Cyber Trackr API Implementation Summary

What We Accomplished

1. OpenAPI Specification Enhancement

• Created comprehensive OpenAPI 3.1.1 specification for cyber.trackr.live API
• Enhanced with operationIds for clean method names
• Added x-extensions for documenting API behaviors
• Added links between related operations
• Added server variables for different environments
• Fixed tag naming (Documents instead of STIG/SRG) for cleaner API class names

2. Generated Ruby Client

Successfully generated Ruby client with clean method names:

• list_all_documents() instead of stig_get()
• get_document() instead of stig_title_version_release_get()
• get_requirement() for individual control details

3. Helper Methods (cyber_trackr_helper.rb)

Created convenience wrapper with methods:

• fetch_complete_stig() - Downloads complete STIG with all control details
• list_stigs() / list_srgs() - Filters mixed endpoint results
• search_documents() - Keyword search with type filtering
• get_latest_version() - Finds most recent version
• generate_compliance_summary() - Severity breakdown

4. Comprehensive Test Suite

• Unit tests for helper methods (all passing)
• Integration tests for live API (mostly passing)
• Mock/fixture support for offline testing

Key Discoveries About the API

Data Format Quirks

1. Released dates have leading spaces: " 30 Jan 2025"
2. Some dates use full month names: " 23 January 2015" instead of "Jan"
3. Some dates have single-digit days: " 3 May 2013" instead of "03"
4. Empty date fields exist: Some older entries have "" for date
5. Version field can have prefix: "V2" instead of just "2"
6. Requirements are objects, not arrays: Keys are V-IDs (e.g., V-214518)

Generated Client Behavior

• Returns symbol keys instead of string keys in hashes
• Returns objects (DocumentVersion, RequirementSummary) not raw hashes
• Strict validation on all fields based on patterns

Known Issues

1. HTML Response for Individual Requirements (HANDLED)

When fetching individual requirements (e.g., /stig/Juniper_SRX_Services_Gateway_ALG/3/3/V-214518), the API returns Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 even though the body is valid JSON.

Current Status: This issue is handled in the generated client's deserialize method (lines 230-236) which detects when HTML content-type contains JSON data and parses it correctly. This fix was added directly to the generated code and allows all tests to pass.

Note: This fix will need to be reapplied if the client is regenerated from the OpenAPI spec.

The helper method fetch_complete_stig() also includes error handling as an additional safety measure.

2. Field Name Inconsistencies

The API uses hyphenated field names in requirement details:

• check-text not check_text
• fix-text not fix_text
• requirement-title not requirement_title

Our OpenAPI spec correctly documents these.

Usage Examples

require_relative 'cyber_trackr_helper'

client = CyberTrackrHelper::Client.new

# List all Juniper STIGs
juniper_stigs = client.search_documents('juniper', type: :stig)

# Get latest version of a STIG
latest = client.get_latest_version('Juniper_SRX_Services_Gateway_ALG')

# Fetch complete STIG with progress
complete_stig = client.fetch_complete_stig(
  'Juniper_SRX_Services_Gateway_ALG', 
  '3', 
  '3'
) do |current, total, vuln_id|
  puts "Fetching #{current}/#{total}: #{vuln_id}"
end

# Generate compliance summary
summary = client.generate_compliance_summary(
  'Juniper_SRX_Services_Gateway_ALG', 
  '3', 
  '3'
)
puts "Total controls: #{summary[:total]}"
puts "High: #{summary[:by_severity][:high]}"
puts "Medium: #{summary[:by_severity][:medium]}"
puts "Low: #{summary[:by_severity][:low]}"

Next Steps

1. Fix HTML Response Issue: Investigate why individual requirement endpoints return HTML

   • Possibly need to handle redirects differently
   • May need to add redirect following to the generated client
   • Could be a rate limiting or authentication issue

2. Add Caching: Consider adding caching to avoid repeatedly fetching the same data

3. Create Gem: Package as a proper gem for easier distribution

4. Add More Helper Methods:

   • Batch download multiple STIGs
   • Export to different formats (CSV, Excel, etc.)
   • Diff between STIG versions