CPE guesser

CPE Guesser is a command-line tool or web service designed to guess the CPE name based on one or more keywords. The resulting CPE can then be used with tools like cve-search or vulnerability-lookup to perform actual searches using CPE names.

Requirements

• Valkey
• Python

Usage

To use CPE Guesser, you need to initialize the Valkey database with import.py.

Once initialized, you can use the software with lookup.py to find the most probable CPE matching the provided keywords.

Alternatively, you can call the web server (after running server.py). For example:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/search -d '{"query": ["tomcat"]}' | jq .

Installation

1. git clone https://github.com/cve-search/cpe-guesser.git
2. cd cpe-guesser
3. Download the CPE dictionary & populate the database with python3 ./bin/import.py.
4. Take a cup of black or green tea ().
5. python3 ./bin/server.py to run the local HTTP server.

If you don't want to install it locally, there is a public online version. Check below.

Docker

Single image with existing Valkey

docker build . -t cpe-guesser:l.0
# Edit settings.yaml content and/or path
docker run cpe-guesser:l.0 -v $(pwd)/config/settings.yaml:/app/config/settings.yaml
# Please wait for full import

Docker-compose

cd docker
# Edit docker/settings.yaml as you want
docker-compose up --build -d
# Please wait for full import

Specific usage

If you do not want to use the Web server, lookup.py can still be used. Example: docker exec -it cpe-guesser python3 /app/bin/lookup.py tomcat

Public online version

cpe-guesser.cve-search.org is public online version of CPE guesser which can be used via a simple API. The endpoint is /search and the JSON is composed of a query list with the list of keyword(s) to search for.

curl -s -X POST https://cpe-guesser.cve-search.org/search -d "{\"query\": [\"outlook\", \"connector\"]}" | jq .

[
  [
    18117,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:outlook_connector"
  ],
  [
    60947,
    "cpe:2.3:a:oracle:oracle_communications_unified_communications_suite_connector_for_microsoft_outlook"
  ],
  [
    68306,
    "cpe:2.3:a:oracle:corporate_time_outlook_connector"
  ]
]

The endpoint /unique is available to retrieve only the best-matching CPE entry.

curl -s -X POST https://cpe-guesser.cve-search.org/unique -d "{\"query\": [\"outlook\", \"connector\"]}" | jq .

"cpe:2.3:a:oracle:corporate_time_outlook_connector"

Command line - lookup.py

usage: lookup.py [-h] [--unique] WORD [WORD ...]

Find potential CPE names from a list of keyword(s) and return a JSON of the results

positional arguments:
  WORD        One or more keyword(s) to lookup

options:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --unique    Return the best CPE matching the keywords given

python3 lookup.py microsoft sql server | jq .

[
  [
    51325,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:sql_server_2017_reporting_services"
  ],
  [
    51326,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:sql_server_2019_reporting_services"
  ],
  [
    57898,
    "cpe:2.3:a:quest:intrust_knowledge_pack_for_microsoft_sql_server"
  ],
  [
    60386,
    "cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:sql_server"
  ],
  [
    60961,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:sql_server_desktop_engine"
  ],
  [
    64810,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:sql_server_reporting_services"
  ],
  [
    75858,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:sql_server_management_studio"
  ],
  [
    77570,
    "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:sql_server"
  ],
  [
    78206,
    "cpe:2.3:a:ibm:tivoli_storage_manager_for_databases_data_protection_for_microsoft_sql_server"
  ]
]

How does this work?

A CPE entry is composed of a human readable name with some references and the structured CPE name.

  <cpe-item name="cpe:/a:10web:form_maker:1.7.17::~~~wordpress~~">
    <title xml:lang="en-US">10web Form Maker 1.7.17 for WordPress</title>
    <references>
      <reference href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/form-maker/#developers">Change Log</reference>
    </references>
    <cpe-23:cpe23-item name="cpe:2.3:a:10web:form_maker:1.7.17:*:*:*:*:wordpress:*:*"/>
  </cpe-item>

The CPE name is structured with a vendor name, a product name and some additional information. CPE name can be easily changed due to vendor name or product name changes, some vendor/product are sharing common names or name is composed of multiple words.

Data

Split vendor name and product name (such as _) into single word(s) and then canonize the word. Building an inverse index using the cpe vendor:product format as value and the canonized word as key. Then cpe guesser creates a ranked set with the most common cpe (vendor:product) per version to give a probability of the CPE appearance.

Valkey structure

• w:<word> set
• s:<word> sorted set with a score depending of the number of appearance

License

Software is open source and released under a 2-Clause BSD License

Copyright (C) 2021-2024 Alexandre Dulaunoy Copyright (C) 2021-2024 Esa Jokinen