Cloud Agent for Linux

Installation Guide
Agent Version 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 3.1, 3.3

July 12, 2021

Verity Confidential
Copyright 2016-2021 by Qualys, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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 Linux ........................................................................ 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
Credentials - what are my options? ...................................................................................... 7

Installation .......................................................................................................... 8
Tips and best practices ........................................................................................................... 8
How to download Agent Installer .......................................................................................... 9
Installation steps ................................................................................................................... 11
What you’ll need ............................................................................................................. 11
Steps to install Agents .................................................................................................... 11
Install Agents in Gold Images ........................................................................................ 12
What happens next? ....................................................................................................... 12
Troubleshooting .............................................................................................................. 12
Proxy configuration ............................................................................................................... 14
Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL (Linux Agent 2.5 or later) .......................... 15
Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusion / Whitelisting .................................................................... 16
Using the hostid from previous installation ....................................................................... 17

Configuration Tool...........................................................................................18
Command line options ......................................................................................................... 18
Use cases ................................................................................................................................ 21

On Demand Scan ............................................................................................22

Best Practices ..................................................................................................24
Upgrading Cloud Agent ......................................................................................................... 24
Uninstalling Cloud Agent ..................................................................................................... 24
Agentless Tracking and Cloud Agents ................................................................................ 25

Known Issues ...................................................................................................27

Verity Confidential
Certificate Support on RHEL 5.4 ................................................................ 28
Certificate Support on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 ....................................30
Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility ......................................................31
 Preface
About Qualys

Preface
Welcome to Qualys Cloud Agent for Linux. 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/.

5
 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 Linux. We’ll tell you
about Requirements, Installation Steps, Proxy Configuration, Anti-Virus and HIPS
Exclusion / Whitelisting, 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
anywhere - server, virtual machine, laptop, desktop or cloud instance.
Get informed quickly on Qualys Cloud Agent (CA).

Video Tutorials
Cloud Agent Platform Introduction (2m 10s)
Getting Started Tutorial (4m 58s)

Cloud Agent Platform Availability for Linux

Refer to the Cloud Agent Getting Started Guide for information on supported operating
systems and versions.

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 Linux, 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
- The Cloud Agent requires minimum 512 MB RAM if you are using VM/PC. Minimum 1GB
RAM is required for VM/PC + FIM.
- Minimum 200 MB of disk space is required.

6
 Get Started
Credentials - 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. You
might want to configure proxy settings for our agent to communicate with our cloud
platform.

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 RPM database). 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

Learn more
Troubleshooting
Error messages

Credentials - what are my options?

Use an account with root privileges
This is recommended as it gives the Cloud Agent for Linux enough privileges to gather
necessary information for the host system’s evaluation.

Use a non-root account with Sudo root delegation

Either the non-root user needs to have sudo privileges directly or through a group
membership. Be sure NOPASSWD option is configured.
Here is an example of agentuser entry in sudoers file (where “agentuser” is the user name
for the account you’ll use to install the Linux Agent):
%agentuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Use non-root account with sufficient privileges

The specific privileges needed are:
1) execute “rpm” for automatic update
2) agent requires certain commands to operate which varies environment to environment.
For permission related issues, refer the log files.

7
 Installation
Tips and best practices

Installation
It’s easy to install Cloud Agent for Linux. 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. Cloud
Agent can be installed into gold images including VM templates and cloud provider
images such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Platform.
The platform supports detection of duplicate agent IDs and automatically re-provisions
the duplicate agents. The section Install Agents in Gold Images describes how to install an
agent into a gold image without initial provisioning. This is the recommended method to
prevent duplicate asset records.
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
Installation steps
Proxy configuration
Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL (Linux Agent 2.5 or later)
Need to Bypass Proxy?
Using the hostid from previous installation
If you are reinstalling the agent on the same machine, and you want to reuse the earlier
hostid, set HostIdSearchDir to /root/hostdir.

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.

8
 Installation
How to download Agent Installer

Running the agent installer You’ll need to run the installer from an elevated command
prompt, or use a systems management tool using elevated privileges.
Be sure to activate agents to provision agents for modules - Vulnerability Management
(VM), Policy Compliance (PC), or File Integrity Monitoring (FIM). 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.
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.
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.
net-tools package You may need to install the net-tools package on agent endpoints, if not
already present, in order to run network commands. This is required on systems running
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and CentOS version 7.1 since some
commands like netstat, /sbin/ifconfig, route are deprecated.

How to download Agent Installer

Here’s how to download an installer from the Qualys Cloud Platform and get the
associated Activation ID and Subscription ID.

9
 Installation
How to download Agent Installer

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

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

Click Install instructions for the target host.

10
 Installation
Installation steps

What happens? The Agent installer

is downloaded to your local system,
and in the UI you’ll see the
associated Activation key ID and
Subscription ID - copy and paste this
to a safe place, you’ll need it to
complete the 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 Linux (.rpm) or Linux (.deb)
to get everything you need.
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 for x64. Depending on
the package(x64 or ARM64), following commands varies.
Linux (.rpm)
> sudo rpm -ivh qualys-cloud-agent.x86_64.rpm
> sudo /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh
ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Linux (.deb)
> sudo dpkg --install qualys-cloud-agent.x86_64.deb
> sudo /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh
ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

11
 Installation
Installation steps

Install Agents in Gold Images

These steps are similar to installing on Linux (.rpm) hosts, with an extra step to restart the
Qualys Cloud Agent service and AMI instance.
1. Start the Gold Image instance.
2. Copy the Qualys Cloud Agent RPM onto the instance.
3. Install the Qualys Cloud Agent RPM using the following command:
> sudo rpm -ivh qualys-cloud-agent.x86_64.rpm
4. Stop Qualys Cloud Agent service:
> sudo service qualys-cloud-agent stop

5. Run the Qualys Cloud Agent installation command:

> sudo /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/qualys-cloud-agent.sh
ActivationId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
CustomerId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

6. Stop the instance and create an image out of the instance. This completes the bake-in
process.
When the instance is started it will activate the Cloud Agent which will provision itself
and continue functioning as expected.

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.

Troubleshooting
You’ll find helpful information in Qualys online help.

Learn more
Troubleshooting
Error messages

Cloud agents installed on RHEL 5.4 may throw SSL communication errors while trying to
communicate with the Qualys Platform. This happens when the certificate files are not
present on the host asset. Click here for solution to fix the issue.

12
 Installation
Installation steps

Cloud agents installed on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 may throw a file not found error for
the certificate ca-bundle.crt when trying to communicate with the Qualys Platform. This
happens when the certificate files are not present on the host asset. Click here for solution
to fix the issue.

You might also be interested in...

Proxy configuration
Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL (Linux Agent 2.5 or later)
Need to Bypass Proxy?
Using the hostid from previous installation
If you are reinstalling the agent on the same machine, and you want to reuse the earlier
hostid, set HostIdSearchDir to /root/hostdir.

13
 Installation
Proxy configuration

Proxy configuration
Good to Know By default the Cloud Agent for Linux will operate in non-proxy mode. The
agent can be configured to use an HTTPS proxy for internet access.
Note:
- For Azure Security Center (ASC), use an HTTP proxy.
- If proxy connection fails then agent will NOT attempt a direct connection outbound (Fail
Closed).

What are my options?

The agent can be configured to use an HTTPS proxy in one of these ways:
1) /etc/sysconfig/qualys-cloud-agent - applies to Cloud Agent for Linux (.rpm)
2) /etc/default/qualys-cloud-agent - applies to Cloud Agent for Linux (.deb)
3) /etc/environment - applies to Cloud Agent for Linux (.rpm) and Linux (.deb)
Tip - Option 3) is a better choice if the systemwide proxy will be used by the agent.

Tell me the steps

Here are the steps to enable the Linux agent to use a proxy for communication with our
cloud platform:
1) if /etc/sysconfig/qualys-cloud-agent file doesn't exist create it
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:
Linux (.rpm)
chown <cloud_agent_user> /etc/sysconfig/qualys-cloud-agent
chmod 600 /etc/sysconfig/qualys-cloud-agent

Linux (.deb)

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 Installation
Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL (Linux Agent 2.5 or later)

chown <cloud_agent_user> /etc/default/qualys-cloud-agent

chmod 600 /etc/default/qualys-cloud-agent

Where <cloud_agent_user> is a user configured through the Configuration Tool.

4) restart qualys-cloud-agent service using the following command:
service qualys-cloud-agent restart

Need to Bypass Proxy?

By default the Cloud Agent for Linux will operate in non-proxy mode. 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 /etc/environment. 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 Linux agent to use a no_proxy for communication with
our cloud platform:
1) Edit /etc/environment file.
2) Add following line (bold faced) where qualys_https_proxy is mentioned:
qualys_https_proxy=https://[<username>:<password>@]<host>[:<port>]
no_proxy=<pod domain name>

Note: For init.d based systems, you need to prefix 'export' to ‘no_proxy’ line.

Multiple Proxy Server support in Proxy URL (Linux Agent 2.5 or

later)
The Cloud Agent has support for multiple proxy servers defined in the Proxy URL. 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.
You can configure multiple proxies in any of the files mentioned in the section What are
my options?

15
 Installation
Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusion / Whitelisting

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>”

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 /etc/qualys/cloud-agent/cert/ca-bundle.crt. Ensure that all certificates are valid,
else you might get SSL/certificate errors.

Anti-Virus and HIPS Exclusion / Whitelisting

Have Anti-Virus or HIPS software installed? It's required that the following files,
directories, and processes are excluded or whitelisted in all security software installed on
the system in order to prevent conflicts with the Cloud Agent.

Directory list used by Cloud Agent installation

/etc
/etc/init.d
/etc/qualys
/etc/qualys/cloud-agent
/etc/qualys/cloud-agent/.centos
/etc/qualys/cloud-agent/cert
/etc/qualys/cloud-agent/.suse
/etc/qualys/cloud-agent/.systemd
/usr/local
/usr/local/qualys
/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent
/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin
/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/lib
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/qualys-cloud-agent-<version>

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
https://community.qualys.com/message/16520

16
 Installation
Using the hostid from previous installation

Some transient files are created during agent execution

/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/Config.db
- this is the current agent configuration
/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/manifests/*.db
- this contains manifests used during agent based scans

Using the hostid from previous installation

If you are reinstalling an agent on a host and you wish to use the same hostid used in the
previous installation, set the hostid directory location to the same location used in the
previous installation.
For example, let's say in the previous installation you use HostIdSearchDir=/root/hostdir
while setting the activation key, it creates hostid under /root/hostdir/qualys/. When you
uninstall the agent it doesn't remove /root/hostdir/qualys/hostid.
If you are reinstalling the agent on the same machine, and you want to reuse the earlier
hostid, set HostIdSearchDir to /root/hostdir.

17
 Configuration Tool
Command line options

Configuration Tool
The Agent Configuration Tool gives you many options for configuring Cloud Agent for
Linux after installation. You’ll find this tool at /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/qualys-
cloud-agent.sh.
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.
Note: While switching from low privileged user to high privileged user, it is not
recommended to directly run the configuration tool on the already running agents. The
user should first stop the agent and then run the configuration tool to switch to a high
privileged user.

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 to report only errors (0).
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).
Limitations of using UseSudo=1
SudoCommand A command for privilege escalation such as
SudoCommand pbrun. If the command has spaces it must
be double quoted.

18
 Configuration Tool
Command line options

Configuration option Description

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 (Available using Linux Agent 1.3.3 and later) 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 (Available using Linux Agent 1.3.3 and later) The
destination of log lines generated by Linux 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).
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.

19
 Configuration Tool
Command line options

Configuration option Description

UseAuditDispatcher Set UseAuditDispatcher to 1 if you want to run FIM along
with auditd enabled.
Agent version 2.0.2 required auditd to be disabled on the
host. These agents when upgraded to 2.1 through selfpatch
retain this setting where UseAuditDispatcher is set to 0.
Agents with 1.x version are set with UseAuditDispatcher=1
on selfpatch to 2.1. Fresh installation of 2.1 agent comes
with UseAuditDispatcher=1 (by default) where you can run
FIM along with auditd enabled.
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
MaxRandomScanInterval This option will enable the Agent to upload at the
configured VM scan interval and adding a randomized
interval. The random interval can be any value between 0
and the configured MaxRandomScanInterval seconds.
MaxRandomScanInterval can be set to any value between
0 (default) to 4294967295

Limitations of using UseSudo=1

If you configure the cloud agent for UseSudo=1 to run commands using the sudo
escalation method, you may face any of the following issues:
- Commands run by the cloud agent or any script added in the cloud agent manifest, fail
to get the custom path set in the PATH environment.
- Scan results show empty values for service_list, bios_info, and service_info, when the
agents fails to find related path in the PATH environment.
This happens because when you set UseSudo=1, the agent tries to find the custom path in
the secure_path parameter located in the /etc/sudoers file. If this parameter is not set, the
agent then tries to find the custom path in the path that is used when you run sudo sh.
To resolve this issue, add your custom path or the path used by the agent while scanning
for service_list, bios_info, and service_info, to the secure_path parameter. If you have
disabled secure_path parameter, add the respective paths to the path that is used when
you run sudo sh.
Alternatively, you can configure the agent for UseSudo=0.
Note: For RHEL platforms, if you run argument UseSudo=0 with agent configuration tool
and do revocation, qualys-cloud-agent process is still running in background. Ideally,
qualys-cloud-agent process should have stopped after revocation. This is known
limitation with UseSudo=0 while it works for UseSudo=1.

20
 Configuration Tool
Use cases

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

Example 4 – Change platform

The following example shows how to configure Qualys Cloud Agent to re-provision to a
new platform:
qualys-cloud-agent.sh ActivationId="022224c8-31c7-11e5-b4f7-
0021ccba987e" CustomerId="146556fa-31c7-11e5-87b6-0021ccba987e"
ServerUri="https://qagpublic.qg2.apps.qualys.com/CloudAgent"

21
 On Demand Scan

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
/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin/.
># ./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

22
 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.

23
 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:
Linux RPM based system
rpm -Uvh package_file.rpm

Linux Debian based system

dpkg -i package_file.deb

Note: If needed, restart agent using /usr/local/qualys/cloud-

agent/bin/qagent_restart.sh command.

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.
Linux RPM based system
sudo rpm -e qualys-cloud-agent

Linux Debian based system

sudo dpkg --purge qualys-cloud-agent

24
 Best Practices
Agentless Tracking and Cloud Agents

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 Linux 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 Linux 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 Linux 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/"

25
 Best Practices
Agentless Tracking and Cloud Agents

26
 Known Issues

Known Issues
Here are some known issues/limitations in the cloud agents.
– FIM rules displayed using the command auditctl do not show system calls. The
rules work successfully even though system calls are not seen.
– There is audit limitation to set the full directory path while configuring profile for
FIM. You can set the limited path in the Rule Details from module - FIM >
Configuration > Profiles. Use Case: If you have a file (for example, a file with
filename) under directory /root/test/directoryname and if you delete
directoryname, audit system does not provide correct file path. In that case the
file present with /root/test/directoryname/filename is considered as
/root/test/filename by fimc process.
– Audit rules should not have rules to exclude EOE and CWD audit records in order
to parse a event in the agent. You need to restart your agent after removing these
rules.
– For CentOS 7.6.1810, rename event with mv command does not work if you have
created FIM config profile with rule to rename a directory or a file.
– Cloud Agent with version 3.0 or later terminates when user configures invalid
sudo command using qualys-cloud-agent.sh script or HostID file has insufficient
permissions.
– If the remediation manifest is received during polling before clone detection, it will
be executed by both the agents. If the clone machine acknowledges manifest
before the master starts polling, master agent won't receive remediation manifest,
but the status will be updated as per status reported by the clone instance.
– Remediation manifest execution fails if you switch from root user to non-sudo
user while execution is in progress. You must execute the remediation manifest
with the root user.

27
 Certificate Support on RHEL 5.4

Certificate Support on RHEL 5.4

Cloud agent installed on RHEL 5.4 may throw this error while trying to communicate with
the Qualys Platform. This happens when the certificate files are not present on the host
asset.
Http request failed: Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with
given CA certificates: SSL certificate problem: unable to get
local issuer certificate

To fix this issue, you must manually create the certificate files, and place them in the
appropriate location on the host asset.
Create the two cert files: cert1.crt and cert2.crt. Paste the contents in a text editor, and
then save the file with the extension “.crt”.
Use the following commands to append the contents of cer1.crt and cert2.crt at the end of
/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
cat cert1.crt >> /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
cat cert2.crt >> /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

Now restart the QAgent Service.

cert1.crt
subject= /C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/CN=DigiCert SHA2 Secure Server CA
issuer= /C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/OU=www.digicert.com/CN=DigiCert Global Root CA
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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28
 Certificate Support on RHEL 5.4

CwUAA4IBAQAjPt9L0jFCpbZ+QlwaRMxp0Wi0XUvgBCFsS+JtzLHgl4+mUwnNqipl
5TlPHoOlblyYoiQm5vuh7ZPHLgLGTUq/sELfeNqzqPlt/yGFUzZgTHbO7Djc1lGA
8MXW5dRNJ2Srm8c+cftIl7gzbckTB+6WohsYFfZcTEDts8Ls/3HB40f/1LkAtDdC
2iDJ6m6K7hQGrn2iWZiIqBtvLfTyyRRfJs8sjX7tN8Cp1Tm5gr8ZDOo0rwAhaPit
c+LJMto4JQtV05od8GiG7S5BNO98pVAdvzr508EIDObtHopYJeS4d60tbvVS3bR0
j6tJLp07kzQoH3jOlOrHvdPJbRzeXDLz
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

cert2.crt
subject= /C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/OU=www.digicert.com/CN=DigiCert Global Root CA
issuer= /C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/OU=www.digicert.com/CN=DigiCert Global Root CA
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

29
 Certificate Support on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11

Certificate Support on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11

Cloud agent installed on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 may throw the following error for the
certificate ca-bundle.crt when trying to communicate with the Qualys Platform. This
happens when the certificate files are not present on the host asset.
[qualys-cloud-agent][8056]:[Error]:Http request failed:Problem
with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?): error setting
certificate verify locations:
CAfile: /etc/ssl/ca-bundle.crt
CApath: none

To fix this issue, you must manually install the certificate files in the appropriate location
on the host asset. You can either use the certificate files from your existing RHEL or
CentOS assets or download the certificate files from the following location:
https://curl.haxx.se/docs/caextract.html
Download the file cacert.pem and rename it to ca-bundle.pem.
Copy the certificate files (ca-bundle.pem) at the following default location on SUSE Linux
Enterprise 11:
/etc/ssl/

If you want to use a non default location, ensure that the directory path is added in the
/etc/qualys/cloud-agent/qagent.config file in the following manner:
{
"os": "Suse",
"cafile": "<CustomizedPath>"
}
Now restart the QAgent Service.

30
 Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility

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.
To use the encryption utility:
Go to /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/bin, and then export the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable
to /usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/lib.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/qualys/cloud-agent/lib

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==

Once you get the encrypted user name add/or password, unset the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
variable by using the following command:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=

31
 Proxy Configuration Encryption Utility

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

For example (encrypting username and password):

qualys_https_proxy=https://#uWpsHMSY932b2+fdcH723d==:#sRpSHQP582a1+gaJwH
[email protected]:8080

32