Qualys Cloud Agent for MacOS Installation Guide

Verity Confidential

Cloud Agent for MacOS

Installation Guide

June 20, 2024

Qualys and the Qualys logo are registered trademarks of Qualys, Inc. All other trademarks

are the property of their respective owners.

Qualys, Inc.

919 E Hillsdale Blvd

4th Floor

Foster City, CA 94404

1 (650) 801 6100

Table of Contents

Preface................................................................................................................. 5

About Qualys ........................................................................................................................... 5

Contact Qualys Support .......................................................................................................... 5

Get Started .........................................................................................................6

Qualys Cloud Agent Introduction .......................................................................................... 6

Cloud Agent Platform Availability for Apple MacOS ........................................................... 6

A few things to consider... ...................................................................................................... 6

Cloud Agent requirements ............................................................................................... 6

What are the installation steps? ..................................................................................... 7

Run as user and user’s default group ............................................................................. 7

Need help with troubleshooting? .................................................................................... 7

Privileges - what are my options? .......................................................................................... 7

Considerations to select an option best suited to your environment and needs ...... 8

Installation ........................................................................................................ 10

Tips and best practices ......................................................................................................... 10

How to download Agent installer ........................................................................................ 11

Installation steps ................................................................................................................... 13

What you’ll need ............................................................................................................. 13

Steps to install Agents .................................................................................................... 13

What happens next? ....................................................................................................... 13

Proxy configuration ............................................................................................................... 14

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL and PAC Files - MacOS Agent ................... 15

Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusions ........................................................................................... 17

Permissions for the Privacy Features and Service ............................................................. 17

Configuration Tool.......................................................................................... 19

Command line options ......................................................................................................... 19

Use cases ................................................................................................................................ 22

Best Practices ..................................................................................................23

Upgrading Cloud Agent ......................................................................................................... 23

Uninstalling Cloud Agent ..................................................................................................... 23

Agentless Tracking and Cloud Agents ................................................................................ 24

Known issues....................................................................................................25

QualysCloudAgent under MacOS Applications .................................................................. 25

On Demand Scan ............................................................................................26

Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility.....................................................28

Deployment using Microsoft Intune...........................................................30

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation .......................................................................................... 30

App Information .............................................................................................................. 31

Assignments ....................................................................................................................33

Review + create ................................................................................................................34

Qualys Cloud Agent Configuration ...................................................................................... 36

Preface

About Qualys

Preface

Welcome to Qualys Cloud Agent for MacOS. This user guide describes how to install cloud

agents on hosts in your network.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) is a pioneer and leading provider of cloud-based security and

compliance solutions. The Qualys Cloud Platform and its integrated apps help businesses

simplify security operations and lower the cost of compliance by delivering critical

security intelligence on demand and automating the full spectrum of auditing,

compliance and protection for IT systems and web applications.

Founded in 1999, Qualys has established strategic partnerships with leading managed

service providers and consulting organizations including Accenture, BT, Cognizant

Technology Solutions, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, HCL, HP Enterprise, IBM, Infosys, NTT,

Optiv, SecureWorks, Tata Communications, Verizon and Wipro. The company is also a

founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). For more information, please visit

www.qualys.com.

Contact Qualys Support

Qualys is committed to providing you with the most thorough support. Through online

documentation, telephone help, and direct email support, Qualys ensures that your

questions will be answered in the fastest time possible. We support you 7 days a week,

24 hours a day. Access support information at www.qualys.com/support/.

Get Started

Qualys Cloud Agent Introduction

Get Started

Thank you for your interest in Qualys Cloud Agent!

This document tells you all about installing Qualys Cloud Agent for Apple MacOS. We’ll

tell you about Requirements, Installation Steps, Proxy Configuration, Anti-Virus and HIPS

Exclusions, how to use our Agent Configuration Tool, Best Practices and more.

Qualys Cloud Agent Introduction

Qualys Cloud Platform gives you everything you need to continuously secure all of your

global IT assets. Now with Qualys Cloud Agent, there’s a revolutionary new way to help

secure your network by installing lightweight cloud agents in minutes, on any host -

server, virtual machine, laptop, desktop or cloud instance.

Get informed quickly on Qualys Cloud Agent (CA).

Cloud Agent Platform Availability for Apple MacOS

For the most current list of supported cloud agents with versions and modules on the

Qualys Cloud Platform, please refer to the following article: Cloud Agent Platform

Availability Matrix

A few things to consider...

Cloud Agent requirements

- Your hosts must be able to reach your Qualys Cloud Platform (or the Qualys Private

Cloud Platform) over HTTPS port 443. Log into the Qualys Cloud Platform and go to Help >

About to see the URL your hosts need to access.

- To install Cloud Agent for MacOS, you must have root privileges, non-root with Sudo root

delegation, or non-root with sufficient privileges (VM license only). Proxy configuration is

supported. Learn more

- Minimum 512 MB RAM system memory.

- Minimum 100 MB of available disk space.

Video Tutorials

Cloud Agent Platform Introduction (2m 10s)

Getting Started Tutorial (6m 34s)

Get Started

Privileges - what are my options?

What are the installation steps?

Our Cloud Agent UI walks you through the steps to install agents on your hosts. Once the

agent is installed you will need to provision it using our agent configuration tool.

Run as user and user’s default group

Typically, the agent installation requires root level access on the system (for example in

order to access the PKG). After the Cloud Agent has been installed it can be configured to

run in a specific user and group context using our configuration tool. This ability limits

the level of access of the Cloud Agent. Learn more

Need help with troubleshooting?

We recommend you inspect the agent’s log file located here:

/var/log/qualys/qualys-cloud-agent.log.

Privileges - what are my options?

The Qualys Cloud Agent offers multiple deployment methods to support an organization’s

security policy for running third-party applications and least privilege configuration. As

vulnerability and configuration assessments need to be comprehensive with

authenticated scans, the Cloud Agent is installed with SYSTEM level privileges eliminating

the need for any authentication credentials to access local system data and artifacts.

This can be updated to any of the following options.

1.Use a non-root account with sufficient privileges:

The specific privileges required are:

• Execute “installer” for automated self-updates

• Agent requires additional commands such as "system_profiler

SPInstallHistoryDataType" to operate, which vary depending upon the MAC operating

system distribution and customer environment.

Non-root users with limited access may not be able to access certain areas of the system,

such as applications installed with root privileges, and may have insufficient results or

unable to leverage the full product capability.

2.Use a non-root account with Sudo root delegation

Either the non-root user needs to be assigned sudo privileges directly or through a group

membership. Ensure that NOPASSWD option is configured.

Learn more

Troubleshooting

Error messages

Get Started

Privileges - what are my options?

Here is an example of an agent user entry in sudoers file (where “agentuser” is the

username for the account that you use to install the Linux Agent):

%agentuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

You can also use secure Sudo. When you set UseSudo=1, the agent tries to find the custom

path in the secure_path parameter located in the /etc/sudoers file. This can be used to

restrict the path from where commands are picked up during data collection. If this

parameter is not set, the agent refers to the PATH variable to locate the command by

running sudo sh.

3.Use an account with root privileges

Typically, you may start with a comprehensive assessment for vulnerabilities and

misconfigurations, including privilege access for administrators and root. This agent

configuration provides the Cloud Agent for Linux with all the required privileges (for

example to access the RPM database) to conduct a complete assessment on the host

system and allows for high fidelity assessments with reduced management overheads.

However, after the Qualys Cloud Agent is installed, it can be configured to run as a specific

user and group context using our Agent configuration tool. When you create a non-

privileged user with full sudo, the user account is exclusive to the Qualys Cloud Agent and

you can disable SSH/ remote login for that user, if needed.

The Qualys Cloud Agent does not require SSH (Secure Shell). You can also assign a user

with specific permissions and categories of commands that the user can run. If the path is

not provided in the command, the system provides the path and only a privileged user can

set the PATH variables.

Considerations to select an option best suited to your environment and

needs

The Qualys Cloud Agent uses multiple methods to collect metadata to provide asset

inventory, vulnerability management, and Policy Compliance (PC) use cases. Some of

these methods include running commands to collect a list of installed applications and

versions, running processes, network interfaces, and so on.

Root access is required for some detections, including most detections that are part of PC

(reading global config files related to system-wide security settings and gathering

information from more than one user account). There is an exceptionally low number of

QIDs in VM module that require root, other QIDs run fine without root. However, those

that do need elevated privileges are likely to result into False negatives, if the user does

not have the necessary privileges.

Qualys also provides a scan tool that identifies the commands that need root access in

your environment. For this scan tool, connect with the Qualys support team. You can

decide whether to elevate/grant the required permissions to run the commands or risk

losing visibility to the information. You can grant permissions only for the specific

commands/binaries that are failing.

Get Started

Privileges - what are my options?

Qualys sanitizes the PATH variable to remove any directory which is world writable as a

security measure, which is designed to ensure that the Qualys Cloud Agent does not

execute any custom-made scripts. This provides the option to harden or add the path,

where you can configure the set of allowed directories, on which the commands can be

executed during our data collection.

Qualys uses the system-appended paths to run or assume root integrity. As per NIST SP

800-53 Revision 5, control for Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning RA-5 indicates that

in certain situations, the nature of the vulnerability scanning may be more intrusive and

require privileged access authorization to selected system components to facilitate more

thorough vulnerability scanning.

For PC scans, we require the sudo/root privilege. With non-root privilege, the PC report is

unreliable and does not provide a complete covering of CIS&DISA policies. As per CIS

benchmarks, root privileges are required for specific detections, including most detections

that are part of PC (reading global config files related to system-wide security settings and

gathering information from more than one user account). Refer to any CIS benchmark (for

example, https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/493) on Linux which broadly

assumes that operations are being performed as the root user.

Following is the paragraph from the CIS benchmark document:

“The guidance within broadly assumes that operations are being performed as the root

user. Non-root users may not be able to access certain areas of the system, especially after

remediation has been performed. It is advisable to verify the root user’s path integrity and

the integrity of any programs being run prior to execution of commands and scripts

included in this benchmark.”

For Patch Management, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and File Integrity

Monitoring (FIM) modules, use an account with root privileges to hook into a system,

perform real-time monitoring, to install patches etc., as these modules are not dependent

on any signatures/command execution.

Installation

Tips and best practices

Installation

It’s easy to install Cloud Agent for MacOS. We’ll walk you through the steps quickly.

Qualys provides installers and packages for each supported operating system that are

coded for each Qualys platform. It's not possible to connect an agent coded for one

platform to another platform. Organizations can use their existing software distribution

tools (SCCM, BigFix, rpm, Casper, etc.) to install the agent into target machines.

The platform supports detection of duplicate agent IDs and automatically re-provisions

the duplicate agents.

Customers using software distribution tools must package the Qualys-provided installer

along with the specific Activation Key and Customer ID strings to install properly. Do not

package up the artifacts that are installed by the agent into your own installer as the

installation environment is keyed for that specific machine when the agent is installed;

doing so will create duplicates that the platform may not be able to easily de-duplicate.

Keep in mind - Depending on your environment, you might need to take steps to support

communications between agent hosts on your network and the Qualys Cloud Platform.

Tips and best practices

How to download Agent installer

In the Install Agent window, click Download .pkg. This downloads the Agent .pkg file to

your local system.The installation command, your Activation key, and Subscription ID

are displayed in the UI - copy and paste this to a safe place, you’ll need it to complete the

installation.

Proxy configuration

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL and PAC Files - MacOS Agent

Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusions

Tips and best practices

What is an activation key? You’ll need an agent activation key to install agents. This

provides a way to group agents and bind them to your subscription with Qualys Cloud

Platform. You can create different keys for various business functions and users.

Benefits of adding asset tags to an activation key Tags assigned to your activation key

will be automatically assigned to agent hosts. This helps you manage your agents and

report on agent hosts.

Running the agent installer You’ll need to run the installer from an elevated command

prompt, or use a systems management tool.

Be sure to activate agents to provision agents for modules - Vulnerability Management

(VM), Policy Compliance (PC), or both. Activating an agent for a module consumes an

agent license. You can set up auto activation by defining modules for activation keys, or do

it manually in the Cloud Agent UI.

Installation

How to download Agent installer

What happens if I skip activation? Agents will sync inventory information only to the

cloud platform (IP address, OS, DNS and NetBIOS names, MAC address), host assessments

will not be performed.

How many agents can I install? You can install any number of agents but can activate an

agent only if you have a license. The Agents tab in the Cloud Agent UI tells you about your

installed agents and license count.

Check to be sure agents are connected Once installed agents connect to the Qualys

Cloud Platform and provision themselves. You can see agent status on the Agents tab -

this is updated continuously. If your agent doesn’t have a status, it has not successfully

connected to the cloud platform and you need to troubleshoot.

Upgrading agents manually If you upgrade the agents manually or using external

deployment tools like puppet, explicit restart is required. It is recommended to restart the

agent service immediately after upgrade.

How to download Agent installer

Download an installer of Qualys Cloud Agent for MacOS

Here’s how to download an installer from the Qualys Cloud Platform and get the

associated Activation ID and Subscription ID.

Log into the Qualys Cloud Platform and select CA for the Cloud Agent module.

Installation

How to download Agent installer

Choose an activation key (create one if needed) and select Install Agent from the Quick

Actions menu.

Select the MacOS (.pkg) based your host system architecture and Click

Install instructions. You will be navigated to the Install Agent window.

In the Install Agent window, click Download .pkg. This downloads the Agent .pkg file to

your local system.The installation command, your Activation key, and Subscription ID are

displayed in the UI - copy and paste this to a safe place, you’ll need it to complete the

installation.

Installation

Installation steps

What you’ll need

To install cloud agents, you’ll need to download the Cloud Agent installer and get the

associated ActivationID and CustomerID. Just log into the Qualys Cloud Platform, go to the

Cloud Agent (CA) module, and follow the installation steps for MacOS (.pkg) to get

everything you need. See Cloud Agent requirements.

Steps to install Agents

1. Copy the Qualys Cloud Agent installer onto the target host.

2. Install the Qualys Cloud Agent using the following commands:

- If your installer package is qualys-cloud-agent.x86_64.pkg, use command:

sudo installer -pkg ./qualys-cloud-agent.x86_64.pkg -target /

sudo /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-

cloud-agent.sh

ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

ServerUri=<qualys_pod_url>/CloudAgent

- If your installer package is QualysCloudAgent.pkg, use command:

sudo installer -pkg ./QualysCloudAgent.pkg -target /

sudo /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-

cloud-agent.sh

ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

ServerUri=<qualys_pod_url>/CloudAgent

What happens next?

We’ll start syncing asset data to the cloud!

Once installed an agent connects to the Qualys Cloud Platform and provisions itself. We

would expect you to see your first asset discovery results within a few minutes. The first

assessment scan in the cloud takes some time, after that scans complete as soon as new

host metadata is uploaded to the cloud platform.

Note: Qualys Cloud Agent is designed to run in the background and requires no user

interaction. As such you are advised not to try launching the Qualys Cloud Agent from the

Applications folder. The Qualys Cloud Agent should be already running in the background.

You might also be interested in...

Proxy configuration

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL and PAC Files - MacOS Agent

Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusions

Installation

Proxy configuration

This section helps you to enable the MacOS agent to use a proxy for communication with

our cloud platform.

Note:

If proxy connection fails then agent will NOT attempt a direct connection outbound (Fail

Closed).

Proxy configuration on MacOS agents

1) if /Library/Application Support/QualysCloudAgent/Config/proxy file doesn't exist create

2) add 1 of the following lines to the file (1 line only):

https_proxy=https://[<username>:<password>@]<host>[:<port>]

qualys_https_proxy=https://[<username>:<password>@]<host>[:<port>]

where <username> and <password> are specified if the https proxy uses authentication. If

special characters are embedded in the username or password (e.g. @, :, $) they need to be

url-encoded. where <host> is the proxy server's IPv4 address or FQDN. where <port> is the

proxy's port number.

If the proxy is specified with the https_proxy environment variable, it will be used for all

commands performed by the Cloud Agent. If the proxy is specified with the

qualys_https_proxy environment variable, it will only be used by the Cloud Agent to

communicate with our cloud platform.

Note: You can use the Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility to encrypt the user name

and password that you provide to the proxy environment variable.

3) change the permissions using these commands:

chown root /Library/Application Support/

QualysCloudAgent/Config/proxy

chmod 660 /Library/Application Support/

QualysCloudAgent/Config/proxy

Alternatively, you can set automatic proxy by going to Mac System Preferences > Network

> Advanced > Proxies tab. Select Automatic Proxy Configuration and provide the pac file.

Note: Qualys proxy configured in the .../QualysCloudAgent/Config/proxy file will take

preference over any proxies set in System Preferences (including Automatic Proxy, Web

Proxy (HTTP), or Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS)).

Need to Bypass Proxy?

By default the Cloud Agent for MacOS will operate in non-proxy mode.

Installation

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL and PAC Files - MacOS Agent

But in the event, if you are already using proxy mode and need to switch to non-proxy

mode, you need to configure agent to use no_proxy in /Library/Application

Support/QualysCloudAgent/Config/proxy. Environment variable 'no_proxy' is used to

bypass proxy. Curl library honors 'no_proxy' environment variable. If ‘no_proxy’ is set, curl

will not use proxy even if any proxy environment variable is set.

Here are the steps to enable the MacOS agent to use a no_proxy for communication with

our cloud platform:

1) Edit /Library/Application Support/QualysCloudAgent/Config/proxy file.

2) Add following lines (bold faced) where qualys_https_proxy is mentioned:

export qualys_https_proxy=https://[<username>:<password>@]<host>[:<port>]

export no_proxy=<pod domain name>

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL and PAC Files -

MacOS Agent

The Cloud Agent has support for multiple proxy servers defined in the Proxy URL, and in

PAC files. Cloud Agent will use the first proxy server in the list for its connection, if it fails

to connect, the agent will use the next configured proxy server in the list until all proxy

servers are attempted. You can have up to five proxy servers included in the proxy URL.

Each time the Cloud Agent connects to the Qualys Platform, it always uses the first proxy

server in the ordered list. You can use the Configuration Tool to the set the proxy order to

be sequential or random. The agent does not maintain a history of last proxy server used.

This proxy configuration can be used with the Qualys Gateway Service or third-party

proxy servers. There is no requirement that the failover proxy servers need to be on the

same subnet as the first proxy server; as long as the Cloud Agent can connect to other

proxy servers even on other subnets, the agent will use those proxy server(s) if the first

proxy server is not available.

Define multiple proxy servers in the Proxy URL using semi-colon separated values. For PAC

files, refer to the PAC file vendor's documentation that defines how to configure multiple

proxy servers.

You can configure multiple proxies in the proxy file mentioned in the section Proxy

configuration on MacOS agents.

Multiple proxies can be configured with qualys_https_proxy or https_proxy environment

variables. It is recommended that you provide multiple proxies in the qualys_https_proxy

environment variable.

The following example shows how to set multiple proxies:

qualys_https_proxy=”https://[<username>:<password>@]<host1>:<port>;

https://[<username>:<password>@]<host2>:<port>;

https://[<username>:<password>@]<host3>:<port>”

Installation

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL and PAC Files - MacOS Agent

The list of proxies must be given in double quotes (“...”) and separated by a semi-colon (;),

and if ";" is embedded in username/password, you must url-encode it. You can use the

Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility to encrypt the user name and/or password that

you provide to the proxy environment variable.

You can combine multiple proxy certificates into a single file, and place it at same location

as earlier /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/Config/cert/ca-bundle.crt.

Ensure that all certificates are valid, else you might get SSL/certificate errors.

Installation

Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusions

Have Anti-Virus or HIPS software installed? To avoid conflicts with Cloud Agent, ensure

that you exclude the following files, directories, and processes from all security software

installed on the system. The following information applies to MacOS Agent 1.7 and later.

Directory list used by Cloud Agent installation

/etc/qualys

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/Frameworks

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/Docs

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/Info.plist

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/Resources

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/_CodeSignature

/Library/Application Support/QualysCloudAgent/Data

/Library/Application Support/QualysCloudAgent/Config

Agent daemon process “qualys-cloud-agent”

The agent runs as daemon process “qualys-cloud-agent”.

The agent runs various read-only commands during the scanning process. These are the

same commands run by a scan using a scanner appliance. Learn more

Some transient files are created during agent execution

/Library/Application Support/QualysCloudAgent/Data/*.db

- these are various sqlite DB files necessary for Qualys Cloud Agent functionality.

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/*.sh

- these are various utility scripts used by Qualys Cloud Agent

/Library/Application Support/QualysCloudAgent/Data/manifests/*.db

- this contains manifests used during agent based scans

Permissions for the Privacy Features and Service

MacOS 10.15 and onwards, applications need to be granted appropriate permissions for

privacy features and services.

QualysCloudAgent.app does not install kernel extensions (KEXT) or System Extensions.

QualysCloudAgent.app needs to be explicitly added to the allow list for below privacy

feature:

Enable Full Disk Access (FDA)

Installation

Permissions for the Privacy Features and Service

This privacy permission can be manually managed by users in System Preferences >

Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access.

To grant authorization for FDA for QualysCloudAgent.app with help of MDM like

Jamf/Meraki, use below Bundle Identifier and Team Identifier:

Bundle Identifier=com.qualys.cloud-agent

TeamIdentifier=CLRUMG7LZ6

Configuration Tool

Command line options

Configuration Tool

The Agent Configuration Tool gives you many options for configuring Cloud Agent for

MacOS. Our configuration tool allows you to:

- Provision agents

- Configure logging - set a custom log level and log file path

- Enable Sudo to run all data collection commands

- Configure the daemon to run as a specific user and/or group

- Change the ActivationID, CustomerID and/or platform configuration

The Agent will automatically pick up changes made through the configuration tool so

there is no need to restart the agent or reboot the agent host.

Configuration tool location:

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-cloud-agent.sh

Command line options

qualys-cloud-agent.sh supports these command line options.

Configuration option Description

ActivationId A valid activation key ID (UUID). This value is obtained

from the Cloud Agent UI (go to Activation Keys, select a key

then View Key Info). This parameter is required to provision

an agent.

CustomerId A valid customer ID (UUID). This value is obtained from the

Cloud Agent UI (go to Activation Keys, select a key then

Install Agent). This parameter is required to provision an

agent.

LogLevel A log level (0-5). A higher value corresponds to more

verbosity. Default is mapped to information (3).

0 - mapped to fatal

1 - mapped to error

2 - mapped to warning

3 - mapped to information

4 - mapped to debug

5 - mapped to trace

Note: In a debug/trace mode, the log file may contain

sensitive command-line parameters or passwords for

configuration files, if the passwords are in clear-text

format. Qualys recommends you use a password vault or

token-based authentication instead of storing passwords in

the configuration file. Storing passwords in configuration

files can result in non-compliance with ISO, SOC, PCI-DSS,

HIPAA, and FedRAMP guidelines.

Configuration Tool

Command line options

LogFileDir A full path to the log file. By default the path is

/var/log/qualys/

UseSudo Set to 1 to run all data collection commands using the sudo

escalation method. By default sudo is not used (0).

SudoCommand A command for privilege escalation such as

SudoCommand pbrun. If the command has spaces it must

be double quoted.

User A valid username if you want the daemon to run as a

certain user. The daemon will start as root but will drop to

the specified user, and continue running as the specified

user.

Group A valid group name if you want the daemon to run as a

certain group. The daemon will switch to the specified

group (if any).

HostIdSearchDir The directory where the host ID file is located. This file

contains a host ID tag assigned to the system by Qualys. By

default the directory is /etc/ and the location of the host ID

file is /etc/qualys/hostid

LogDestType The destination of log lines generated by MacOS Agent. Set

to file or syslog. If set to file specify the location of the log

file. By default the destination is a log file:

/var/log/qualys/qualys-cloud-agent.log

ServerUri Use this option to migrate the agent from one Qualys

subscription to another (on same POD or PCP).

ServerUri takes the URL of the Qualys shared Pod or PCP

you want to migrate the Agent to, in the following format:

ServerUri=<http_url>/CloudAgent

where <http_url> is the URL of the Qualys shared Pod or

PCP.

If the subscription is on the same POD, the ServerUri is the

same.

Use this option along with ActivationId and CustomerId in

order to move the agent to another Qualys shared Pod or

PCP.

Note: The agent requires the appropriate Activation ID and

Customer ID that are on the new subscription/platform.

The original IDs cannot be used as they are unique per

subscription.

CmdMaxTimeOut Execution of a command is dropped if the time taken to

execute is more than the specified value. Default timeout is

1800 seconds (30 minutes).

Configuration option Description

Configuration Tool

Command line options

ProcessPriority Specify the Linux niceness scale between -20 to 19 to set a

priority for the Qualys cloud agent process. The lower the

number the more priority the agent process gets. Default

value is zero.

QualysProxyOrder If you are using multiple proxies, set the proxy order to be

sequential or random.

Sequential: QualysProxyOrder=sequential OR

QualysProxyOrder=seq

Random: QualysProxyOrder=random

Configuration option Description

Configuration Tool

Use cases

Example 1 - Provision Agent

The following example shows how to provision Qualys Cloud Agent. Please note that this

method of activation will assume that root user should be used by the agent.

$ /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-cloud-

agent.sh

ActivationId="022224c8-31c7-11e5-b4f7-0021ccba987e"

CustomerId="146556fa-31c7-11e5-87b6-0021ccba987e"

Example 2 - Use non-root account

The following example shows how to configure Qualys Cloud Agent to use a non-root

account for running data collection commands.

$ /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-cloud-

agent.sh

ActivationId="022224c8-31c7-11e5-b4f7-0021ccba987e"

CustomerId="146556fa-31c7-11e5-87b6-0021ccba987e" UseSudo=1

User=scanuser

Group=wheel

Keep in mind - A new group needs to exist when the configuration command runs. The

expectation is that the non-root user will be added to the specified group to allow it to

access binary and temporary files that comprise Qualys Cloud Agent. In order to perform

unattended data collection the non-root user needs to have sudo privilege without a

password.

Example 3 - Raise logging level

It is also possible to instruct Qualys Cloud Agent to log events at a higher than normal

logging level using the following command:

$ /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-cloud-

agent.sh LogLevel=4

Note: We’ve omitted the ActivationID and CustomerID parameters to illustrate the

configuration tool can be used to adjust the log level after provisioning.

Best Practices

Upgrading Cloud Agent

Best Practices

Here are some best practices for managing your cloud agents. Refer to the Cloud Agent

Technical Whitepaper for additional documentation and best practices.

Upgrading Cloud Agent

The Qualys Cloud Platform can be used to upgrade agents to newer available versions

when agents check into the platform, depending on the settings in the Configuration

Profile.

Software distribution tools can package the Cloud Agent installer of a newer version to

upgrade already installed agents. In those cases the agents are not configured to auto-

upgrade versions.

Use following commands to upgrade your Cloud Agent:

sudo /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qagent_upgrade.sh

package_file

Where

package_file

is the installer of the agent version you want to upgrade to.

Note: If needed, restart agent using following command

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qagent_restart.sh

Uninstalling Cloud Agent

Uninstalling the agent from the Cloud Agent module UI or API

When you uninstall a cloud agent using the Cloud Agent module user interface or Cloud

Agent API, the agent and license is removed from the Qualys subscription. We’ll also purge

the associated agent host record and scan results for any licensed modules, i.e.

Vulnerability Management, Policy Compliance.

Uninstalling the agent from the host itself

When you uninstall a cloud agent from the host itself (using the uninstall utility), the

agent record, its license usage, and scan results are still present in the Qualys

subscription. In order to remove the agent’s host record, license, and scan results use the

Cloud Agent module user interface or Cloud Agent API to uninstall the agent.

Sample uninstall of agent using uninstall utility:

sudo /Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/

Contents/MacOS/qagent_uninstall.sh

Note: On macOS High Sierra (10.13), launchd takes some time to remove the

com.qualys.cloud-agent process, although the agent is already uninstalled.

Best Practices

Agentless Tracking and Cloud Agents

Say you’re already using Agentless Tracking on hosts and now you’re ready to install

Cloud Agent on the same hosts. You’ll want to use the same host ID tag installed on the

host. This will help you to avoid duplicate assets for the same host in your account.

You can configure the location of the host ID file installed on your MacOS hosts with the

recommended default of /etc (the agent will create/use a 'qualys' directory under /etc).

This is recommended best practice if you are interested in using MacOS Agent and

Agentless Tracking to evaluate the same host.

Once configured, the same file with the same host ID tag is accessed by our service when

the host is evaluated using 1) Agentless Tracking AND 2) Cloud Agent.

What are the steps?

1) Check your Unix authentication record

This is the record you’re using to access the system using Agentless Tracking. You’ll see

the location of the host ID file configured for the authentication record.

Want help with Agentless Tracking? Log into the Qualys Cloud Platform, go to Help >

Contact Support and search for Agentless Tracking.

2) Install the Agent

Use the agent configuration tool (qualys-cloud-agent.sh) and the HostIdSearchDir option

to install the MacOS Agent and configure the location of the host ID file. Be sure this

location matches the location defined in your authentication record. By default

HostIdSearchDir is set to /etc/. To stay consistent with the Agentless Tracking location

Qualys appends “/qualys/hostid” to the path provided.

Example - Install as root user and set host ID file to /mydir/qualys/hosted

$ /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh

ActivationId="022224c8-31c7-11e5-b4f7-0021ccba987e"

CustomerId="146556fa-31c7-11e5-87b6-0021ccba987e"

HostIdSearchDir="/mydir/"

How you can resolve this

1) Configure HostIdSearchDir for your agent

Configure the location of the host ID file using the agent configuration tool (qualys-cloud-

agent.sh) and the HostIdSearchDir option.

Example - Install as root user and set host ID file to /mydir/qualys/hostid

$ /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh HostIdSearchDir="/mydir/"

2) Uninstall duplicate agents not communicating

Click here for instructions.

Known issues

QualysCloudAgent under MacOS Applications

Known issues

Here are some known issues/limitations in the cloud agents.

QualysCloudAgent under MacOS Applications

MacOS 10.10.x may show the old Qualys logo for QualysCloudAgent under MacOS

Applications folder. Quick Look for QualysCloudAgent also displays the old Qualys logo.

Note: Qualys Cloud Agent is designed to run in the background and requires no user

interaction. As such you are advised not to try launching the Qualys Cloud Agent from the

Applications folder. The Qualys Cloud Agent should be already running in the background.

On Demand Scan

You can run an On Demand Scan to instruct the agent to immediately scan as long as the

agent is not already scanning. The On Demand Scan runs independently of the interval

scan that you configure in the Configuration Profile and will reset the scan interval on the

local agent after a successful scan.

Prerequisite: The agent must be activated for that specific Qualys application for which

you are running the On Demand Scan. When activated, the Agent downloads manifests

for that application from the Qualys platform; if the manifest is not present for that type,

On Demand Scan will not execute.

Use the cloudagentctl.sh script to run the OnDemand Scan. You’ll find this script at

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/.

># ./cloudagentctl.sh action={demand} type={vm|pc|inv|udc|sca|vmpc}

cputhrottle={0-1000}

Where action and type are mandatory parameters.

action is “demand”, meaning an On Demand Scan.

type is the application for which you want to run the scan (the agent must be activated for

the respective application first).

Note: "vmpc" is a legacy application manifest and most likely may not be present.

cputhrottle is 1-1000. Default is 0, which is no throttling.

For example, to initiate an On Demand Scan for the Vulnerability Management

application (VM) with no throttling:

># ./cloudagentctl.sh action=demand type=vm

The script calls the agent to run asynchronously in the background and returns to the

shell prompt. The script prints a ControlId that you can track in the log file. The ControlId

is the timestamp of the script initiation, e.g. On-Demand-Request ControlId:

20200427151136.0

The On Demand Scan logs to the same log file as the agent at /var/log/qualys/qualys-

cloud-agent.log. You can find the logging for the scan initiation and completion in the log

file.

2020-04-27 15:11:36.474 [qualys-cloud-

agent][9710]:[Information]:[140048573286144]:OnDemandRequest Params:

ControlID=20200427151136.0, Action=OnDemand, Type=VM, CPUThrottle=0"

If the agent is currently performing an interval scan for the same type, the On Demand

Scan will delay waiting for the currently running scan to finish. The script will print a log

line with this status.

2020-04-27 15:11:36.474 [qualys-cloud-

agent][9710]:[Information]:[140048573286144]:Interval Event of same type

is in progress with state INTERVAL_EVENT_SCAN

On Demand Scan

2020-04-27 15:11:36.474 [qualys-cloud-

agent][9710]:[Information]:[140048573286144]:OnDemand request for

Control ID : 20200427151136.0 will be delayed.

If the script errors due to the manifest file not being present, check whether the Cloud

Agent is activated for that particular application. If agent is activated but you still get

manifest related errors while running the On Demand Scan command, the agent may not

have downloaded the manifest for that application. You can manually force a manifest

download by deactivating then reactivating the agent for that application from the Cloud

Agent user interface module. If that doesn't correct the issue, contact Qualys Support.

Once an On Demand Scan is complete the results are logged in the log file located at

/var/log/qualys/qualys-cloud-agent.log.

Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility

You can use the Proxy Configuration Encryption utility to encrypt the user name and/or

password (as needed) that you provide to the proxy environment variable

qualys_https_proxy or https_proxy.

The string-util utility is included in the Cloud Agent installation package. Install or extract

the Cloud Agent installation package to get the utility.

The string-util utility is to be used once on any system where it's installed to encrypt the

values that will be used on all systems running Cloud Agent that have the same

credentials. It is not required to run the utility on each system running Cloud Agent.

Use the following command to run the utility to encrypt the user name and/or password.

If you want to encrypt both, run the utility twice to separately encrypt the user name and

password.

Note: You need root privileges to run string-util. If the user name or password contain

special characters (e.g., @, :, $) they need to be url-encoded prior to using the utility.

To encrypt the user name (use double quotes):

./string-util "<user name_to_be_encrypted>"

For example,

./string-util "sys_account"

To encrypt the password (use double quotes):

./string-util "<password_to_be_encrypted>"

The utility returns the user name or password in encoded format.

For example,

sRpSHQP582a1+gaJwHOm3g==

Provide the encrypted user name and password to your proxy environment variable.

qualys_https_proxy=https://[<#encrypted_username>:<#encrypted_password>@

]<host>[:<port>]

The # delimiter indicates to the Cloud Agent that the user name and password are

encrypted. Not including the # indicates that the user name and password are in plain text

format.

For example (only encrypting password):

qualys_https_proxy=https://sys_account:#[email protected]

yco.com:8080

Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility

For example (encrypting username and password):

qualys_https_proxy=https://#uWpsHMSY932b2+fdcH723d==:#sRpSHQP582a1+gaJwH

[email protected]:8080

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

The Qualys Cloud Agent for MacOS deployment using Microsoft Intune consist of two

main processes as follows:

- Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

- Qualys Cloud Agent Configuration

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

To add the Qualys Cloud Agent package for line-of-business apps:

- Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.

- In Microsoft Intune admin center, click Apps > All apps > Add. The Select app type pane

opens.

- In the Select app type pane, click Other > Line-of-business app.

- Click Select. The Add App page appears.

Complete the following steps on the Add App page.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

App Information

- On the Add App > App information page, click Select app package file to choose the

Qualys Cloud Agent package file. The App package file pane opens.

- In the App package file pane, upload Qualys Cloud Agent package file (.pkg) and click

OK. Other app information fields gets available to edit.

- On App information page, enter the app details.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

- Click Next to navigate to the Assignments page.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

Assignments

- To assign the groups, go to Assignments > Required > Add group. The Select groups

pane opens.

- On the Select groups pane, search group name to assign for cloud agent deployment. A

list of groups appears.

- Click the required group from the available list and click Select. You can select multiple

groups if required.

- You can view the selected groups in the right pane. If you want to remove a group from

selection, click delete symbol next the group name.

- On the Assignments page, click Next. Review + Create page opens.

-Alternatively, you can add groups in Available for enrolled devices option by following

same steps.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

Review + create

- Review the app information and click Create.

- You can navigate back using Previous button to edit the app information.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Installation

The Overview page displays that Qualys Cloud Agent is installed.

The next step is to create the shell script to configure the Qualys Cloud Agent.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Configuration

The procedure to create a shell script to configure the Qualys Cloud Agent is as follows:

- In Microsoft Intune admin center, click Devices > macOS > Shell scripts > Add.

- In Basics section, enter the following details:

– Name: Enter a name for the shell script.

– Description: Enter a description for the shell script. This setting is optional but

recommended.

– Click Next.

- In Script settings, enter the following details:

– Upload script: Browse to the shell script. Following is the sample script. Use valid

Customer ID and Activation ID.

#!/bin/sh

[[ -f /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh ]];

then /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh

ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx; else

/Applications/QualysCloudAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/qualys-cloud-

agent.sh ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx;

– Run the script as a signed-in user: Choose No to run the script as the root user.

– Hide script notifications on devices: Choose Not configured to hide script

notifications on devices.

– Script frequency: Choose Not configured to run a script only once.

– Max number of times to retry if the script fails: Select how many times the script

should run if it returns a non-zero exit code (zero meaning success). Choose Not

configured to not retry when a script fails.

– Click Next.

Note: The values selected for above fields are the default values. If any of the field does

not contain these values then set that field value to default.

- Click Assignments > Include Groups. The screen shows the list of available groups.

- Select the groups for which you want to deploy the script and click Select.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Configuration

- On Review + add page, review the configured settings. Click Add to deploy the shell

scripts to selected groups.

The newly created script appears in the list of scripts.

You can monitor the run status of all assigned scripts for devices by navigating to:

Scripts > Select the script to monitor > Device status.

Deployment using Microsoft Intune

Qualys Cloud Agent Configuration

The Overview page displays that shell script is successfully executed.