Get started with Application Security

To start monitoring the security issues of third-party libraries in your environment, follow the instructions below.

Prerequisites

• OneAgent version 1.241

Note: Application Security isn't supported for Dynatrace Managed in offline mode.

Supported technologies

Dynatrace detects third-party vulnerabilities in the following technologies.

Set up Application Security

Activate Application Security

Assign permissions

Enable Vulnerability Analytics

Control Vulnerability Analytics by technology

Activate Application Security

Dynatrace Application Security is licensed based on the consumption of Application Security units. If you’re already a Dynatrace customer and you want to activate Application Security, contact a Dynatrace product specialist via in-product chat or speak to your account executive. Our DevOps team will evaluate your environment and then activate Application Security.

Assign permissions

You need to assign Security admin permission to users who will be allowed to view and manage vulnerabilities.

Note: For Managed environments, you need to assign Manage security problems permission instead.

To assign Security admin permission

1. In Dynatrace, open the user menu in the upper-right corner of the page and go to Account settings > Identity management > User management.

For more information on user permissions, see Manage user groups and permissions.

Enable Vulnerability Analytics

To enable Application Security, you need to enable its Vulnerability Analytics functionality.

1. In the Dynatrace menu, go to Application Security > Vulnerabilities and select Activate settings.

2. Select Enable Runtime Vulnerability Analytics.

   Note: This functionality consumes Application Security units. For details, see Application Security Monitoring.

Control Vulnerability Analytics by technology optional

After you enable Vulnerability Analytics, Dynatrace starts generating vulnerabilities for all supported technologies by default. To control which of these technologies should receive vulnerabilities

1. In the Dynatrace menu, go to Settings and select Application Security > Vulnerability Analytics > General settings.

2. Enable or disable technologies as needed.

   Note: Runtime technologies (for example, Java, Node.js, and .NET runtimes) are tied to the corresponding main technology (for example, Java and Node.js). If the main technology is disabled, the corresponding runtime technology is automatically disabled. If you enable the main technology, enabling the corresponding runtime technology is optional.

3. Select Save changes to save your configuration.

After enabling and configuring the Application Security and OneAgent features, you can start monitoring vulnerabilities of your third-party libraries in Dynatrace.

Note: For existing users, if you encounter issues after enabling and configuring Application Security, see Troubleshoot Application Security.

Application Security overview

After you enable and configure the Application Security and OneAgent features, Dynatrace starts monitoring your applications to detect vulnerabilities in third-party libraries.

• A spinning radar screen in the upper-right corner of the Security overview page indicates that your environment is being monitored. If the radar stops, you are warned that Monitoring stopped. Please check settings. Follow the associated link to enable Vulnerability Analytics.

  

For an overview of current security issues in your global environment, in the Dynatrace menu, go to Security overview. The Application Security overview page displays the following information.

Note: For security reasons, access to this page is restricted to users who are part of the Security admin group for the whole environment, not just for a selected set of management zones.

Infographic of the key features

• In the foreground, a count of the most severe open vulnerabilities. Select it to navigate to the Third-party vulnerabilities list, filtered by the respective vulnerabilities.
• The number of currently open vulnerabilities in your global environment:
  • The total number of open vulnerabilities
  • The number of open but muted vulnerabilities
  • The number of open vulnerabilities with critical, high, medium, and low risk level. Select any of them to navigate to the Third-party vulnerabilities list, filtered by the respective risk level.
• Host coverage: the percentage of hosts covered by Vulnerability Analytics during the last hour. For instructions on how you can increase host coverage, see Increase host coverage.

Risk level

The maximum number of vulnerabilities in your global environment that were open each day over the last 30 days, split by risk level. To refine the chart by risk level, select chart legend entries.

Vulnerabilities

A chart of the third-party vulnerabilities in your global environment over the last 30 days. You can see when a vulnerability was opened, reopened, resolved, or muted. To refine the chart by risk level, select chart legend entries.

Affected process groups

The top five affected process groups sorted by severity:

• The name of the process group with a link to the associated process group details page
• The corresponding technology
• The number of vulnerabilities affecting that process group out of the total number of vulnerabilities related to it.

For deeper insights, see Monitor third-party vulnerabilities.