Create VEX statements

This document describes how to create Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX) statements.

For every container image pushed to Artifact Registry, Artifact Analysis can store an associated VEX statement. VEX is a type of security advisory that indicates whether a product is affected by a known vulnerability.

Each statement provides:

  • The publisher of the VEX Statement
  • The artifact for which the statement is written
  • The vulnerability assessment (VEX status) for any known vulnerabilities

Software publishers can create VEX statements to describe the security posture of an application. VEX statements note any vulnerabilities discovered in specific artifacts and provide context about their impact to their customers or regulatory bodies.

Security and policy enforcers can use VEX status to triage risks in their software supply chains and use VEX statements to attest to the composition of their artifacts to help organizations meet regulatory requirements.

VEX status

The VEX status indicates whether an artifact is affected by a known vulnerability.

The status can be one of:

  • Not affected: No remediation is required regarding this vulnerability.
  • Affected: Remediation actions are recommended.
  • Fixed: In this version of the product, a fix has been applied to address the vulnerability.
  • Under Investigation: The status of this product is yet to be determined. The publisher will provide an updated status in a later release.

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Account.

    If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.

  2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    Go to project selector

  3. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  4. Enable the Container Analysis, Artifact Registry APIs.

    Roles required to enable APIs

    To enable APIs, you need the serviceusage.services.enable permission. If you created the project, then you likely already have this permission through the Owner role (roles/owner). Otherwise, you can get this permission through the Service Usage Admin role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin). Learn how to grant roles.

    Enable the APIs

  5. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  6. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  7. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  8. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.