Samuel Dionne-Riel
8b81adddcd
The previous claims are unsourced, since they are not supported by the
source given for CPEs.
Quoting from the 5.3.3.5 section of the NISTIR 7695 document:
> Values for this attribute SHOULD be vendor-specific alphanumeric
> strings characterizing the particular update, service pack, or
> point release of the product.
So, first, they should be ***vendor-specific***, and dare I say,
vendor-specified. But let's not trip on the carpet's flower pattern, and
instead look at evidence from data.
Using the data from `official-cpe-dictionary_v2.3.xml`, gently massaged
into a form that can be queried, we can list all known CPE expressions
for glibc.
There is only one known entry using the `update` field. It's:
```
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:2.0.5🅱️*:*:*:*:*:*
```
As such, the current example is plainly and demonstrably wrong.
```
SELECT * FROM cpe
WHERE cpe_update != ''
AND cpe_vendor = 'gnu'
AND cpe_product = 'glibc'
ORDER BY cpe_vendor, cpe_product, cpe_version
id |title |cpe_part|cpe_vendor|cpe_product|cpe_version|cpe_update|cpe_edition|cpe_language|cpe_sw_edition|cpe_target_sw|cpe_target_hw|cpe_other|
------+-----------------+--------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+---------+
460867|GNU glibc 2.0.5 B|a |gnu |glibc |2.0.5 |b | | | | | | |
```
Let's see good examples of `cpe_product` in contrast:
```
SELECT * FROM cpe
WHERE cpe_update != ''
AND cpe_vendor = 'gnu'
AND cpe_product = 'bash'
ORDER BY cpe_vendor, cpe_product, cpe_version DESC
LIMIT 10
id |title |cpe_part|cpe_vendor|cpe_product|cpe_version|cpe_update|cpe_edition|cpe_language|cpe_sw_edition|cpe_target_sw|cpe_target_hw|cpe_other|
------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+---------+
460088|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 4.3.30 Beta 1 |a |gnu |bash |4.3.30 |beta1 | | | | | | |
460086|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 4.2.53 Beta 1 |a |gnu |bash |4.2.53 |beta1 | | | | | | |
460081|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 3.2.57 Beta 1 |a |gnu |bash |3.2.57 |beta1 | | | | | | |
460140|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 |a |gnu |bash |5.2 |- | | | | | | |
460141|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 Alpha |a |gnu |bash |5.2 |alpha | | | | | | |
460142|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 Beta |a |gnu |bash |5.2 |beta | | | | | | |
460143|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 Release Candidate 1|a |gnu |bash |5.2 |rc1 | | | | | | |
460144|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 Release Candidate 2|a |gnu |bash |5.2 |rc2 | | | | | | |
460145|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 Release Candidate 3|a |gnu |bash |5.2 |rc3 | | | | | | |
460146|GNU Bourne-Again SHell bash (GNU Bash) 5.2 Release Candidate 4|a |gnu |bash |5.2 |rc4 | | | | | | |
```
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