Cis Gcp Foundations 4.12

---
name: cis-gcp-foundations-4.12
description: "Ensure the Latest Operating System Updates Are Installed On Your Virtual Machines in All Projects"
category: cis-gcp-foundations
version: "4.0.0"
author: cyberstrike-official
tags: [cis, gcp, compute, virtual-machines, service-accounts]
cis_id: "4.12"
cis_benchmark: "CIS Google Cloud Platform Foundation Benchmark v4.0.0"
tech_stack: [gcp]
cwe_ids: []
chains_with: []
prerequisites: []
severity_boost: {}
---

# 4.12 Ensure the Latest Operating System Updates Are Installed On Your Virtual Machines in All Projects (Manual)

## Profile Applicability

- Level 2

## Description

Google Cloud Virtual Machines have the ability via an OS Config agent API to periodically (about every 10 minutes) report OS inventory data. A patch compliance API periodically reads this data, and cross references metadata to determine if the latest updates are installed.

This is not the only Patch Management solution available to your organization and you should weigh your needs before committing to using this method.

## Rationale

Keeping virtual machine operating systems up to date is a security best practice. Using this service will simplify this process.

## Impact

Most Operating Systems require a restart or changing critical resources to apply the updates. Using the Google Cloud VM manager for its OS Patch management will incur additional costs for each VM managed by it. Please view the VM manager pricing reference for further information.

## Audit

### From Google Cloud Console

**Determine if OS Config API is Enabled for the Project**

1. Navigate into a project. In the expanded navigation menu located at the top left of the screen hover over `APIs & Services`. Then in the menu right of that select `API Libraries`.
2. Search for "VM Manager (OS Config API)" or scroll down in the left hand column and select the filter labeled "Compute" where it is the last listed. Open this API.
3. Verify the blue button at the top is enabled.

**Determine if the Operating System of VM Instances have the local OS-Config Agent running**

There is no way to determine this from the Google Cloud console. The only way is to run operating specific commands locally inside the operating system via remote connection. For the sake of brevity of this recommendation please view the docs/troubleshooting/vm-manager/verify-setup reference at the bottom of the page. If you initialized your VM instance with a Google Supplied OS Image with a build date of later than v20200114 it will have the service installed. You should still determine its status for proper operation.

**Verify the service account you have setup for the project in Recommendation 4.1 is running**

1. Go to the `VM instances` page by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on each instance name to go to its `VM instance details` page.
3. Under the section `Service Account`, take note of the service account.
4. Run the commands locally for your operating system that are located at the docs/troubleshooting/vm-manager/verify-setup#service-account-enabled reference located at the bottom of this page. They should return the name of your service account.

**Determine if Instances can connect to public update hosting**

Each type of operating system has its own update process. You will need to determine on each operating system that it can reach the update servers via its network connection. The VM Manager doesn't host the updates, it will only allow you to centrally issue a command to each VM to update.

**Determine if OS Config API is Enabled for the Project**

1. In each project you wish to enable run the following command:

```
gcloud services list
```

2. If osconfig.googleapis.com is in the left hand column it is enabled for this project.

**Determine if VM Manager is Enabled for the Project**

1. Within the project run the following command:

```
gcloud compute instances os-inventory describe VM-NAME \
    --zone=ZONE
```

The output will look like:

```
INSTANCE_ID          INSTANCE_NAME  OS
OSCONFIG_AGENT_VERSION       UPDATE_TIME
29255009728795105    centos7            CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
20210217.00-g1.el7           2021-04-12T22:19:36.559Z
5138980234596718741  rhel-8             Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 (Ootpa)
20210316.00-g1.e18           2021-09-16T17:19:24Z
7127836223366142250  windows            Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
20210316.00.0+win@1          2021-09-16T17:13:18Z
```

**Determine if VM Instances have correct metadata tags for OSConfig parsing**

1. Select the project you want to view tagging in.

### From Google Cloud Console

1. From the main Google Cloud console, open the hamburger menu in the top left. Mouse over Computer Engine to expand the menu next to it.
2. Under the "Settings" heading, select "Metadata".
3. In this view there will be a list of the project wide metadata tags for Vms. Verify a tag of 'enable-osconfig' is in this list and it is set to 'true'.

### From Command Line

Run the following command to view instance data:

```
gcloud compute instances list --format="table(name,status,tags.list())"
```

On each instance it should have a tag of 'enable-osconfig' set to 'true'.

**Determine if the Operating System of VM Instances have the local OS-Config Agent running**

There is no way to determine this from the Google Cloud CLI. The best way is to run the commands inside the operating system located at 'Check OS-Config agent is installed and running' at the /docs/troubleshooting/vm-manager/verify-setup reference at the bottom of the page. If you initialized your VM instance with a Google Supplied OS Image with a build date of later than v20200114 it will have the service installed. You should still determine its status.

**Verify the service account you have setup for the project in Recommendation 4.1 is running**

1. Go to the `VM instances` page by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on each instance name to go to its `VM instance details` page.
3. Under the section `Service Account`, take note of the service account.
4. View the compute/docs/troubleshooting/vm-manager/verify-setup#service-account-enabled resource at the bottom of the page for operating system specific commands to run locally.

**Determine if Instances can connect to public update hosting**

**Linux - Debian Based Operating Systems**

```
sudo apt update
```

The output should have a numbered list of lines with Hit: URL of updates.

**Redhat Based Operating Systems**

```
yum check-update
```

The output should show a list of packages that have updates available.

**Windows**

```
ping http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
```

The ping should successfully be delivered and received.

## Remediation

### From Google Cloud Console

**Enabling OS Patch Management on a Project by Project Basis**

**Install OS Config API for the Project**

1. Navigate into a project. In the expanded portal menu located at the top left of the screen hover over "APIs & Services". Then in the menu right of that select "API Libraries".
2. Search for "VM Manager (OS Config API)" or scroll down in the left hand column and select the filter labeled "Compute" where it is the last listed. Open this API.
3. Click the blue 'Enable' button.

**Add MetaData Tags for OSConfig Parsing**

1. From the main Google Cloud console, open the portal menu in the top left. Mouse over Computer Engine to expand the menu next to it.
2. Under the "Settings" heading, select "Metadata".
3. In this view there will be a list of the project wide metadata tags for VMs. Click edit and 'add item' in the key column type 'enable-osconfig' and in the value column set it to 'true'.

### From Command Line

1. For project wide tagging, run the following command:

```
gcloud compute project-info add-metadata \
  --project <PROJECT_ID>\
  --metadata=enable-osconfig=TRUE
```

## Default Value

OS Patch Management is not enabled by default.

## References

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/vm-manager
2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/troubleshooting/vm-manager/verify-setup

## CIS Controls

| Controls Version | Control                                                      | IG 1 | IG 2 | IG 3 |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ---- | ---- | ---- |
| v8               | 7.3 Perform Automated Operating System Patch Management      | X    | X    | X    |
| v8               | 7.4 Perform Automated Application Patch Management           | X    | X    | X    |
| v7               | 3.4 Deploy Automated Operating System Patch Management Tools | X    | X    | X    |
| v7               | 3.5 Deploy Automated Software Patch Management Tools         | X    | X    | X    |