IBM Cloud Docs
Building custom profiles

Building custom profiles

With IBM Cloud® Security and Compliance Center, you can take advantage of predefined profiles that are curated based on industry standards, or you can choose to create one specific to your usecase from an existing library.

The diagram shows the layout of a profile. The information is conveyed in the surrounding text.
Understanding profiles

A profile is a grouping of controls that can be evaluated for compliance. In Security and Compliance Center, you can work with predefined profiles, or you can create a profile by selecting controls that have already been added to a control library. Controls already have specifications and assessments that are associated with them, but you can choose to create your own. To learn more about each entity, see Key Concepts.

Before you begin

Before you get started, be sure that you have the required level of access to create and manage profiles. To manage profiles, you need the Writer service role or higher.

Building a profile

You can create a profile through the console by using a control library as a guide.

  1. In the IBM Cloud console, go to the Resource list page and select your instance of Security and Compliance Center.

  2. In your instance of Security and Compliance Center, go to the Profiles page and click Create.

  3. Provide your profile details, including a Name, Version, and optionally a Description.

    The version of your profile must be specified in SemVer format. For example, 1.0.2 or 2.1.3-alpha.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Add controls.

    1. Click Add to view the available control libararies.
    2. Select the library that you want to pull controls from.

    Because you cannot create custom profiles from deprecated control library versions, work with the most recent version. If you don't see exactly what you're looking for, you can always create a custom control library and it will display in the screen.

    1. Select the controls that you want to evaluate. To view the associated assessments, you can click eye icon.
    2. When you have all of your controls selected, click Add.
    3. Optional: If you want to pull controls from another library into your profile, repeat the previous steps and select another profile.
    4. Review your selected controls, and then click Next.

  6. Define the parameter values by expanding each row to view the input that is required for each specification.

    Your selected controls might not have any assessments that require parameter input. If that is the case, a message will tell you to skip to the next step.

  7. Review your selections, and then click Create.

Building a profile with the API

You can create a profile with the API by using a control library as a guide.

curl -X POST 
	--location --header "Authorization: Bearer {iam_token}" 
	--header "Accept: application/json" 
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" 
	--data '{ 
				"profile_name": "test_profile1", 
				"profile_description": "test_description1", 
				"profile_type": "custom", 
				"profile_version": "1.0.0", 
				"version_group_label": "58a5922f-0763-485b-91ef-92cca4125d9d", 
				"controls": [ 
					{ 
						"control_library_id": "e98a56ff-dc24-41d4-9875-1e188e2da6cd", 
						"control_id": "1fa45e17-9322-4e6c-bbd6-1c51db08e790" 
						} 
					], 
				"default_parameters": [ 
					{ 
						"assessment_type": "Automated", 
						"assessment_id": "rule-a637949b-7e51-46c4-afd4-b96619001bf1", 
						"parameter_name": "session_invalidation_in_seconds", 
						"parameter_default_value": "120", 
						"parameter_display_name": "Sign out due to inactivity in seconds", 
						"parameter_type": "numeric" 
					} 
				] 
			}'
		"https://us-south.compliance.cloud.ibm.com/instances/{instance_id}/v3/profiles"

(securityAndComplianceCenterApi *SecurityAndComplianceCenterApiV3) CreateProfile(createProfileOptions *CreateProfileOptions) (result *Profile, response *core.DetailedResponse, err error)

ProfileControlsPrototype profileControlsPrototypeModel = new ProfileControlsPrototype.Builder()
  .controlLibraryId(controlLibraryIdLink)
  .controlId("1fa45e17-9322-4e6c-bbd6-1c51db08e790")
  .build();
DefaultParametersPrototype defaultParametersPrototypeModel = new DefaultParametersPrototype.Builder()
  .assessmentType("Automated")
  .assessmentId("rule-a637949b-7e51-46c4-afd4-b96619001bf1")
  .parameterName("session_invalidation_in_seconds")
  .parameterDefaultValue("120")
  .parameterDisplayName("Sign out due to inactivity in seconds")
  .parameterType("numeric")
  .build();
CreateProfileOptions createProfileOptions = new CreateProfileOptions.Builder()
  .profileName("test_profile1")
  .profileDescription("test_description1")
  .profileType("custom")
  .controls(java.util.Arrays.asList(profileControlsPrototypeModel))
  .defaultParameters(java.util.Arrays.asList(defaultParametersPrototypeModel))
  .build();

Response<Profile> response = securityAndComplianceCenterApiService.createProfile(createProfileOptions).execute();
Profile profile = response.getResult();

System.out.println(profile);

// Request models needed by this operation.

// ProfileControlsPrototype
const profileControlsPrototypeModel = {
  control_library_id: controlLibraryIdLink,
  control_id: '1fa45e17-9322-4e6c-bbd6-1c51db08e790',
};

// DefaultParametersPrototype
const defaultParametersPrototypeModel = {
  assessment_type: 'Automated',
  assessment_id: 'rule-a637949b-7e51-46c4-afd4-b96619001bf1',
  parameter_name: 'session_invalidation_in_seconds',
  parameter_default_value: '120',
  parameter_display_name: 'Sign out due to inactivity in seconds',
  parameter_type: 'numeric',
};

const params = {
  profileName: 'test_profile1',
  profileDescription: 'test_description1',
  profileType: 'custom',
  controls: [profileControlsPrototypeModel],
  defaultParameters: [defaultParametersPrototypeModel],
};

let res;
try {
  res = await securityAndComplianceCenterApiService.createProfile(params);
  console.log(JSON.stringify(res.result, null, 2));
} catch (err) {
  console.warn(err);
}

profile_controls_prototype_model = {
  'control_library_id': control_library_id_link,
  'control_id': '1fa45e17-9322-4e6c-bbd6-1c51db08e790',
}

default_parameters_prototype_model = {
  'assessment_type': 'Automated',
  'assessment_id': 'rule-a637949b-7e51-46c4-afd4-b96619001bf1',
  'parameter_name': 'session_invalidation_in_seconds',
  'parameter_default_value': '120',
  'parameter_display_name': 'Sign out due to inactivity in seconds',
  'parameter_type': 'numeric',
}

response = security_and_compliance_center_api_service.create_profile(
  profile_name='test_profile1',
  profile_description='test_description1',
  profile_type='custom',
  controls=[profile_controls_prototype_model],
  default_parameters=[default_parameters_prototype_model],
)
profile = response.get_result()

print(json.dumps(profile, indent=2))

A successful response returns a boolean that confirms that success is true. For more information about the required and optional request parameters, check out the API docs.

Building a profile with the CLI

You can create a profile with the CLI by using a control library as a guide. For more information, see the CLI reference.

ibmcloud security-compliance profile create
--profile-name=test_profile1
--profile-description=test_description1
--profile-type=custom
--controls='[
	{
		"control_library_id": "e98a56ff-dc24-41d4-9875-1e188e2da6cd",
		"control_id": "1fa45e17-9322-4e6c-bbd6-1c51db08e790"
		}
	]'
--default-parameters='[
	{
		"assessment_type": "Automated",
		"assessment_id": "rule-a637949b-7e51-46c4-afd4-b96619001bf1",
		"parameter_name": "session_invalidation_in_seconds",
		"parameter_default_value": "120",
		"parameter_display_name": "Sign out due to inactivity in seconds",
		"parameter_type": "numeric"
		}
	]'
--x-correlation-id=exampleString
--x-request-id=exampleString

Building a profile with Terraform

You can create a profile with Terraform by using a control library as a guide.

resource "ibm_scc_profile" "scc_profile_instance" {
  controls {
		control_library_id = "e98a56ff-dc24-41d4-9875-1e188e2da6cd"
		control_id = "5C453578-E9A1-421E-AD0F-C6AFCDD67CCF"
		control_library_version = "control_library_version"
		control_name = "control_name"
		control_description = "control_description"
		control_category = "control_category"
		control_parent = "control_parent"
		control_requirement = true
		control_docs {
			control_docs_id = "control_docs_id"
			control_docs_type = "control_docs_type"
		}
		control_specifications_count = 1
		control_specifications {
			control_specification_id = "f3517159-889e-4781-819a-89d89b747c85"
			responsibility = "user"
			component_id = "f3517159-889e-4781-819a-89d89b747c85"
			componenet_name = "componenet_name"
			environment = "environment"
			control_specification_description = "control_specification_description"
			assessments_count = 1
			assessments {
				assessment_id = "assessment_id"
				assessment_method = "assessment_method"
				assessment_type = "assessment_type"
				assessment_description = "assessment_description"
				parameter_count = 1
				parameters {
					parameter_name = "parameter_name"
					parameter_display_name = "parameter_display_name"
					parameter_type = "string"
				}
			}
		}
  }
  default_parameters {
		assessment_type = "assessment_type"
		assessment_id = "assessment_id"
		parameter_name = "parameter_name"
		parameter_default_value = "parameter_default_value"
		parameter_display_name = "parameter_display_name"
		parameter_type = "string"
  }
  profile_description = "profile_description"
  profile_name = "profile_name"
  profile_type = "predefined"
}

For more information, check out the Terraform reference.

Next steps

Now that you have a profile, start evaluating your resources by creating an attachment. From the profile details page, click the overflow menu for the profile that you want to evaluate. Then, click Attach.