OpenVAS Change Request #2: Remove any support for NSR export format of OpenVAS-Client

Status: Voted +4. Implemented with SVN 673. Released with OpenVAS-Client 1.0.3.

Purpose

To reduce code base.

To not let people use or create broken-by-design export files.

References

Discussion on openvas-devel mailing list

Rationale

NSR was already marked as deprecated before OpenVAS fork from Nessus. It is not expected to have any users still need or have NSR report files.

NSR is broken-by-design: NSR is a line-oriented format and escaping of newlines is done with replacing newlines with a semicolon. No escaping for semicolon is defined. This problem is inherited directly from the Nessus protocol where the escaping is already broken. Removing NSR is thus a first step to remove the basic design flaw.

As a side-effect the code base can be reduced which is good for a higher quality rating.

Effects

• Users will not be able any more to export reports in NSR format.
• Users will not be able any more to import old NSR formats with new versions of OpenVAS-Client. Old version can be retrieved to perform the conversion to another format, so migration path is available.

Design and Implementation

• Remove any nsr related functions under openvas-client/nessus/. Note that arglist_to_file() is used in module html_graph_output and needs clarification.
• Remove nsr related stuff from openvas-client/doc/
• Remove nsr related stuff from openvas-manual/

History

• 2008-01-24 Jan-Oliver Wagner <jan-oliver.wagner@intevation.de>:
  Initial text.
• 2008-02-20 Jan-Oliver Wagner <jan-oliver.wagner@intevation.de>:
  Extended Rationale to note that the design flaw is inherited from the protocol.
• 2008-02-23 Jan-Oliver Wagner <jan-oliver.wagner@intevation.de>:
  Updated status with result of voting.
• 2008-02-25 Jan-Oliver Wagner <jan-oliver.wagner@intevation.de>:
  Implemented.
• 2008-04-05 Jan-Oliver Wagner <jan-oliver.wagner@intevation.de>:
  Updated Status (released).