Introduction

The Report Generation feature allows you to generate reports on the fly direct from the CAST Security Dashboard interface. Various reports can be generated, however, some require some configuration before they will work. 

Accessing the Report Generation feature

Available report categories

Following types of report categories are available:

Category	Release	Enabled by default?	CAST Report Generator for Dashboards required?	Additional configuration required?	Output format	Available reports
Security Reports	≥ 2.8				PDF
	≥ 2.7				PDF	Available reports include: Note that the default list of reports can be customized.
	≤ 2.6			See section below.	Same format as the associated CAST Report Generator templates.
Miscellaneous Reports	≥ 2.8				PDF
	≤ 2.7				Inline in the browser Can be downloaded in Excel format.	Available reports include:
Custom Reports	≥ 2.7	Not available.
	≤ 2.6			See section below.	Same format as the associated CAST Report Generator templates.	This category enables you to define your own custom reports via CAST Report Generator templates.

Security and Industry Compliance Reports

This category provides reports on various industry recognized standards such as:

• CISQ
• CWE
• OWASP
• STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guide)
• PCI (Payment Card Industry)
• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
• OMG (Object Management Group)
• CISQ (not available in ≥ 2.4)

Configuration process

≥ 2.7

When using ≥ 2.7 no additional configuration is required as all reports are generated by the dashboard in PDF format.

≤ 2.6

These reports are based on templates provided with CAST Report Generator and therefore CAST Report Generator for Dashboards (v. ≥ 1.9.0) must be present on the server running Apache Tomcat hosting your Security Dashboard in order for the reports to function. In addition the report.properties file in your deployed Dashboard must be modified. See Report Generation configuration and CAST Report Generator - CAST Report Generator for Dashboards for more detailed instructions about the configuration process.

Generation process

Choose a report type from the  Security Reports and click the Generate Report button:

The report file name should contain the:

• application name
• snapshot version
• report type

For example: MEUDON_NEW-Snapshot-2022-07-07T12-02-59-ISO-5055 Compliance Report.pdf (MEUDON is an Application name).

Behaviour in ≥ 2.8 

Below screen is displayed with an option to select the REPORT CATEGORY: Security or Miscellaneous.

Clicking the GENERATE button will display the below screen with the following message: Report generation started in new window (allowing you to continue using Security Dashboard while the report is being generated as explained in Behaviour in ≥ 2.7 releases):

Behaviour in ≥ 2.7 releases

A new tab will be opened in your browser (allowing you to continue using Security Dashboard while the report is being generated):

The report will be generated in PDF format and auto downloaded to the default "downloads" folder used by your browser:

If the generation fails, a message is displayed:

Behaviour in ≤ 2.6 releases

The report will be generated and auto downloaded to the default "downloads" folder used by your browser. Reports are generated using the same format as the associated CAST Report Generator templates. A notification message is displayed when the report is generated:

If the report fails to generate, a notification is also displayed with the error message.

This example shows that CAST Report Generator for Dashboards has not been configured:

Miscellaneous Reports

This category provides reports that can easily show where the biggest changes in violations between snapshots have occurred:

In versions ≥ 2.8 

In versions ≤ 2.7 

These reports are provided inline in the browser and do not require CAST Report Generator for Dashboards nor any additional configuration. 

These reports are provided inline in the browser and do not require CAST Report Generator for Dashboards nor any additional configuration. Reports can be downloaded in Excel format:

Drill down to violation source code is also possible for some reports:

Report options

The following options are available for Miscellaneous Reports:

Custom Reports

This category enables you to define your own custom reports via CAST Report Generator templates. The category is disabled by default (i.e. it does not contain any report templates). The templates you want to generate must be present on the server hosting Apache Tomcat in the "Templates" sub folder of your CAST Report Generator for Dashboards deployment location.

Adding custom reports

To enable and define the reports for the category, edit the following file:

%CATALINA_HOME%\webapps\CAST-Security\security\resources\ced.json
For v.≥ 1.18: CATALINA_HOME\webapps\CAST-Security\security\resources\ed.json

Find the following configuration section:

{
	"id": "custom",
	"label": "Custom Reports",
	"reportTemplates":[]
}

To add your report for a custom template called Executive summary PPT.pptx, AEP Sample Report.xlsx and My Custom Template 2019.docx change it as follows. Save the file and restart the host Apache Tomcat server for the changes to be applied:

{
	"id": "custom",
	"label": "Custom Reports",
	"reportTemplates":[
		{
            "templateLabel": "Executive summary PPT",
            "templateId": "Executive+summary+PPT",
            "fileType":"pptx"
		},
		{
            "templateLabel": "AEP Sample Report",
            "templateId": "AEP+Sample+Report",
            "fileType":"xlsx"
		},
		{
			"templateLabel": "My Custom Template 2019",
			"templateId": "My+Custom+Template+2019",
			"fileType":"docx"
		}   
	]
}

Adding custom report categories

Multiple Custom Report categories can be added, alongside the existing default "Custom Report" category. These custom categories can then be populated with custom reports in exactly the same way as the default "Custom Reports" category (see Adding custom reports above):

To add a custom report category, edit the following file:

%CATALINA_HOME%\webapps\CAST-Security\engineering\resources\ced.json
For v.≥ 1.18: CATALINA_HOME\webapps\CAST-Engineering\engineering\resources\ed.json

Find the following configuration section:

{
	"id": "custom",
	"label": "Custom Reports",
	"reportTemplates":[]
}

First add a comma immediately at the end of the preceding section:

{
	"id": "custom",
	"label": "Custom Reports",
	"reportTemplates":[]
},

Now add a new section for your category and give it a unique "label" (example shown below). Populate it with your custom templates - the custom report category and custom templates will then be available for generation.

{
	"id": "custom",
	"label": "Custom Reports",
	"reportTemplates":[]
},
{
	"id": "CustomReport",
	"label": "Custom Reports_Category1",
	"reportTemplates":[
		{
			"templateLabel": "Custom report type1",
			"templateId": "CISQ+-+custom-+Summary",
			"fileType":"docx"
		},
		{
			"templateLabel": "Custom report type2",
			"templateId": "OWASP+-+custom-+Summary" ,
			"fileType":"docx"
		}
	]
}

Generation process

Choose a custom report type from the Custom Reports category and click the Generate Report button: