Streamline Vulnerability Scanning with Ansible and Terrapin Scanner — Video Tutorial

Introduction In the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity, regular vulnerability assessments are essential to identify and mitigate potential security risks. The Terrapin Vulnerability Scanner, developed by the RUB-NDS research group, offers a powerful tool for scanning and evaluating the security posture of systems. In this article, we explore how Ansible, a popular automation tool, can be leveraged to streamline the process of deploying and executing the Terrapin Scanner. Understanding the Ansible Playbook The provided Ansible playbook is a set of instructions written in YAML format, defining a sequence of tasks to be executed on remote hosts. Let’s break down the key components of the playbook: ```yaml --- - name: Terrapin Vulnerability Scanner hosts: all gather_facts: false vars: scanner: "Terrapin_Scanner_MacOS_arm64_darwin" target: "rhel.example.com" version: "1.1.0" myurl: "https://github.com/RUB-NDS/Terrapin-Scanner/releases/download/v{{ version }}/{{ scanner }}" mydest: "./" cli_params: "-json -connect {{ target }}" tasks: - name: Download the scanner ansible.builtin.get_url: url: "{{ myurl }}" dest: "{{ mydest }}" mode: '0644' - name: Set scanner execution permission ansible.builtin.file: dest: "{{ mydest }}/{{ scanner }}" mode: 'a+x' - name: Execute the scanner ansible.builtin.command: "{{ mydest }}/{{ scanner }} {{ cli_params }}" register: command_output - name: Print message on the screen ansible.builtin.debug: var: command_output ``` Explanation of the Playbook - `hosts: all`: Specifies that the tasks will be executed on all hosts. - `gather_facts: false`: Disables the gathering of facts about the target hosts. Facts include information about the system, such as IP address, OS version, etc. - `vars`: Defines variables used throughout the playbook, such as the scanner name, target host, version, download URL, destination directory, and command-line parameters. - `tasks`: Describes a series of tasks to be executed in order. - Download the scanner: Uses the `get_url` Ansible module to download the Terrapin Scanner from the specified URL and save it to the destination directory. - Set scanner execution permission: Uses the `file` Ansible module to set the execution permission for the downloaded scanner. - Execute the scanner: Runs the Terrapin Scanner with the specified command-line parameters. - Print message on the screen: Displays the output of the scanner execution for further analysis. Execution - localhost inventory ```bash localhost ansible_connection=local ``` - Playbook Execution ```bash ansible-playbook -i inventory terrapin.yml ``` - Output for a vulnerable OpenSSH connection ```bash PLAY [Terrapin Vulnerability Scanner] *************************************************** TASK [Download the scanner] ************************************************************* changed: [localh