md#security-requirements--guarantees
    The architecture document contains a dedicated Security Requirements & Guarantees section that directly addresses what users CAN and CANNOT expect. It is structured in exactly the two-part form the criterion requires:

    What Users CAN Expect (Security Guarantees & Capabilities)
    Input Validation & Schema Enforcement — All OSCAL models are parsed and validated via strict Pydantic v2 models derived from official NIST OSCAL schemas. Malformed documents, invalid types, or unexpected structures are rejected at parse time.
    SSRF & Remote Resource Protection — Remote resource retrieval (trestle/core/remote/cache.py and trestle/core/remote/security.py) enforces HTTPS/SFTP and includes SSRF protections. Cloud metadata endpoints (e.g., 169.254.169.254, metadata.google.internal) and loopback addresses are blocked unconditionally. RFC 1918 private IP blocking is configurable via TRESTLE_BLOCK_PRIVATE_IPS.
    Template Sandbox Execution — Jinja2 authoring templates execute within a SandboxedEnvironment, restricting access to dangerous Python attributes and mitigating server-side template injection (SSTI) risks.
    Cryptographic Provenance & Integrity — Built-in sign / verify / sign-manifest / verify-manifest commands use RFC 8785 JSON canonicalization and in-toto / DSSE signatures via securesystemslib to establish tamper-evident document provenance.
    Supply Chain Integrity — Release distributions include SLSA build provenance attestations and PyPI trusted publishing.
    What Users CANNOT Expect (Security Boundaries & User Responsibilities)
    No Execution Isolation for Third-Party Plugins — Trestle discovers and loads trestle_* plugins from sys.path without sandboxing. Users are responsible for ensuring installed plugins are trusted.
    No Protection Against Malicious Local Files / Filesystem Attacks — Trestle runs with the permissions of the invoking user and assumes the host filesystem is secure.
    No Automatic Encryption at Rest — Trestle does not encrypt stored OSCAL models or workspace files; encryption must be provided by the OS or filesystem.
    No Verification of Semantic Content Accuracy — Schema and cross-reference integrity are validated; the accuracy, adequacy, or legal validity of compliance content within documents is not.
    No Network-Level Access Controls — Beyond URL validation during remote fetches, Trestle does not manage network transport security or proxy configuration.
    URL 2 — SECURITY.md (Repository Security Policy)
    SECURITY.md in repository
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/SECURITY.md
    SECURITY.md provides deeper technical detail on the security features users can rely on, serving as an additional reference for the "CAN expect" side of the requirement:

    Security Feature Detail
    SSRF Protection — Tier 1 (always blocked) Loopback (127.0.0.0/8, ::1/128), link-local (169.254.0.0/16, fe80::/10), and cloud metadata endpoints (AWS/Azure/GCP/Alibaba) are blocked unconditionally.
    SSRF Protection — Tier 2 (configurable) RFC 1918 private ranges (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) allowed by default; blocked when TRESTLE_BLOCK_PRIVATE_IPS=true. Private-IP accesses are logged as warnings.
    Domain Allowlist Remote fetches can be restricted to a configured set of trusted domains.
    Path Traversal Protection URL path validation blocks .. sequences; cache path validation confines files to the cache directory; workspace boundary enforcement; sensitive file protection (SSH keys, cloud credentials, /etc/passwd, /proc/self/environ, etc.).
    Scheme Restrictions Only HTTPS and SFTP are permitted for remote URLs. HTTP, FTP, and other schemes are rejected.
    Port Restrictions Only standard ports are allowed by default (HTTPS: 443, SFTP: 22). Non-standard ports are blocked unless explicitly configured.
    Security Testing Coverage SSRF and path traversal protections carry 100% code coverage. Tests include all Tier 1/Tier 2 addresses, path traversal vectors, sensitive file access attempts, and real-world attack scenarios from security advisories.
    Vulnerability Disclosure Delegates to the OSCAL Compass Community Security Policy; includes a published advisory (GHSA-w76h-q7c6-jpjp) documenting a past SSRF fix.
    Criterion Satisfaction Summary
    Criterion element Status Evidence
    URL to security requirements documentation ✅ Met (2 URLs) Architecture page § Security Requirements & Guarantees; SECURITY.md
    What users CAN expect (security guarantees) ✅ Met Input validation, SSRF protection, Jinja sandbox, cryptographic provenance, supply chain integrity — documented with implementation details and source paths
    What users CANNOT expect (security boundaries) ✅ Met Plugin isolation, filesystem security, encryption at rest, semantic accuracy, network controls — each explicitly called out as out-of-scope
    Technical depth of security feature documentation ✅ Met SECURITY.md details two-tier SSRF system, path traversal protections, scheme/port restrictions, and test coverage
    Versioned & publicly accessible ✅ Met Architecture page published at /latest/architecture/; SECURITY.md in develop branch on GitHub


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST provide a "quick start" guide for new users to help them quickly do something with the software. (URL required) [documentation_quick_start]
    The idea is to show users how to get started and make the software do anything at all. This is critically important for potential users to get started.

    REQUIREMENT: documentation_quick_start

    The project MUST provide a "quick start" guide for new users
    to help them quickly do something with the software. (URL required)

    HOW IT IS MET

    File : docs/quick-start.md
    URL : https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/latest/quick-start/

    The guide walks a new user through five steps in under five minutes:

    1. Install: pip install compliance-trestle
    2. Init: trestle init
    3. Import: trestle import -f <NIST SP 800-53 Rev5 Moderate URL> -o nist-800-53-r5-moderate
    4. Validate: trestle validate -f catalogs/nist-800-53-r5-moderate/catalog.json
    5. Explore: trestle describe -f catalogs/nist-800-53-r5-moderate/catalog.json

    Each step includes expected terminal output.
    The guide is also linked from README.md (line 73).

    REFERENCES

    Source : docs/quick-start.md
    URL : https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/latest/quick-start/


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST make an effort to keep the documentation consistent with the current version of the project results (including software produced by the project). Any known documentation defects making it inconsistent MUST be fixed. If the documentation is generally current, but erroneously includes some older information that is no longer true, just treat that as a defect, then track and fix as usual. [documentation_current]
    The documentation MAY include information about differences or changes between versions of the software and/or link to older versions of the documentation. The intent of this criterion is that an effort is made to keep the documentation consistent, not that the documentation must be perfect.

    This community repository (the OSCAL Compass community repo) uses several complementary mechanisms to keep documentation consistent with the current state of the project:

    1. CI/CD documentation quality gates on every PR
      Every pull request targeting main that touches any *.md file is automatically checked by two GitHub Actions workflows:

    .github/workflows/docs.yml — runs markdownlint-cli2 across all Markdown files. This enforces structural consistency and catches malformed documentation before it can be merged.
    .github/workflows/ci.yml — runs spellcheck (pyspelling + aspell) on every Markdown file. A custom wordlist at .github/wordlist.txt keeps project-specific terminology (tool names, acronyms) from being flagged as errors.
    Taken together, no documentation change can be merged without passing both lint and spell checks, preventing degraded or careless updates from landing.

    1. OSCAL proposal validation keeps structured docs in sync
      .github/workflows/proposals.yml installs Trestle (the project's own tool) from requirements.txt and runs trestle author docs validate against the proposals/ directory on every PR. This means the project eats its own dog food — the same OSCAL compliance tooling the project produces is used to validate the project's own structured documentation artifacts.

    2. README and CONTRIBUTING reflect current project structure
      README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md both list the current four repositories (Trestle, Agentic Agile Authoring, Agile Authoring, C2P) with up-to-date descriptions, including the recently added Agentic Agile Authoring project. This shows that documentation is actively kept in sync as new sub-projects are added to the community.

    3. PR-based change process mandates documentation updates
      CONTRIBUTING.md explicitly calls out documentation as a valid and valued contribution:

    "documentation can always use improvement … If you see something that you think should be fixed, take ownership!"

    All changes — including documentation fixes — go through pull requests, meaning every change is reviewable, trackable, and auditable. Known inconsistencies can be opened as issues and fixed via the standard PR workflow.

    1. Living governance and membership documents
      GOVERNANCE.md, MAINTAINERS.md, MEMBERSHIP.md, and EMERITUS.md are updated through the same PR process whenever the community structure changes (e.g., a maintainer steps down triggers both a MAINTAINERS.md PR and an EMERITUS.md update). This keeps human-readable governance documentation consistent with the actual state of the project.

    Key URLs
    Resource Purpose
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/README.md Primary community documentation, kept current
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/actions/workflows/docs.yml CI lint gate on all Markdown PRs
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/actions/workflows/ci.yml CI spellcheck gate on all Markdown PRs
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/actions/workflows/proposals.yml Trestle-based validation of structured proposal docs
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md Contributing guide that treats doc fixes as first-class contributions
    In summary: The criterion is met through automated CI gates that block inconsistent documentation from merging, a PR-based change process that tracks and reviews every documentation update, the project's own tooling used to validate its structured docs, and actively maintained community documents (README, CONTRIBUTING, GOVERNANCE, MAINTAINERS) that reflect the current state of all sub-projects and governance structures.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project repository front page and/or website MUST identify and hyperlink to any achievements, including this best practices badge, within 48 hours of public recognition that the achievement has been attained. (URL required) [documentation_achievements]
    An achievement is any set of external criteria that the project has specifically worked to meet, including some badges. This information does not need to be on the project website front page. A project using GitHub can put achievements on the repository front page by adding them to the README file.

    documentation_achievements — Criterion Met
    Project: compliance-trestle (oscal-compass) | OpenSSF Best Practices

    Criterion: The project repository front page and/or website MUST identify and hyperlink to any achievements, including this best practices badge, within 48 hours of public recognition that the achievement has been attained.

    ✓ MET
    How It Is Met
    The GitHub repository front page is the project's README.md. Lines 10–11 of that file display two OpenSSF achievement badges at the very top of the page, each hyperlinked to its public recognition/results page. Any visitor to github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle sees these badges immediately without scrolling.

    Achievement Badges in README.md (lines 10–11)
    Line 10: OpenSSF Best Practices
    Line 11: OpenSSF Scorecard
    Key URLs
    Achievement Badge / Recognition URL Location in Repo
    OpenSSF Best Practices https://www.bestpractices.dev/projects/9408 README.md, line 10
    OpenSSF Scorecard https://scorecard.dev/viewer/?uri=github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle README.md, line 11
    Repository front page https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle GitHub (renders README.md)
    Both badges are placed at the top of README.md — the de-facto front page for any GitHub-hosted project — satisfying the requirement that achievements are identified and hyperlinked on the project repository front page within 48 hours of public recognition.


  • Accessibility and internationalization


    Enough for a badge!

    The project (both project sites and project results) SHOULD follow accessibility best practices so that persons with disabilities can still participate in the project and use the project results where it is reasonable to do so. [accessibility_best_practices]
    For web applications, see the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and its supporting document Understanding WCAG 2.0; see also W3C accessibility information. For GUI applications, consider using the environment-specific accessibility guidelines (such as Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows). Some TUI applications (e.g. `ncurses` programs) can do certain things to make themselves more accessible (such as `alpine`'s `force-arrow-cursor` setting). Most command-line applications are fairly accessible as-is. This criterion is often N/A, e.g., for program libraries. Here are some examples of actions to take or issues to consider:
    • Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language ( WCAG 2.0 guideline 1.1)
    • Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. ( WCAG 2.0 guideline 1.4.1)
    • The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for large text, incidental text, and logotypes ( WCAG 2.0 guideline 1.4.3)
    • Make all functionality available from a keyboard (WCAG guideline 2.1)
    • A GUI or web-based project SHOULD test with at least one screen-reader on the target platform(s) (e.g. NVDA, Jaws, or WindowEyes on Windows; VoiceOver on Mac & iOS; Orca on Linux/BSD; TalkBack on Android). TUI programs MAY work to reduce overdraw to prevent redundant reading by screen-readers.

    Accessibility — compliance-trestle
    How the project meets WCAG 2.0 accessibility best practices

    Project type
    Compliance-trestle is primarily a command-line application and Python library. CLI tools are inherently accessible: they emit plain text to stdout/stderr, work in any terminal (including Braille displays), support --help on all sub-commands, and do not use colour as the sole means of conveying information. The project also publishes a documentation website (MkDocs Material) where the WCAG criteria below apply.

    WCAG 2.0 criteria
    Criterion Requirement How it is met
    1.1.1 Text alternatives All images in the documentation carry descriptive alt text that conveys the same information as the visual. Decorative images are labelled as such.
    1.4.1 Use of colour Colour is never the only means of conveying information. Code blocks use contextual labels and prose alongside colour highlighting. CLI messages carry a textual prefix (INFO / WARNING / ERROR).
    1.4.3 Contrast ≥ 4.5:1 The documentation site offers a light/dark theme toggle that respects the user's prefers-color-scheme OS setting. Inline code colours in both palettes meet the 4.5:1 minimum.
    2.1.1 Keyboard accessible The documentation site navigation is fully keyboard-accessible. A "Skip to main content" link is the first focusable element on every page so keyboard-only users can bypass the navigation bar.
    2.4.1 Bypass blocks The skip-navigation link targets the main content container so the first Tab keypress delivers focus directly to page content.
    2.4.7 Focus visible A high-contrast focus ring is applied to all interactive elements, restoring the outline the theme resets by default.
    3.1.1 Language of page Every page is served with <html lang="en"> so screen-readers announce the correct language.
    Additional: reduced motion
    CSS animations and transitions are disabled when the user's OS "reduce motion" preference is active, per prefers-reduced-motion (WCAG 2.3.3).

    Screen-reader testing
    Basic compatibility verified with Orca (GNOME, Linux). The skip-navigation link and ARIA landmark structure allow Orca users to reach the main content without traversing the full sidebar.

    References
    WCAG 2.0 specification
    Understanding WCAG 2.0
    W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)


    Enough for a badge!

    The software produced by the project SHOULD be internationalized to enable easy localization for the target audience's culture, region, or language. If internationalization (i18n) does not apply (e.g., the software doesn't generate text intended for end-users and doesn't sort human-readable text), select "not applicable" (N/A). [internationalization]
    Localization "refers to the adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a locale)." Internationalization is the "design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language." (See W3C's "Localization vs. Internationalization".) Software meets this criterion simply by being internationalized. No localization for another specific language is required, since once software has been internationalized it's possible for others to work on localization.

    Internationalization — compliance-trestle
    How the project meets the i18n best-practices requirement — see W3C: Localization vs. Internationalization

    ✓ Requirement met — partially N/A, partially addressed
    What text the project produces
    Output type Audience i18n applies?
    OSCAL JSON / YAML artifacts Machine-to-machine interchange; content is authored by the user, not generated by trestle N/A — structured data, not trestle-generated natural language
    CLI log messages & --help text Developers and compliance engineers running the tool Applies — English hardcoded today; no gettext wrapping
    Markdown governance output Content is templated and authored by the user; trestle supplies structural scaffolding only N/A — trestle does not generate localizable natural-language prose
    Documentation website English-speaking developers N/A for the requirement — static documentation, not software output
    How the requirement is met
    The dominant output of compliance-trestle is machine-readable OSCAL data (JSON/YAML). This data is structured entirely by the user's own content; trestle acts as a schema-enforcing pipeline and does not inject localizable natural-language text into it. For this majority of the software's output, the i18n criterion is not applicable.

    The CLI does produce a smaller volume of human-readable text — log messages and --help strings — that is currently English-only. The codebase is already prepared for i18n in the following structural ways:

    Every source file declares # -- coding:utf-8 --, ensuring all string literals are UTF-8 and can contain any Unicode character without modification.
    All user-facing strings are plain Python string literals, making them straightforward to wrap with Python's standard gettext module when a translation catalogue is needed — no architectural changes are required.
    No locale-sensitive operations (date formatting, number formatting, sorting of human-readable text) are performed on data that trestle itself generates; where timestamps appear in OSCAL output they follow the ISO 8601 standard, which is locale-neutral.
    The documentation site sets lang="en" explicitly, so the language of all human-readable site content is declared and unambiguous to translation tools.
    Summary
    The bulk of trestle's output (OSCAL artifacts, markdown scaffolding) is N/A for i18n because it carries user-authored content, not software-generated natural language. The small portion that does generate end-user text (CLI messages) is structurally ready for gettext-based localization: UTF-8 source encoding is declared throughout, strings are plain literals with no locale-sensitive formatting, and no architectural changes would be needed to add a translation catalogue.

    References
    W3C: Localization vs. Internationalization
    Python gettext — Internationalization Services
    W3C: Declaring language in HTML


  • Other


    Enough for a badge!

    If the project sites (website, repository, and download URLs) store passwords for authentication of external users, the passwords MUST be stored as iterated hashes with a per-user salt by using a key stretching (iterated) algorithm (e.g., Argon2id, Bcrypt, Scrypt, or PBKDF2). If the project sites do not store passwords for this purpose, select "not applicable" (N/A). [sites_password_security]
    Note that the use of GitHub meets this criterion. This criterion only applies to passwords used for authentication of external users into the project sites (aka inbound authentication). If the project sites must log in to other sites (aka outbound authentication), they may need to store authorization tokens for that purpose differently (since storing a hash would be useless). This applies criterion crypto_password_storage to the project sites, similar to sites_https.

    The project uses GitHub for repository hosting and access management, and GitHub Pages for its documentation site. Neither the project itself nor any of its sites store passwords for authenticating external users — all inbound authentication is delegated entirely to GitHub and PyPI, both of which use industry-standard iterated-hash password storage. The use of GitHub directly satisfies this criterion. N/A.


 Change Control 1/1 ●

  • Previous versions


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST maintain the most often used older versions of the product or provide an upgrade path to newer versions. If the upgrade path is difficult, the project MUST document how to perform the upgrade (e.g., the interfaces that have changed and detailed suggested steps to help upgrade). [maintenance_or_update]

    The compliance-trestle project satisfies this requirement through three overlapping mechanisms: active maintenance of older major versions, explicit upgrade documentation, and clear install instructions for every historical version. Evidence is drawn directly from the repository.

    1. Older versions are actively maintained
      README.md at lines 97–119 declares the support status of every major line:

    Branch Status Notes
    v5 (main) Stable – actively developed Current
    v4 Stable – maintenance mode Security & bug-fix releases until 2026-12-31
    v3 Deprecated No longer supported
    v2 Deprecated No longer supported
    The v4 maintenance branch is a live, release-capable branch—not just an archived tag. docs/contributing/maintenance_releases.md documents the formal procedure for creating and managing these branches, and pyproject.toml lines 342–368 configures the semantic-release pipeline to publish from any branch matching ^v\d+$.

    1. Detailed upgrade path is documented
      docs/upgrading.md provides a dedicated upgrade guide. It covers:

    v4 → v5: Breaking changes (minimum Python raised from 3.10 → 3.11, interface changes), with step-by-step migration instructions.
    Pinned install commands for both the new and the prior version:
    pip install --upgrade "compliance-trestle>=5,<6" # v5
    pip install --upgrade "compliance-trestle>=4,<5" # stay on v4

    A "Still on v4?" section explicitly acknowledging users who cannot yet upgrade.
    3. Install instructions for all historical versions are publicly documented
    docs/index.md lines 55–78 gives exact pip install commands for every major version (0.37.x through 5.x) and maps each to its supported OSCAL schema version, so users can pin to whichever release their toolchain requires.

    1. Version history is publicly traceable
      CHANGELOG.md contains a full release log from v0.x through the current v5.1.0, giving a complete audit trail of changes between versions.

    Supporting URLs
    Resource URL
    PyPI release history https://pypi.org/project/compliance-trestle/#history
    All branches (v4, v5, main, develop) https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/branches/all
    Upgrade guide (docs/upgrading.md rendered) https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/upgrading/
    Maintenance releases process https://oscal-compass.github.io/compliance-trestle/contributing/maintenance_releases/
    CHANGELOG https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
    Conclusion: The project keeps the previous major version (v4) alive with security/bug-fix patches, documents a clear v4→v5 upgrade path with exact pip commands and interface-change details, and publishes install commands for all historical versions on its public documentation site—fully satisfying the [maintenance_or_update] requirement.


 Reporting 2/3 ●

  • Bug-reporting process


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST use an issue tracker for tracking individual issues. [report_tracker]

    Reports are tracked under GIT issues.
    https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/issues

    New issues are reviewed at least bi-weekly by the maintainers.


  • Vulnerability report process


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST give credit to the reporter(s) of all vulnerability reports resolved in the last 12 months, except for the reporter(s) who request anonymity. If there have been no vulnerabilities resolved in the last 12 months, select "not applicable" (N/A). (URL required) [vulnerability_report_credit]

    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST have a documented process for responding to vulnerability reports. (URL required) [vulnerability_response_process]
    This is strongly related to vulnerability_report_process, which requires that there be a documented way to report vulnerabilities. It also related to vulnerability_report_response, which requires response to vulnerability reports within a certain time frame.

    Per security-insights.yml: repository.documentation.security-policy=https://github.com/oscal-compass/community/blob/main/SECURITY.md [osps_vm_01_01]


 Quality 4/19 ●

  • Coding standards


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST identify the specific coding style guides for the primary languages it uses, and require that contributions generally comply with it. (URL required) [coding_standards]
    In most cases this is done by referring to some existing style guide(s), possibly listing differences. These style guides can include ways to improve readability and ways to reduce the likelihood of defects (including vulnerabilities). Many programming languages have one or more widely-used style guides. Examples of style guides include Google's style guides and SEI CERT Coding Standards.

    The project identifies specific coding style guides for its primary language (Python) with URLs, and explicitly requires that contributions comply with them.

    The CONTRIBUTING.md file, under the "Code style and formatting" section, states:

    "All contributions must comply with the following coding style guides:"

    and lists the following with direct URLs:

    Scope Style guide URL
    Python — general style PEP 8 – Style Guide for Python Code https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/
    Python — type annotations PEP 484 – Type Hints https://peps.python.org/pep-0484/
    Python — docstrings Google Python Style Guide (docstrings section) https://google.github.io/styleguide/pyguide.html#38-comments-and-docstrings
    Python — security SEI CERT Python Coding Standard https://wiki.sei.cmu.edu/confluence/display/python/SEI+CERT+Python+Coding+Standard
    Compliance with these guides is mechanically enforced on every pull request through:

    ruff — enforces PEP 8 style (pycodestyle E/W rules), security checks (flake8-bandit S rules aligned with SEI CERT guidance), import ordering, and additional code-quality rules
    mypy — enforces PEP 484 type annotations
    pre-commit hooks — run automatically on every commit and in CI, ensuring no contribution can be merged without passing all style and lint checks
    The full tool configuration is publicly documented in pyproject.toml ([tool.ruff] and [tool.mypy] sections) and .pre-commit-config.yaml.


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST automatically enforce its selected coding style(s) if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can do so in the selected language(s). [coding_standards_enforced]
    This MAY be implemented using static analysis tool(s) and/or by forcing the code through code reformatters. In many cases the tool configuration is included in the project's repository (since different projects may choose different configurations). Projects MAY allow style exceptions (and typically will); where exceptions occur, they MUST be rare and documented in the code at their locations, so that these exceptions can be reviewed and so that tools can automatically handle them in the future. Examples of such tools include ESLint (JavaScript), Rubocop (Ruby), and devtools check (R).

    The project automatically enforces its selected coding style on every pull request and every push to develop and main using multiple FLOSS tools. All tool configuration is committed to the repository.

    Tools and their enforcement scope:

    Tool What it enforces Configuration
    ruff (formatter) PEP 8 formatting, quote style, indent width, import ordering pyproject.toml [tool.ruff.format]
    ruff (linter) PEP 8 errors/warnings, Pyflakes, pep8-naming, bugbear, comprehensions, simplify, security (bandit), pyupgrade, ruff-specific rules pyproject.toml [tool.ruff.lint]
    mypy PEP 484 type annotation correctness pyproject.toml [tool.mypy]
    mdformat Markdown document formatting .pre-commit-config.yaml
    Enforcement layers — no contribution can bypass all three:

    Pre-commit hooks — ruff format + lint and mdformat run automatically on every git commit via .pre-commit-config.yaml. Hooks are installed and kept current by make develop.
    PR CI pipeline — the lint job in .github/workflows/python-test.yml runs make code-format, make code-lint, make code-typing, and make mdformat on every pull request. The build job in .github/workflows/python-push.yml repeats the same checks on every push to develop and main. A PR cannot be merged if these steps fail.
    SonarCloud quality gate — an additional static-analysis scan runs on every PR and must pass before merge.
    Exceptions — rare and documented in-code:

    Where a lint rule must be suppressed, a # noqa: <RULE> inline comment is required with a human-readable justification. Only two such suppressions exist in the entire non-generated source tree:

    trestle/core/commands/author/jinja.py:166 — # noqa: N802 - LUT is an established acronym; renaming is a breaking API change
    trestle/core/remote/cache.py:291 — # noqa: S105 - sentinel value {{_}}, not a real password
    The RUF100 rule (unused/invalid noqa directives) is enabled globally, so any suppression that no longer corresponds to an active violation is itself flagged — ensuring that exceptions cannot silently accumulate. All project-level rule exceptions in pyproject.toml are annotated with FIXME comments tracking the count of violations to be remediated incrementally.


  • Working build system


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    Build systems for native binaries MUST honor the relevant compiler and linker (environment) variables passed in to them (e.g., CC, CFLAGS, CXX, CXXFLAGS, and LDFLAGS) and pass them to compiler and linker invocations. A build system MAY extend them with additional flags; it MUST NOT simply replace provided values with its own. If no native binaries are being generated, select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_standard_variables]
    It should be easy to enable special build features like Address Sanitizer (ASAN), or to comply with distribution hardening best practices (e.g., by easily turning on compiler flags to do so).

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The build and installation system SHOULD preserve debugging information if they are requested in the relevant flags (e.g., "install -s" is not used). If there is no build or installation system (e.g., typical JavaScript libraries), select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_preserve_debug]
    E.G., setting CFLAGS (C) or CXXFLAGS (C++) should create the relevant debugging information if those languages are used, and they should not be stripped during installation. Debugging information is needed for support and analysis, and also useful for measuring the presence of hardening features in the compiled binaries.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The build system for the software produced by the project MUST NOT recursively build subdirectories if there are cross-dependencies in the subdirectories. If there is no build or installation system (e.g., typical JavaScript libraries), select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_non_recursive]
    The project build system's internal dependency information needs to be accurate, otherwise, changes to the project may not build correctly. Incorrect builds can lead to defects (including vulnerabilities). A common mistake in large build systems is to use a "recursive build" or "recursive make", that is, a hierarchy of subdirectories containing source files, where each subdirectory is independently built. Unless each subdirectory is fully independent, this is a mistake, because the dependency information is incorrect.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST be able to repeat the process of generating information from source files and get exactly the same bit-for-bit result. If no building occurs (e.g., scripting languages where the source code is used directly instead of being compiled), select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_repeatable]
    GCC and clang users may find the -frandom-seed option useful; in some cases, this can be resolved by forcing some sort order. More suggestions can be found at the reproducible build site.

  • Installation system


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST provide a way to easily install and uninstall the software produced by the project using a commonly-used convention. [installation_common]
    Examples include using a package manager (at the system or language level), "make install/uninstall" (supporting DESTDIR), a container in a standard format, or a virtual machine image in a standard format. The installation and uninstallation process (e.g., its packaging) MAY be implemented by a third party as long as it is FLOSS.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The installation system for end-users MUST honor standard conventions for selecting the location where built artifacts are written to at installation time. For example, if it installs files on a POSIX system it MUST honor the DESTDIR environment variable. If there is no installation system or no standard convention, select "not applicable" (N/A). [installation_standard_variables]

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST provide a way for potential developers to quickly install all the project results and support environment necessary to make changes, including the tests and test environment. This MUST be performed with a commonly-used convention. [installation_development_quick]
    This MAY be implemented using a generated container and/or installation script(s). External dependencies would typically be installed by invoking system and/or language package manager(s), per external_dependencies.

  • Externally-maintained components


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST list external dependencies in a computer-processable way. (URL required) [external_dependencies]
    Typically this is done using the conventions of package manager and/or build system. Note that this helps implement installation_development_quick.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    Projects MUST monitor or periodically check their external dependencies (including convenience copies) to detect known vulnerabilities, and fix exploitable vulnerabilities or verify them as unexploitable. [dependency_monitoring]
    This can be done using an origin analyzer / dependency checking tool / software composition analysis tool such as OWASP's Dependency-Check, Sonatype's Nexus Auditor, Synopsys' Black Duck Software Composition Analysis, and Bundler-audit (for Ruby). Some package managers include mechanisms to do this. It is acceptable if the components' vulnerability cannot be exploited, but this analysis is difficult and it is sometimes easier to simply update or fix the part.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST either:
    1. make it easy to identify and update reused externally-maintained components; or
    2. use the standard components provided by the system or programming language.
    Then, if a vulnerability is found in a reused component, it will be easy to update that component. [updateable_reused_components]
    A typical way to meet this criterion is to use system and programming language package management systems. Many FLOSS programs are distributed with "convenience libraries" that are local copies of standard libraries (possibly forked). By itself, that's fine. However, if the program *must* use these local (forked) copies, then updating the "standard" libraries as a security update will leave these additional copies still vulnerable. This is especially an issue for cloud-based systems; if the cloud provider updates their "standard" libraries but the program won't use them, then the updates don't actually help. See, e.g., "Chromium: Why it isn't in Fedora yet as a proper package" by Tom Callaway.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project SHOULD avoid using deprecated or obsolete functions and APIs where FLOSS alternatives are available in the set of technology it uses (its "technology stack") and to a supermajority of the users the project supports (so that users have ready access to the alternative). [interfaces_current]

  • Automated test suite


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    An automated test suite MUST be applied on each check-in to a shared repository for at least one branch. This test suite MUST produce a report on test success or failure. [automated_integration_testing]
    This requirement can be viewed as a subset of test_continuous_integration, but focused on just testing, without requiring continuous integration.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST add regression tests to an automated test suite for at least 50% of the bugs fixed within the last six months. [regression_tests_added50]

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST have FLOSS automated test suite(s) that provide at least 80% statement coverage if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can measure this criterion in the selected language. [test_statement_coverage80]
    Many FLOSS tools are available to measure test coverage, including gcov/lcov, Blanket.js, Istanbul, JCov, and covr (R). Note that meeting this criterion is not a guarantee that the test suite is thorough, instead, failing to meet this criterion is a strong indicator of a poor test suite.

  • New functionality testing


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST have a formal written policy that as major new functionality is added, tests for the new functionality MUST be added to an automated test suite. [test_policy_mandated]

    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST include, in its documented instructions for change proposals, the policy that tests are to be added for major new functionality. [tests_documented_added]
    However, even an informal rule is acceptable as long as the tests are being added in practice.

    https://github.com/oscal-compass/compliance-trestle/blob/develop/CONTRIBUTING.md

    Trestle updating, testing and release logistics

    "Contributors must include test cases to meet at least the minimum code coverage requirements."


  • Warning flags


    Enough for a badge!

    Projects MUST be maximally strict with warnings in the software produced by the project, where practical. [warnings_strict]
    Some warnings cannot be effectively enabled on some projects. What is needed is evidence that the project is striving to enable warning flags where it can, so that errors are detected early.

    The project uses Code formatting (yapf) and code linting (flake8) to flag code issues with both errors or warnings, depending on the issue. The project also use sonar https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=compliance-trestle.


 Security 2/13 ●

  • Secure development knowledge


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST implement secure design principles (from "know_secure_design"), where applicable. If the project is not producing software, select "not applicable" (N/A). [implement_secure_design]
    For example, the project results should have fail-safe defaults (access decisions should deny by default, and projects' installation should be secure by default). They should also have complete mediation (every access that might be limited must be checked for authority and be non-bypassable). Note that in some cases principles will conflict, in which case a choice must be made (e.g., many mechanisms can make things more complex, contravening "economy of mechanism" / keep it simple).

  • Use basic good cryptographic practices

    Note that some software does not need to use cryptographic mechanisms. If your project produces software that (1) includes, activates, or enables encryption functionality, and (2) might be released from the United States (US) to outside the US or to a non-US-citizen, you may be legally required to take a few extra steps. Typically this just involves sending an email. For more information, see the encryption section of Understanding Open Source Technology & US Export Controls.

    Enough for a badge!

    The default security mechanisms within the software produced by the project MUST NOT depend on cryptographic algorithms or modes with known serious weaknesses (e.g., the SHA-1 cryptographic hash algorithm or the CBC mode in SSH). [crypto_weaknesses]
    Concerns about CBC mode in SSH are discussed in CERT: SSH CBC vulnerability.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project SHOULD support multiple cryptographic algorithms, so users can quickly switch if one is broken. Common symmetric key algorithms include AES, Twofish, and Serpent. Common cryptographic hash algorithm alternatives include SHA-2 (including SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384 AND SHA-512) and SHA-3. [crypto_algorithm_agility]

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST support storing authentication credentials (such as passwords and dynamic tokens) and private cryptographic keys in files that are separate from other information (such as configuration files, databases, and logs), and permit users to update and replace them without code recompilation. If the project never processes authentication credentials and private cryptographic keys, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_credential_agility]

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The software produced by the project SHOULD support secure protocols for all of its network communications, such as SSHv2 or later, TLS1.2 or later (HTTPS), IPsec, SFTP, and SNMPv3. Insecure protocols such as FTP, HTTP, telnet, SSLv3 or earlier, and SSHv1 SHOULD be disabled by default, and only enabled if the user specifically configures it. If the software produced by the project does not support network communications, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_used_network]

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The software produced by the project SHOULD, if it supports or uses TLS, support at least TLS version 1.2. Note that the predecessor of TLS was called SSL. If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_tls12]

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The software produced by the project MUST, if it supports TLS, perform TLS certificate verification by default when using TLS, including on subresources. If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_certificate_verification]
    Note that incorrect TLS certificate verification is a common mistake. For more information, see "The Most Dangerous Code in the World: Validating SSL Certificates in Non-Browser Software" by Martin Georgiev et al. and "Do you trust this application?" by Michael Catanzaro.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The software produced by the project MUST, if it supports TLS, perform certificate verification before sending HTTP headers with private information (such as secure cookies). If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_verification_private]

  • Secure release


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST cryptographically sign releases of the project results intended for widespread use, and there MUST be a documented process explaining to users how they can obtain the public signing keys and verify the signature(s). The private key for these signature(s) MUST NOT be on site(s) used to directly distribute the software to the public. If releases are not intended for widespread use, select "not applicable" (N/A). [signed_releases]
    The project results include both source code and any generated deliverables where applicable (e.g., executables, packages, and containers). Generated deliverables MAY be signed separately from source code. These MAY be implemented as signed git tags (using cryptographic digital signatures). Projects MAY provide generated results separately from tools like git, but in those cases, the separate results MUST be separately signed.

    Per security-insights.yml: repository.release.attestations predicate-uri includes slsa Comment says: "SLSA build provenance attestation generated automatically for all release distribution artifacts via actions/attest.".


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    It is SUGGESTED that in the version control system, each important version tag (a tag that is part of a major release, minor release, or fixes publicly noted vulnerabilities) be cryptographically signed and verifiable as described in signed_releases. [version_tags_signed]

  • Other security issues


    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project results MUST check all inputs from potentially untrusted sources to ensure they are valid (an *allowlist*), and reject invalid inputs, if there are any restrictions on the data at all. [input_validation]
    Note that comparing input against a list of "bad formats" (aka a *denylist*) is normally not enough, because attackers can often work around a denylist. In particular, numbers are converted into internal formats and then checked if they are between their minimum and maximum (inclusive), and text strings are checked to ensure that they are valid text patterns (e.g., valid UTF-8, length, syntax, etc.). Some data may need to be "anything at all" (e.g., a file uploader), but these would typically be rare.

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    Hardening mechanisms SHOULD be used in the software produced by the project so that software defects are less likely to result in security vulnerabilities. [hardening]
    Hardening mechanisms may include HTTP headers like Content Security Policy (CSP), compiler flags to mitigate attacks (such as -fstack-protector), or compiler flags to eliminate undefined behavior. For our purposes least privilege is not considered a hardening mechanism (least privilege is important, but separate).

    Unknown required information, not enough for a badge.

    The project MUST provide an assurance case that justifies why its security requirements are met. The assurance case MUST include: a description of the threat model, clear identification of trust boundaries, an argument that secure design principles have been applied, and an argument that common implementation security weaknesses have been countered. (URL required) [assurance_case]
    An assurance case is "a documented body of evidence that provides a convincing and valid argument that a specified set of critical claims regarding a system’s properties are adequately justified for a given application in a given environment" ("Software Assurance Using Structured Assurance Case Models", Thomas Rhodes et al, NIST Interagency Report 7608). Trust boundaries are boundaries where data or execution changes its level of trust, e.g., a server's boundaries in a typical web application. It's common to list secure design principles (such as Saltzer and Schroeer) and common implementation security weaknesses (such as the OWASP top 10 or CWE/SANS top 25), and show how each are countered. The BadgeApp assurance case may be a useful example. This is related to documentation_security, documentation_architecture, and implement_secure_design.

 Analysis 2/2 ●

  • Static code analysis


    Enough for a badge!

    The project MUST use at least one static analysis tool with rules or approaches to look for common vulnerabilities in the analyzed language or environment, if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can implement this criterion in the selected language. [static_analysis_common_vulnerabilities]
    Static analysis tools that are specifically designed to look for common vulnerabilities are more likely to find them. That said, using any static tools will typically help find some problems, so we are suggesting but not requiring this for the 'passing' level badge.

    Sonar: STATIC APPLICATION SECURITY TESTING reduces the risk of security breaches by scanning and analyzing the source code files to identify issues such as security vulnerabilities, bugs, code smells and other flaws to ensure code quality and security.


  • Dynamic code analysis


    Enough for a badge!

    If the software produced by the project includes software written using a memory-unsafe language (e.g., C or C++), then at least one dynamic tool (e.g., a fuzzer or web application scanner) MUST be routinely used in combination with a mechanism to detect memory safety problems such as buffer overwrites. If the project does not produce software written in a memory-unsafe language, choose "not applicable" (N/A). [dynamic_analysis_unsafe]
    Examples of mechanisms to detect memory safety problems include Address Sanitizer (ASAN) (available in GCC and LLVM), Memory Sanitizer, and valgrind. Other potentially-used tools include thread sanitizer and undefined behavior sanitizer. Widespread assertions would also work.

    N/A,language used is Python.



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Project badge entry owned by: Lou DeGenaro.
Entry created on 2024-09-02 12:27:57 UTC, last updated on 2026-09-09 18:19:33 UTC. Last achieved passing badge on 2024-11-11 12:03:16 UTC.