Watchmaker

Applied Configuration Management

Overview

Watchmaker is a Python package that helps bootstrap a vanilla OS image and apply an OS configuration. Watchmaker itself reads a simple YAML configuration file, which can be hosted on the local filesystem or on a web server.

Complex configuration management (CM) environments may be layered in as part of the provisioning framework. Watchmaker includes a default configuration that will install Salt and a handful Salt Formulas that can be used to harden a system to DISA STIG standards, as well as integrate with common enterprise services.

Documentation

For more information on installing and using Watchmaker, go to https://watchmaker.cloudarmor.io.

Changelog

0.26.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.25.0 release

Released: 2022.12.21

Summary:

• Adds support for posting to a status provider. Initial capability supports AWS and will post the Watchmaker status to an EC2 instance tag. Status values include "Running", "Completed", or "Failed". For more information on this feature, see https://watchmaker.cloudarmor.io/en/stable/configuration.html#status.
• [Alpha] Support posting status to Azure as a Virtual Machine tag
• [Alpha] Support for EL8 platforms is improving but still in development. Targeted platforms include: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Centos 8 Stream, Oracle Linux 8, Alma Linux 8, and Rocky Linux 8
• ash-linux-formula
  • Supports EL8 platforms
• join-domain-formula
  • Fixes hostname logic so automatic renaming works correctly
• scap-formula
  • Supports EL8 platforms

0.25.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.24.3 release

Released: 2022.10.05

Summary:

• [Alpha] Begins initial preparation to support running watchmaker on EL8 platforms
• forescout-secure-connector-formula
  • First release that packages a formula for ForeScout Secure Connector

0.24.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.24.2 release

Released: 2022.09.16

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Adds check to ensure root account password is set to not expire
• join-domain-formula
  • Removes PAM Lsass login re-configuration

0.24.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.24.1 release

Released: 2022.08.16

Summary:

• scap-formula
  • Updates OpenSCAP and DISA STIG content
  • Linux: Adds EL8 content
• watchmaker-salt-content
  • Windows: Re-adds scap scan using public distributable SCC 5.5

0.24.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.24.0 release

Released: 2022.07.27

Summary:

• Builds Linux standalone with python 3.8
• Updates default config to use Salt 3004.2
• Updates Windows usage docs with requirement to enforce modern TLS versions
• join-domain-formula
  • Windows: Quotes path when running scripts to configure local admin group
• ash-linux-formula
  • Tests if grub.cfg exists before attempting to modify it

0.24.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.23.4 release

Released: 2022.03.09

Summary:

• Updates default config to use Salt 3004
• scap-formula
  • Fixes invalid requisite reference for scap.scan

0.23.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.23.3 release

Released: 2021.12.20

Summary:

• ash-windows: Adds baseline ash-windows.cis_1_3_0
• Builds python 3.8 into standalone binary instead of python 3.6
• Uses SERVER_AUTH for ssl context, fixing bug resulting from incorrect use of CLIENT_AUTH previously

0.23.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.23.2 release

Released: 2021.09.28

Summary:

• Added publishing of SCAP reports for Linux systems with each release
• Fixed CLI behavior when passing 'none' value, e.g. --salt-states none
• Updated default config to use Salt 3003.3
• mcafee-agent-formula
  • (Linux) Refactored to allow install over an existing installation

0.23.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.23.1 release

Released: 2021.08.11

Summary:

• Patched Salt worker to be case-sensitive when processsing Salt states
• Refactored Salt states handling between CLI and config.yaml
• Standalone packages are now based on EL7 and are no longer compatible with EL6 (EL6 hasn't been supported for a while now)

0.23.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.23.0 release

Released: 2021.07.15

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Supports managing FIPS when / and /boot are on the same partition
  • Allows oscap remediate to exit non-zero on valid errors
• Supports parsing extra_arguments when passed using = as the separator
  • E.g. --user-formulas='{"foo-formula": "https://url-to/foo-formula.zip"}'

0.23.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.22.2 release

Released: 2021.07.08

Summary:

• Adds capability to run extra states after highstate
  • E.g. from cli, --salt-states highstate,foo,bar
  • E.g. in config file, salt_states: highstate,foo,bar
• Adds capability to pass complex worker arguments on the cli as JSON or YAML
  • E.g. --user-formulas '{"foo-formula": "https://url-to/foo-formula.zip"}'

0.22.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.22.1 release

Released: 2021.06.17

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Patches RHEL-07-040810 to apply to only iptables-services RPM and not core-package iptables RPM

0.22.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.22.0 release

Released: 2021.05.11

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula/nessus-agent-formula
  • Patches maxdepth parameter to use integer type to support Jinja rendering in Salt 3003

0.22.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.9 release

Released: 2021.05.07

Summary:

• Updates default config.yaml to use Salt 3003
• ash-linux-formula
  • Adds ability to selectively skip extra EL7 STIG handlers
• nessus-agent-formula
  • (Linux) Updates nessus-agent to call install and configure states

0.21.9

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.8 release

Released: 2021.04.26

Summary:

• Provides support for Salt 3003
• ash-linux-formula
  • Updates syntax to support Salt 3003
  • RHEL-07-040160 - Ensure no (competing) attempts to set TMOUT
  • RHEL-07-040860 - Adds ability to handle lack of /etc/sysct.conf file
• nessus-agent-formula
  • Separate agent install and configuration to support baked-in Nessus agent installations
• join-domain-formula
  • (Windows) Add double-quotes to Members parameter in order for startup task state to work with Salt 3003

0.21.8

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.7 release

Released: 2021.03.11

Summary:

• Updated CI configs to set the correct version for the Windows standalone package. Effectively, this version is the same as 0.21.7.

0.21.7

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.6 release

Released: 2021.03.10

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Coordinates sshd service restarts across all states that modify /etc/sshd_config, so the service restarts only once. This avoids systemd failures when the service restarts too frequently. See ash-linux-formula PR #303.

0.21.6

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.5 release

Released: 2021.03.03

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Adds patch to re-enable NOPASSWD sudo for users in /etc/sudoers.d/ after oscap remediation.

0.21.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.4 release

Released: 2021.02.25

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Replace watch with listen to restart the sshd service a single time
  • Make state RHEL-07-040560 more resilient when the yum group info is missing
• scap-formula
  • Updates SCAP content from DISA (as of February 2021) and OpenSCAP (v0.1.54)
• Update watchmaker default config.yaml to use salt v2019.2.8
• Ability to browse Watchmaker Cloudarmor repo

0.21.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.3 release

Released: 2020.12.04

Summary:

• nessus-agent-formula
  • (Linux) Switch to using Salt service state to ensure Nessus agent service is running

0.21.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.2 release

Released: 2020.10.26

Summary:

• watchmaker-salt-content
  • (Linux) Updates scap-formula pillar to use alternative stig profile parameter for Red Hat

0.21.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.1 release

Released: 2020.10.05

Summary:

• (Windows) Removes winrepo.genrepo usage in Salt worker since it's no longer required

0.21.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.21.0 release

Released: 2020.08.20

Summary:

• splunkforwarder-formula
  • (Linux) Patches splunkforwarder state to work with Splunk Universal Forwarder v7.3.6

0.21.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.20.5 release

Released: 2020.08.12

Summary:

• Updates default watchmaker config.yaml to use salt 2019.2.5

0.20.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.20.4 release

Released: 2020.07.16

Summary:

• splunkforwarder-formula
  • (Linux) Patches splunkforwarder state to work with salt 2019.2.5

0.20.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.20.3 release

Released: 2020.07.15

Summary:

• splunkforwarder-formula
  • (Windows) Patches splunkforwarder state to work with salt 2019.2.5

0.20.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.20.2 release

Released: 2020.07.07

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Fixes issue with admin users not being able to sudo

0.20.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.20.1 release

Released: 2020.07.01

Summary:

• scap-formula
  • Updates SCAP content from DISA (as of June 2020) and OpenSCAP (v0.1.50)

0.20.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.20.0 release

Released: 2020.05.19

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Fixes issue with Postfix occasionally failing to start

0.20.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.19.0 release

Released: 2020.05.06

Summary:

• Adds capability to install Python packages using Pip in Salt's Python interpreter

0.19.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.18.2 release

Released: 2020.05.01

Summary:

• Updates Watchmaker file permissions and makes them more restrictive
• Adds new SaltWorker optional argument --salt-content-path that allows specifying glob pattern for salt files located within salt archive file

0.18.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.18.1 release

Released: 2020.04.02

Summary:

• vault-auth-formula
  • Rename state to vault-auth
  • Add url keyword argument to read_secret execution module

0.18.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.18.0 release

Released: 2020.03.23

Summary:

• Updates version constraint in default config to allow newer versions

0.18.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.17.5 release

Released: 2020.03.23

Summary:

• Removes deprecated emet-formula and dotnet4-formula submodules
• Adds new vault-auth-formula submodule
• ash-windows-formula
  • Replaces usage of Apply_LGPO_Delta.exe with native python and salt functionality
  • Addresses additional findings for domain-joined systems
  • Removes deprecated baselines from Windows Server 2008 R2, 8.1, and IE 8, 9, and 10

0.17.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.17.4 release

Released: 2020.03.13

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • Allow use of password with Linux join domain capability

0.17.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.17.3 release

Released: 2020.02.28

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Updates custom STIGbyID baseline to address several scan findings.
• Add content for RHEL-07-040530/SV-86899

0.17.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.17.2 release

Released: 2020.02.26

Summary:

• dotnet4-formula
  • Fix compatibility with Windows Server 2019 by using 2019 hotfixes
• ash-linux-formula
  • Improvements for STIGv2r6
  • Fix collisions caused by cat2 IDs and DISA numbering change
  • Use Salt Stack version 2019.2-2

0.17.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.17.1 release

Released: 2020.02.25

Summary:

• Documents configuration vs cli argument handling and precedence
• Provides a table mapping common scan findings to an associated Finding ID
• Restores propagation of the None value on the cli to the workers
• ash-linux-formula
  • Ensures aide configuration complies with FIPS requirements
• ash-windows-formula
  • Adds missing sls to restore support for Windows 10
• join-domain-formula
  • Suppresses join-domain command in salt log output
  • (Windows) Supports using salt-native pillar security for the password value
• nessus-agent-formula
  • (Linux) Suppresses gpg verification so the pkg can be installed from a URL

0.17.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.17.0 release

Released: 2020.01.28

Summary:

• Fixes release date in changelog for 0.17.0
• Removes salt worker special handling for salt_states since it is now handled properly in the Arguments() class
• pshelp-formula
  • Updates PowerShell help content, including Windows Server 2019

0.17.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.7 release

Released: 2020.01.21

Summary:

• Add support for Windows Server 2019
• Use native markdown processing for PyPI long description
• Deprecate use of 'None' (string) in config.yaml
• Add optional watchmaker_version node to configuration
• Use Salt 2018.3.4 in default configuration

0.16.7

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.6 release

Released: 2020.01.06

Summary:

• Pins PyYAML dependency when running on Python 3.4 or earlier

0.16.6

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.5 release

Released: 2019.12.04

Summary:

• Uses CDN URLs for watchmaker config and content, instead of direct S3 URLs
• Pins backoff dependency when running on Python 3.4 or earlier

0.16.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.4 release

Released: 2019.09.23

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • Add support for restricting Active Directory sites that will be consulted if the ad_site_name key-value is set in the pillar
• ash-linux-formula
  • Fix issue with log spamming by systemd related to file permissions
• ash-windows-formula
  • Update STIG baselines for 2019-07 SCAP content
• scap-formula
  • Rename DISA content files to reflect SCAP version
  • Update DISA SCAP content to July 2019 release
• salt-content
  • Update SCAP pillar to match filename changes in SCAP formula

0.16.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.3 release

Released: 2019.08.23

Summary:

• Updates documentation on pip usage in Linux to always use python3 -m pip...
• dotnet4-formula
  • Adds .NET Framework 4.8 version and associated KB to lookup tables
• fup-formula
  • New salt formula to install packages via URL
• scap-formula
  • (Windows) Adds configuration to allow scan results to be generated when using SCC v5.0.2 and higher
• watchmaker-salt-content
  • (Windows) Adds .NET Framework 4.8 info to dotnet winrepo package content

0.16.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.2 release

Released: 2019.08.7

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Modifies method used to retrieve hostname to avoid issues with hostname -f
  • (Linux) Improves error messaging if tooling dependencies are not installed
  • (Linux) Modifies domain controller search mechanism to preserve compatibility with EL6
  • (Linux) Logs the computer name in the domain-join output
• mcafee-agent-formula
  • (Linux) Adds a pillar option to pass args to the mcafee agent installer
  • (Linux) Fixes match on OS version to ensure firewall ports are opened
• name-computer-formula
  • (Linux) Updates /etc/hosts with hostname fqdn, when the domain name is provided

0.16.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.1 release

Released: 2019.07.11

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • Fixes detection of running system's join state, searches for shortname, and retries joins
  • Improves compatibility with strict Bash
  • Adds option to skip GPG check
• amazon-inspector-formula
  • Adds option to skip GPG check
• splunkforwarder-formula
  • Redirects splunk log folder with symlink
  • Adds option to skip GPG check

0.16.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.16.0 release

Released: 2019.06.21

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • Updates find-collision.sh ldap search to include uppercase and lowercase versions of provided hostname
• scap-formula
  • Adds script to build OSCAP content with 'stig' profile included for CentOS
  • Updates OSCAP content to v0.1.44
• watchmaker-salt-content
  • Switches Linux scap profile pillar settings to 'stig'

0.16.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.15.2 release

Released: 2019.05.10

Summary:

• Adds salt content locally as a submodule to better support Watchmaker standalone packages
• dotnet4-formula
  • Updates formula to support the use of Python3 versions of Salt
• join-domain-formula
  • Adds additional enhancements and logic to better handle the domin-join process in Linux

0.15.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.15.1 release

Released: 2019.04.12

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Removes outdated and conflicting states to allow setting of custom banner text
• join-domain-formula
  • Fixes issue with improper handling of admin names with spaces in Windows

0.15.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.15.0 release

Released: 2019.04.05

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Avoids unique jinja filter to preserve compatibility for older versions of salt

0.15.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.14.2 release

Released: 2019.04.04

Summary:

• Updates documentation to install pip using ensurepip module instead of external get-pip.py
• ash-linux-formula
  • Adds pillar option to set content for /etc/issue login banner
• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Adds pillar option to pass a list of domains to add to the trust list

0.14.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.14.1 release

Released: 2019.03.26

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • Corrects regression on Windows to support adding admin groups that have spaces in the name

0.14.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.14.0 release

Released: 2019.03.18

Summary:

• Fixes Python 2.6 incompatibility introduced by new version of PyYAML
• join-domain-formula
  • Fixes issue adding admin groups/users to Windows systems with recent versions of Salt

0.14.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.13.0 release

Released: 2019.03.06

Summary:

• Adds additional documentation to answer common EL7 security scan findings
• ash-linux-formula
  • Implements additional Salt states to address security scan issues
    • Capability to manage GRUB password configuration
    • IgnoreRhosts setting in SSH daemon configuration
    • CIS remediation handlers ( CIS 5.2.3, CIS 5.2.5)
  • Adds Salt state to update audit-rule changes without a system reboot
• scap-formula
  • Updates SCAP Security Guide content to v0.1.41

0.13.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.12.1 release

Released: 2019.01.29

Summary:

• amazon-inspector-formula
  • New salt formula distributed with watchmaker
  • Installs amazon-inspector agent
• Refactor watchmaker
  • Change naming mechanism from LinuxManager to LinuxPlatformManager
  • Change naming mechanism from WindowsManager to WindowsPlatformManager
  • Change naming mechanism from Manager to PlatformManager
  • Added abstract class WorkerBase for Workers to inherit from
• ash-linux-formula
  • Change ipv6 check to use if_inet6 file
  • Import correct source of fopen function
  • Configure Postfix to only use ipv4 when ipv6 is disabled

0.12.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.12.0 release

Released: 2018.12.17

Summary:

• ash-windows-formula
  • Corrects yaml syntax error in win2016 DC baseline

0.12.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.11.0 release

Released: 2018.12.13

Summary:

• Adds valid_environments option to config to allow for the restriction of environment selection

0.11.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.10.3 release

Released: 2018.11.08

Summary:

• Adds enhancement to ensure --admin-groups parameters are lowercase on Linux systems
• Adds additional information to the --version flag
• Default values are now shown in help output
• scap-formula
  • Incorporates content from latest DISA SCAP benchmarks
    • Microsoft .Net Framework 4 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 5
    • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 DC STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 5
    • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 MS STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 30
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 31
    • Red Hat 6 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 21
    • Red Hat 7 STIG Benchmark - Ver 2, Rel 1

0.10.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.10.2 release

Released: 2018.10.18

Summary:

• ash-windows-formula
  • Updates Formula to Support Salt 2017.7.x and 2018.3.x
  • Removed admin account rename from delta state

0.10.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.10.1 release

Released: 2018.09.27

Summary:

• Adds a gitlab-ci pages config to build Watchmaker docs
• Uses new hosting location to retrieve Salt packages
• Restricts click version on py2.6
• ash-windows-forumula
  • New hosting location being used for all packages
• pshelp-formula
  • Removed byte-order-mark unicode character at beginning of init.sls file

0.10.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.10.0 release

Released: 2018.08.09

Summary:

• No functional changes; just patches the CI/release configuration

0.10.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.6 release

Released: 2018.08.08

Summary:

• Provides standalone packages that bundle the Python runtime together with Watchmaker and its dependencies
  • See https://watchmaker.cloudarmor.io/en/stable/installation.html
• ash-linux-formula
  • (el7) Ensures packages are up-to-date
  • (el7) Ensures firewalld is installed and running
• splunk-forwarder-formula
  • (linux) Uses a symlink to ensure logs are in the /var/log partition
• dotnet4-formula
  • Adds support for .NET 4.7.2
• nessus-agent-formula
  • New salt formula distributed with Watchmaker

0.9.6

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.5 release

Released: 2018.05.16

Summary:

• windows-update-agent-formula
  • Supports new windows update settings, AlwaysAutoRebootAtScheduledTime and AlwaysAutoRebootAtScheduledTimeMinutes
• scap-formula
  • Incorporates content from OpenSCAP Security Guide v0.1.39-1

0.9.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.4 release

Released: 2018.04.11

Summary:

• [PR #574] Updates Windows userdata example to execute pip using python -m when upgrading pip
• windows-update-agent-formula
  • Uses newer arguments for reg state, vname and vdata
  • Reduces duplication in windows update data model
  • Nests the windows update pillar options under the standard lookup key

0.9.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.3 release

Released: 2018.04.09

Summary:

• ash-windows-formula
  • Updates STIG baselines to address all findings in latest SCAP benchmarks

0.9.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.2 release

Released: 2018.03.08

Summary:

• scap-formula
  • Incorporates content from OpenSCAP Security Guide v0.1.38-1
  • Incorporates content from latest DISA SCAP benchmarks
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 11
    • Microsoft Windows 10 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 10
    • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 DC STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 27
    • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 MS STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 28
    • Microsoft Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 DC STIG Benchmark - Ver 2, Rel 11
    • Microsoft Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 MS STIG Benchmark - Ver 2, Rel 11
    • Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 21
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 4
    • Red Hat 6 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 18
    • Red Hat 7 STIG Benchmark - Ver 1, Rel 2
• dotnet4-formula
  • Skips dotnet4 hotfix install if a newer version is already installed
  • Creates per-OS maps for hotfix updates, since the hotfix id varies per OS

0.9.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.1 release

Released: 2018.02.20

Summary:

• dotnet4-formula
  • Passes version correctly to module.run

0.9.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.9.0 release

Released: 2018.02.17

Summary:

• This version was effectively a no-op, as the submodule was not updated as intended
• ~dotnet4-formula~
  • ~Passes version correctly to module.run~

0.9.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.8.0 release

Released: 2018.02.12

Summary:

• [Issue #499][PR #513] Includes additional details about the platform and python version in the watchmaker log
• [Issue #500][PR #512] Retries file retrieval up to 5 times
• [Issue #501][PR #507] Uses urllib handlers to retrieve all files
  • Deprecates the argument --s3-source; to retrieve a file from an S3 bucket use the syntax: s3://<bucket>/<key>
  • Local files may be specified as absolute or relative paths, and may or may not be prefixed with file://
• [PR #496] Moves CloudFormation and Terraform templates to their own project, terraform-aws-watchmaker
• [PR #491] Improves compatibility of the watchmaker bootstrap.ps1 script when executed by an Azure custom script extension
• [Issue #430][PR #487] Writes watchmaker salt config to a custom path:
  • Windows: C:\Watchmaker\Salt\conf
  • Linux: /opt/watchmaker/salt
• scap-formula
  • Incorporates content from OpenSCAP Security Guide v0.1.37-1

0.8.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.7.2 release

Released: 2018.01.02

Summary:

• [Issue #415][PR #458] Forwards watchmaker log entries from the Windows Event Log to the EC2 System Log (Windows-only)
• [PR #425] Adds a log handler that writes watchmaker log entries to the Windows Event Log (Windows-only)
• [Issue #434][PR #457] Updates doc build to replace recommonmark functionality entirely with m2r
• [PR #437] Modfies CloudFormation templates to use aws cli utility to retrieve the appscript rather than use the functionality built-in to the cfn bootstrap
• [PR #467] Sets environment variables for aws cli when executing the appscript option in the watchmaker CloudFormation templates

0.7.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.7.1 release

Released: 2017.12.13

Summary:

• Installs futures only on Python 2 -- no functional changes

0.7.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.7.0 release

Released: 2017.12.04

Summary:

• Fixes readthedocs build -- no functional changes

0.7.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.6 release

Released: 2017.11.21

Summary:

• [PR #409] Provides terraform modules that deploy the watchmaker CloudFormation templates
• [Issue #418][PR #419] Adds an exclude-states argument to the SaltWorker; specified states will be excluded from the salt state execution
• ash-windows-formula
  • Incorporates security settings from the DISA October quarterly release
• join-domain-formula
  • (Windows) Adds WMI method to set DNS search suffix
  • (Windows) Tests for the EC2Config XML settings file before modifying it
• scap-formula
  • (Linux) Distributes scap content from SCAP Security Guide v0.1.36-1
  • Distributes scap content from the DISA October quarterly release
• splunkforwarder-formula
  • Supports configuration of splunk log sources from pillar and grains inputs

0.6.6

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.5 release

Released: 2017.10.18

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • (el7) Fixes typos in the firewalld "safety" scripts that resulted in a failure when firewalld was reloaded
• mcafee-agent-formula
  • (el7) Adds required inbound ports to all firewalld zones, to support the event where the default zone is modified from "public"
• splunkforwarder-formula
  • (el7) Adds required outbound ports to the OUTPUT chain; previously, they were mistakenly being added as inbound rules

0.6.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.4 release

Released: 2017.09.29

Summary:

• [PR #391] Updates CloudFormation templates with a parameter that exposes the option to use the S3 API and the instance role to retrieve the Watchmaker content archive
• ash-linux-formula
  • (el7) Updates firewalld "safety" state so that firewalld remains in the active state; the prior approach left firewalld dead/inactive, until the service was restarted or the system was rebooted

0.6.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.3 release

Released: 2017.09.22

Summary:

• [PR #381] Restricts wheel version on Python 2.6 to be less than or equal to 0.29.0, as wheel 0.30.0 removed support for py26.

0.6.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.2 release

Released: 2017.08.11

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • (el7) Includes a "safety" state for firewalld that ensures SSH inbound access will remain available, in the event the default zone is set to "drop"

0.6.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.1 release

Released: 2017.08.07

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • (el6) Improve the method of disabling the sysctl option ip_forward, to account for the behavior of the aws-vpc-nat rpm
• scap-formula
  • (elX) Updates openscap security guide content to version 0.1.34-1

0.6.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.6.0 release

Released: 2017.08.01

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Modified the FIPS custom execution module to discover the boot partition and add the boot= line to the grub configuration

0.6.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.5.1 release

Released: 2017.07.25

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Updates the EL7 stig baseline to manage the FIPS state. The state defaults to enabled but can be overridden via a pillar or grain, ash-linux:lookup:fips-state. The grain takes precedence over the pillar. Valid values are enabled or disabled
• ash-windows-formula
  • Updates the STIG baselines for Windows Server 2016 member servers and domain controllers with SCAP content from the DISA v1r1 SCAP benchmark release
• join-domain-formula
  • Fixes an issue when joining Windows 2016 servers to a domain, where the Set-DnsSearchSuffix.ps1 helper would fail because the builtin PowerShell version does not work when $null is used in a ValidateSet. The equivalent value must now be passed as the string, "null"
• scap-formula
  • Adds SCAP content for the Window Server 2016 SCAP v1r1 Benchmark

0.5.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.5.0 release

Released: 2017.07.08

Summary:

• [Issue #341][PR #342] Manages selinux around salt state execution. In some non-interactive execution scenarios, if selinux is enforcing it can interfere with the execution of privileged commands (that otherwise work fine when executed interactively). Watchmaker now detects if selinux is enforcing and temporarily sets it to permissive for the duration of the salt state execution

0.5.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.4.4 release

Released: 2017.06.27

Summary:

• [Issue #331][PR #332] Writes the role grain to the key expected by the ash-windows formula. Fixes usage of the --ash-role option in the salt worker
• [Issue #329][PR #330] Outputs watchmaker version at the debug log level
• [Issue #322][PR #323][PR #324] Fixes py2/py3 compatibility bug in how the yum worker handles file opening to check the Linux distro
• [Issue #316][PR #320] Improves logging when salt state execution fails due to failed a state. The salt output is now returned to the salt worker, which processes the output, identifies the failed state, and raises an exception with the state failure
• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Reworks the pbis config states to make the logged output more readable

0.4.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.4.3 release

Released: 2017.05.30

Summary:

• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Ignores a bad exit code from pbis config utility. The utility will return exit code 5 when modifying the NssEnumerationEnabled setting, but still sets the requested value. This exit code is now ignored

0.4.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.4.2 release

Released: 2017.05.25

Summary:

• name-computer-formula
  • (Linux) Uses an alternate method of working around a bad code-path in salt that does not handle quoted values in /etc/sysconfig/network.

0.4.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.4.1 release

Released: 2017.05.19

Summary:

• [PR #301] Sets the grains for admin_groups and admin_users so the keys are named as expected by the join-domain formula
• ash-linux-formula
  • Adds a custom module that lists users from the shadow file
  • Gets local users from the shadow file rather than user.list_users. Prevents a domain-joined system from attempting to iterate over all domain users (and potentially deadlocking on especially large domains)
• join-domain-formula
  • Modifies PBIS install method to use RPMs directly, rather than the SHAR installer
  • Updates approaches to checking for collisions and current join status to better handle various scenarios: not joined, no collision; not joined, collision; joined, computer object present; joined, computer object missing
  • Disables NSS enumeration to prevent PBIS from querying user info from the domain for every call to getent (or equivalents); domain-based user authentication still works fine
• name-computer-formula
  • (Linux) Does not attempt to retain network settings, to avoid a bug in salt; will be revisited when a patched salt version has been released

0.4.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.4.0 release

Released: 2017.05.09

Summary:

• (EL7) Running watchmaker against EL7 systems will now pin the resulting configuration to the watchmaker version. See the updates to the two formulas in this version. Previously, ash-linux always used the content from the scap-security-guide rpm, which was updated out-of-sync with watchmaker, and so the resulting configuration could not be pinned by pinning the watchmaker version. With this version, ash-linux uses content distributed by watchmaker, via scap-formula, and so the resulting configuration will always be same on EL7 for a given version of watchmaker (as has always been the case for the other supported operating systems).
• ash-linux-formula
  • Supports getting scap content locations from pillar
• scap-formula
  • Updates stig content with latest benchmark versions
  • Adds openscap ds.xml content, used to support remediate actions

0.4.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.3.1 release

Released: 2017.05.06

Summary:

• [PR #286 ] Sets the computername grain with the correct key expected by the formula
• [PR #284 ] Converts cli argument parsing from argparse to click. This modifies the watchmaker depedencies, which warranted a 0.x.0 version bump. Cli and API arguments remain the same, so the change should be backwards-compatible.
• name-computer-formula
  • Adds support for getting the computername from pillar
  • Adds support for validating the specified computername against a pattern
• pshelp-formula
  • Attempts to address occasional stack overflow exception when updating powershell help

0.3.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.3.0 release

Released: 2017.05.01

Summary:

• [PR #280] Modifies the dynamic import of boto3 to use only absolute imports, as the previous approach (attempt absolute and relative import) was deprecated in Python 3.3
• ntp-client-windows-formula:
  • Stops using deprecated arguments on reg.present states, which cleans up extraneous log messages in watchmaker runs under some configurations
• join-domain-formula:
  • (Windows) Sets the DNS search suffix when joining the domain, including a new pillar config option, ec2config to enable/disable the EC2Config option that also modifies the DNS suffix list.

0.3.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.2.4 release

Released: 2017.04.24

Summary:

• [Issue #270] Defaults to a platform-specific log directory when call from the CLI:
  • Windows: ${Env:SystemDrive}\Watchmaker\Logs
  • Linux: /var/log/watchmaker
• [PR #271] Modifies CLI arguments to use explicit log-levels rather than a verbosity count. Arguments have been adjusted to better accommodate the semantics of this approach:
  • Uses -l|--log-level instead of -v|--verbose
  • -v and -V are now both used for --version
  • -d is now used for --log-dir

0.2.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.2.3 release

Released: 2017.04.20

Summary:

• Fixes a bad version string

0.2.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.2.2 release

Released: 2017.04.20

Summary:

• [Issue #262] Merges lists in pillar files, rather than overwriting them
• [Issue #261] Manages the enabled/disabled state of the salt-minion service, before and after the install
• splunkforwarder-formula
  • (Windows) Ignores false bad exits from Splunk clone-prep-clear-config

0.2.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.2.1 release

Released: 2017.04.15

Summary:

• [PR #251] Adds CloudFormation templates that integrate Watchmaker with an EC2 instance or Autoscale Group
• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Corrects tests that determine whether the instance is already joined to the domain

0.2.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.2.0 release

Released: 2017.04.10

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Reduces spurious stderr output
  • Removes notify script flagged by McAfee scans
• splunkforwarder-formula
  • (Windows) Clears system name entries from local Splunk config files

0.2.0

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.7 release

Released: 2017.04.06

Summary:

• [Issue #238] Captures all unhandled exceptions and logs them
• [Issue #234] Stops the salt service prior to managing salt formulas, to ensure that the filesystem does not throw any errors about the files being locked
• [Issue #72] Manages salt service so the service state after watchmaker completes is the same as it was prior to running watchmaker. If the service was running beforehand, it remains running afterwards. If the service was stopped (or non-existent) beforehad, the service remains stopped afterwards
• [Issue #163] Modifies the user_formulas config option to support a map of <formula_name>:<formula_url>
• [PR #235] Extracts salt content to the same target srv location for both Window and Linux. Previously, the salt content was extracted to different points in the filesystem hierarchy, which required different content for Windows and Linux. Now the same salt content archive can be used for both
• [PR #242] Renames salt worker param content_source to salt_content
• systemprep-formula
  • Deprecated and removed. Replaced by new salt content structure that uses native salt capabilities to map states to a system
• scc-formula
  • Deprecated and removed. Replaced by scap-formula
• scap-formula
  • New bundled salt formula. Provides SCAP scans using either openscap or scc
• pshelp-formula
  • New bundled salt formula. Installs updated PowerShell help content to Windows systems

0.1.7

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.6 release

Released: 2017.03.23

Summary:

• Uses threads to stream stdout and stderr to the watchmaker log when executing a command via subproces
• [Issue #226] Minimizes salt output of successful states, to make it easier to identify failed states
• join-domain-formula
  • (Linux) Exits with stateful failure on a bad decryption error
• mcafee-agent-formula
  • (Linux) Avoids attempting to diff a binary file
  • (Linux) Installs ed as a dependency of the McAfee VSEL agent
• scc-formula
  • Retries scan up to 5 times if scc exits with an error

0.1.6

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.5 release

Released: 2017.03.16

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Provides same baseline states for both EL6 and EL7

0.1.5

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.4 release

Released: 2017.03.15

Summary:

• ash-linux-formula
  • Adds policies to disable insecure Ciphers and MACs in sshd_config
• ash-windows-formula
  • Adds scm and stig baselines for Windows 10
  • Adds scm baseline for Windows Server 2016 (Alpha)
  • Updates all scm and stig baselines with latest content
• mcafee-agent-formula
  • Uses firewalld on EL7 rather than iptables
• scc-formula
  • Skips verification of GPG key when install SCC RPM
• splunkforwarder-formula
  • Uses firewalld on EL7 rather than iptables

0.1.4

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.3 release

Released: 2017.03.09

Summary:

• [Issue #180] Fixes bug where file_roots did not contain formula paths

0.1.3

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.2 release

Released: 2017.03.08

Summary:

• [Issue #164] Aligns cli syntax for extra_arguments with other cli opts
• [Issue #165] Removes ash_role from default config file
• [Issue #173] Fixes exception when re-running watchmaker

0.1.2

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.1 release

Released: 2017.03.07

Summary:

• Adds a FAQ page to the docs
• Moves salt formulas to the correct location on the local filesystem
• join-domain-formula:
  • (Linux) Modifies decryption routine for FIPS compliance
• ash-linux-formula:
  • Removes several error exits in favor of warnings
  • (EL7-alpha) Various patches to improve support for EL7
• dotnet4-formula:
  • Adds support for .NET 4.6.2
  • Adds support for Windows Server 2016
• emet-formula:
  • Adds support for EMET 5.52

0.1.1

Commit Delta: Change from 0.1.0 release

Released: 2017.02.28

Summary:

• Adds more logging messages when downloading files

0.1.0

Commit Delta: N/A

Released: 2017.02.22

Summary:

• Initial release!