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Policies

Policies are sets of ordered rules. Rule order determines how a policy is evaluated.

You can manage your rules and policies programmatically using the policy API endpoints.

For more information about policy endpoints, see:

How to Add / Update Policy Rules​

All of the PUT /api/vVERSION/policies/* endpoints work similarly.

To add, edit, or remove vulnerability rules from a policy:

  1. Retrieve the entire policy, which includes all the vulnerability rules using the GET endpoint.

For example, the following cURL command uses basic auth to retrieve a list of all image vulnerability rules, pretty-prints the JSON response, and saves the results to a vulnerability_rules.json file.

$ curl -k \
  -u <USER> \
  https://<CONSOLE>/api/v1/policies/runtime/host \
  | jq '.' > vulnerability_rules.json

  1. Modify the saved JSON with the updates, including any new rule insertions. Note: Rule order is important.

  2. Update the rules by pushing the new JSON payload into the PUT endpoint.

    For example, the following cURL command installs the rules defined in your vulnerability_rules.json file.

    Note: Remember to specify the @ symbol.

    $ curl -k \
      -u <USER> \
      -X PUT \
      -H "Content-Type:application/json" \
      'https://<CONSOLE>/api/v<VERSION>/policies/runtime/host \
      --data-binary "@vulnerability_rules.json"'

Any previously installed rules are overwritten.

Minimum Rule Parameters​

To create or update a rule, specify the following:

  • Rule name
  • At least 1 collection specifying a collection name (at minimum)
  • A block threshold (optional, but recommended)
  • An alert threshold (optional, but recommended)

For example, to replace all the vulnerability rules for CI image deployments:

$ curl 'https://<CONSOLE>/api/v<VERSION>/policies/vulnerability/ci/images?project=<PROJECT>' \
  -X PUT \
  -u <USER> \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d \
'{
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "<RULE_NAME>",
      "collections":[
         {
            "name":"<COLLECTION_NAME>",
         }
      ],
      "alertThreshold":{
         "disabled":false,
         "value":4
      },
      "blockThreshold":{
         "enabled":false,
         "value":0
      },
    }
  ],
  "policyType": "ciImagesVulnerability"
}'

Note: The default alert threshold of Low is typically too broad and not actionable. Usually you'll want to specify a threshold of Critical or High.

Referencing Collections by Name​

You can reference a collection by its name when creating / updating a rule. If the collection name exists in Console, the remaining resource fields for the collection will automatically be filled in.

Note: The referenced collections must exist prior to creating / updating rules, or the API will not add / update your rules.

In Console, the default collection is All. All is a collection created by the system when the software is installed / upgraded. When using the API, you can specify All as the <COLLECTION_NAME> to apply the default collection.

How to Delete Policy Rules​

In general, the policy endpoints don't have DELETE methods. Use the PUT method to delete all rules by submitting an empty JSON object.

For example, to delete all host runtime rules:

curl -k \
  -u <USER> \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -X PUT \
  -d '{}' \
  https://<CONSOLE>/api/v1/policies/runtime/host

How to Construct a Compliance Policy​

To construct an effective rule for a compliance policy:

  1. Specify at least one "check" in the condition.vulnerabilities object. A check is a security best practice or baseline setting which will be validated by the scanner.

  2. Specify an action for each check. Prisma Cloud needs to know what to do when a check fails (for example, alert or block).

  3. In the effect parameter, specify the range of possible actions configured in the rule. The value in effect a comma-separated list.

    For example, in a one-check rule, the effect could be alert or in a two-check rule, the effect could be alert, fail.

    See Actions for failed checks for more info.

The following curl command creates a single rule compliance policy for container images scanned in the CI pipeline:

$ curl 'https://<CONSOLE>/api/v<VERSION>/policies/compliance/ci/images' \
  -k \
  -X PUT \
  -u <USER> \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d \
'{
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "my-rule",
      "effect": "alert",
      "collections":[
         {
            "name":"All"
         }
      ],
      "condition": {
         "vulnerabilities": [
         		{
         			"id": 41,
         			"block": false,
         			"minSeverity": 1
         		}
         	]
      }
    }
  ],
  "policyType": "ciImagesCompliance"
}'

Actions for failed checks​

To configure Prisma Cloud to run a check, add the check to your rule in the condition.vulnerabilities object. For each check, specify the action to take if the check fails. Actions are set on a per-check basis in condition.vulnerabilities[X].block, where:

Effectcondition.vulnerabilities[X].block
alertfalse
failtrue

The ignore effect is set implicitly for any check not explicitly included in the condition.vulnerabilities[X] array.

The effect parameter is a helper for the Console UI and has no impact on the policy itself. However, we recommend you specify an effect parameter for each rule, to ensure the policy table in the Console UI renders properly.

In the UI, these are convenience strings which enable you to quickly review the policy table and see the effect of each rule. For example, you may want to quickly find the rule that's failing/blocking your build in the CI pipeline.