Qualifying Implementations

The concept of a qualifying implementation has been introduced as part of the OVAL development process. Ensuring that a suitable number of reputable implementations have implemented a bit of OVAL ensures that quality proposals are making their way through the development process and into the appropriate release streams.

Each Qualifying Implementation MUST be Independent

The developers, the OVAL engine and the organization of each Qualifying Implementation MUST be completely distinct from those on all other Qualifying Implementations for the Proposal.

If multiple implementations have overlapping developers, OVAL engine(s) and/or organization(s), only the implementation with the the highest point score (see below) will be considered a Qualifying Implementation.

15 Points Required

In order to be considered Stable, a proposal MUST have at least 15 points of Qualifying Implementations, assigned as follows:

  • 5 points will be granted for each Qualifying Implementation submitted by an organization that is a member of the OVAL Adoption Program as a Definition Evaluator
  • 10 points will be granted for each Qualifying Implementation submitted by an organization that has successfully completed a recognized 3rd-party OVAL testing program (see list below) so long as the Qualifying Implementation uses the same implementation that was tested
  • 10 points will be granted for each Qualifying Implementation accompanied by documentation of comprehensive UNIT test coverage (as determined by the Area Supervisor)

In some cases, a single Qualifying Implementation may be found in multiple products. When this is the case, all product instances including that Qualifying Implementation are considered a single Qualifying Implementation. When this happens, only the highest score from the set of product instances can be used for the particular Qualifying Implementation.

Recognized 3rd-party OVAL testing Programs

The following programs are currently recognized by this community:

The NIST SCAP Validation program

This list may be amended at the discretion of the OVAL Board.