Update Security Validation Components

Security Validation releases software patches, upgrades for Validation Platform system components, and hotfixes. Updates to the Director and Actors are installed by using the System Settings page on the Director.

Storage requirements

The Director and Actor both must have free storage space before you can apply an update:

• Director: 10 GB free
• Actor: 500 MB free

Director

You can use one of the following methods to upgrade your Director:

• Automatic download of an update on the Director
• Manual upload of an update to the Director

Enable automatic download of updates

1. Go to Settings > Director Settings. The Systems Settings page opens.
2. Expand Update Settings.
3. Select Enable Check for Updates and then populate the additional fields:
   • Notification Email Address: Specifies the email address at which you want to receive emails from the Director when updates are available.
   • Interval for Update Checks: Specifies how often, in seconds, the Director should check for updates. This defaults to 3600.
4. Click Update. The system automatically checks for updates, and download them when they are available. These updates are displayed in the System updates table.
   You can also manually check to see if an update is available. Both manual and automatic checks reach out to https://update.verodinservices.com. If there is an update available, the system downloads the most current compatible version available to the Director.
5. Click  Apply Update to update your system. A message displays asking you to confirm that the hash values match the update that you want to apply. If the hash value is correct, click OK.

Manually check and apply an update in the Director

1. Go to Settings > Director Settings. The Systems Settings page opens.

   If you are not certain that an update is available, click Check for Update. Otherwise, click Download Update.

   When the update has downloaded, it displays in the System Updates table.

2. Click Apply Update. A message displays asking you to confirm that the hash values match the update that you want to apply. If the hash value is correct, click OK.

   

   Confirm hash values

Update the Director by uploading the package

1. Download the patch file, verodin_DIRECTOR_VERSION.pkg, from Director Downloads.
2. Go to Settings > Director Settings. The Systems Settings page opens.
3. Click Browse next to Upload New System Update, and select the package.

4. Click Upload.

   This step uploads the package and add it to the system update table. To see the progress of the upload, hover over the Upload button. The Apply Update and Release Notes buttons appear when the upload is complete.

5. Click  Apply Update. A message displays asking you to confirm that the hash values match the update that you want to apply. If the hash value is correct, click OK.
   Once the Director is updated, verify the time service is running and then Update the Actors.

Actors, Protected Theaters, and Protected Actors

The Actors section of the System Settings page is where you update Actors, Protected Theaters, and Protected Actors. You can also check the Time Sync, Force Time Sync, and apply security patches. This can be done to an individual component or to all components that are listed in the section.

Update Actors

1. Go to Settings > Director Settings. The Systems Settings page opens.
2. Scroll to the Actors section and update the Actors by clicking Update Actor for each applicable Actor.
   • Actors are capable of having security updates applied through the Director web interface, but only updates that contain a new kernel release. All other security updates need to be applied manually to the Actors.
   • You can also check the Actors' versions and check  or force Time sync.

   After an MA-SV update, Mandiant recommends that you run these steps to update the Actor. That way, you are kept up to date even if there is a mismatch between the SaaS Director and Actor version. 

Update Protected Theater and Protected Actors

1. Go to Settings > Director Settings. The Systems Settings page opens.
2. Scroll to the Actors section and update the Protected Theater by clicking Update Actor.
3. After the Protected Theater update completes, locate the Protected Actor and then click Update Actor.
   You can also do the following on this page:

   • Apply security patches to Protected Theaters
   • Check the version and check or force Time syncs for the Protected Theater and Protected Actor

• For information about applying security patches, see Applying security updates to appliances.
• Click Check Version for a component to query the Director and confirm if the version that is being displayed for the component is the actual version of the component. Click Check Versions in the section header to check the version of all components in the table.

• All components also have Check Time Sync, which when clicked shows any difference between the time of the component and the time of the Director. Clicking Check Time Syncs in the section header checks the time information of all components in the table.

  The components having the same time as the Director, is necessary for a number of reasons, including being able to associate Events to their Job Actions.

• Appliance components also have Force Time Sync. Using this option updates the time on the component. If you are using an NTP server, it checks and sync to that. Otherwise, it syncs directly to the Director. Using the Force Time Syncs button in the section header updates the time for all appliance components in the table.

  Since installable software Actors must use System time, they are not included when you use Force Time Syncs. They also do not have Force Time Sync buttons associated with them.