Security testing

security-testing: ST controls for SG government systems

You are setting up or auditing a security testing and vulnerability management programme against the ICT&SS Policy Reform Security Testing family (ST-1..ST-5). The family's scope is the testing lifecycle around a running system: scanning hosts for vulnerabilities, continuously checking cloud configuration, giving the public a way to report what they find, commissioning penetration tests, and remediating what all of those surface within committed timeframes.

The discipline everything hangs on: this family runs on nine agency-defined parameters — scan type and cadence (ST-1), the disclosure channel type (ST-3), the testing type and frequency (ST-4), and four severity-based remediation SLAs (ST-5). The catalog leaves every one of them blank. Get the values from the project's System Security Plan; never invent them. A finding of "scans are too infrequent" is only defensible against the SSP's number.

What this family is not about

ST is the host, cloud, and programme layer. Three things people wrongly park here:

• CI code and dependency scanning is not ST-1. SAST (SD-4), SCA/dependency scanning (SD-5), secret detection (SD-6), and pipeline DAST (SD-9) live in Secure Development (secure-pipeline). ST-1 is host-level vulnerability assessment — the VM, instance, and network layer. A repo with Dependabot and CodeQL has zero ST-1 coverage; don't let "we scan continuously" pass on that basis. The findings from those CI scanners do feed the ST-5 remediation SLAs, though — one register, one clock.
• Container image scanning is CS (container-security), not ST-1.
• Fixing an individual vulnerability is another family's work — a SQL injection fix is AS-1 (secure-coding-as). ST-5 governs the process: triage, priority, the SLA clock, and who may sign a risk acceptance.

Source and currency

Control text in this skill and references/st-controls.md is embedded from info.standards.tech.gov.sg as of 2026-07-22; the ST family page was last updated 24 March 2026. The standards iterate. For any compliance-critical decision, verify against the live page:

• ST control catalog: https://info.standards.tech.gov.sg/control-catalog/cybersecurity/st/

Reference files

• references/st-controls.md — full text of ST-1..ST-5 (statement, recommendations, risk, all nine parameters), the per-SSP level assignments, and cross-family notes. Read it when you need exact wording, e.g. for an audit response or SSP documentation.
• references/programme-templates.md — concrete artifacts per control: an RFC 9116 security.txt, scan and CSPM enablement config, a VAPT plan and readiness checklist, the vulnerability register schema, and a risk-acceptance record template. Read it when actually building.

Before you start: the SSP parameters

Ask for these nine values from the System Security Plan before writing anything. If the SSP doesn't exist or leaves them blank, flag that as its own finding — the sibling skill ssp-navigator determines which level each ST control sits at for this system.

Control	Parameter	What the SSP defines
ST-1	st-1_prm_1	The type of vulnerability assessment scanning
ST-1	st-1_prm_2	Maximum days between vulnerability assessment scans
ST-3	st-3_prm_1	The type of public vulnerability reporting channel
ST-4	st-4_prm_1	The type of security testing programme (e.g. penetration test)
ST-4	st-4_prm_2	Maximum days between security tests
ST-5	st-5_prm_1	Days to remediate or risk-accept a Critical vulnerability
ST-5	st-5_prm_2	Days to remediate or risk-accept a High vulnerability
ST-5	st-5_prm_3	Days to remediate or risk-accept a Medium vulnerability
ST-5	st-5_prm_4	Days to remediate or risk-accept a Low vulnerability

Level assignments vary by SSP: in the low-risk cloud/on-prem SSPs all of ST sits at Level 1; medium-risk cloud promotes ST-1, ST-3, and ST-4 to Level 0 (mandatory, no deviation); high-risk cloud CII puts all five at Level 0. Systems handling CONFIDENTIAL data or above should assume the promoted set.

Procedure

Work in this order. For setup, produce each artifact. For audit, verify each and record pass / fail / not-applicable-per-SSP with evidence (the scan schedule and last report, the CSPM console, the live security.txt, the test report and its date, the register with its SLA clocks). Templates for every step are in references/programme-templates.md.

Stage 1 — Continuous scanning (ST-1, ST-2)

1a. Host vulnerability assessment scans (ST-1). Run scans of the SSP-defined type (st-1_prm_1) for eligible hosts at least every st-1_prm_2 days. Prefer authenticated (agent-based) scans — unauthenticated network scans see only the surface. On cloud, the managed scanners fit naturally: Amazon Inspector or Microsoft Defender for Cloud; on-premises, subscribe to a Vulnerability Management System (VMS). For SaaS components you can't scan yourself, obtain the provider's prior vulnerability scanning reports instead. Evidence is the scan schedule plus the latest report — a scanner that's installed but hasn't run within the cadence is a fail.

1b. Cloud security posture management (ST-2). For cloud-hosted systems, enable CSPM performing continuous configuration scans on cloud assets — AWS Security Hub, Azure Defender for Cloud, or Google Security Command Center. This catches the misconfiguration class (open buckets, permissive security groups, unencrypted stores) that host scans don't. Its findings join the ST-5 register like any other source.

Stage 2 — Public disclosure channel (ST-3)

Establish the SSP-defined public reporting channel (st-3_prm_1) for vulnerabilities in public-facing systems. The catalog's recommended shapes: the security.txt standard (RFC 9116 — served at /.well-known/security.txt over HTTPS, with Contact and a non-expired Expires no more than a year out) or a vulnerability reporting link on all pages, such as in the footer. A security.txt at the wrong path, or with an expired Expires, fails the RFC and defeats the channel — researchers' tooling looks in exactly one place.

Stage 3 — The security testing programme (ST-4)

Conduct and document the SSP-defined testing type (st-4_prm_1 — typically a penetration test / VAPT) every st-4_prm_2 days, by internal teams or independent external parties. Refer to the WOG Security Testing Guidelines for scoping and methodology; a new internet-facing service should be tested before launch, not on the first anniversary. Systems seeking the Government Bug Bounty Programme need a passing Agency Readiness Scorecard rating first. "Documented" is load-bearing: scope, rules of engagement, findings, and the remediation retest are the audit evidence — an informal poke-around by the dev team leaves nothing an auditor can accept, and testers need independence from the code they're testing.

Stage 4 — Vulnerability management (ST-5)

Triage, prioritise, then remediate or risk-accept every finding — from ST-1 scans, ST-2 CSPM, ST-4 tests, the ST-3 channel, and the CI scanners — within the SSP timeframe for its severity: Critical ≤ st-5_prm_1 days, High ≤ st-5_prm_2, Medium ≤ st-5_prm_3, Low ≤ st-5_prm_4. Two rules with teeth:

• Prioritise by exploitation, not just CVSS. A vulnerability with known active exploitation — check CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog — jumps the queue regardless of its severity label.
• Risk acceptance requires the approving authority's consent, documented — with the rationale, compensating controls, and an expiry/review date. A dev lead waving a finding through is not risk acceptance; it's an unmanaged vulnerability with a signature on it.

Keep one register with the found-date and SLA due-date per finding so breaches are visible arithmetic, not archaeology.

Audit checklist

Verify each row; record evidence. "Param" marks controls whose pass criteria come from the SSP — ask for the values rather than inventing them.

ID	Check	Where	Param
ST-1	Host VA scans of type st-1_prm_1, authenticated where possible, every ≤ st-1_prm_2 days; latest report within cadence; CI code scanning not counted as coverage	Scan schedule + latest report	✓
ST-2	CSPM with continuous configuration scans enabled on all cloud assets (Security Hub / Defender for Cloud / SCC)	CSPM console / config
ST-3	Public reporting channel of type st-3_prm_1 live: security.txt at /.well-known/ over HTTPS with valid unexpired Expires, or a reporting link on all pages	Live URL / page footer	✓
ST-4	Documented st-4_prm_1 every ≤ st-4_prm_2 days by internal teams or independent external parties; scope, RoE, findings, retest on record; pre-launch test for new public services	Test report + date	✓
ST-5	All finding sources in one register; triage + prioritisation (incl. KEV/active exploitation); remediation or documented approving-authority risk acceptance within the four severity SLAs	Register + acceptance records	✓

Report per control ID with pass / fail / not-applicable-per-SSP, the evidence found, and — for failures — the fix from references/programme-templates.md. Where a pass depends on an SSP parameter that isn't stated, ask for the value; don't guess a cadence or SLA.

Related skills in this repo

• ssp-navigator — decides which SSP applies and at which level each ST control sits (all-Level-1 in low-risk plans; ST-1/ST-3/ST-4 promoted to Level 0 in medium-risk cloud; all five at Level 0 for high-risk CII). Use it before declaring any ST control out of scope.
• secure-pipeline — SD/SC: SAST (SD-4), dependency scanning (SD-5), secret detection (SD-6), and pipeline DAST (SD-9) live there, not under ST-1 — but their findings feed the ST-5 register and SLAs.
• container-security — CS: image scanning and registry hygiene for containerised workloads; pair it with ST-1 host scans rather than substituting one for the other.
• secure-coding-as — AS/CK: where the actual fixes for application-layer findings land once ST-4 or the ST-3 channel surfaces them.
• logging-monitoring — LM's runtime threat detection (LM-9) complements ST-2's continuous configuration/posture scanning; the two are complementary, not substitutes.
• network-security — the NS posture (segmentation, deny-by-default, edge filtering) is what ST-1 host scans, ST-2 CSPM, and a network VAPT exercise from the outside; their findings land in the ST-5 register with NS fixes.