oscal 0.1.1

Serde types for the OSCAL (Open Security Controls Assessment Language) data models. Generated from the official NIST Metaschema, covering all seven OSCAL document types. Ships embedded community catalogs for AI governance and security frameworks.
Documentation

oscal-rs

crates.io docs.rs CI

Rust types for the OSCAL (Open Security Controls Assessment Language) data models, generated directly from the official NIST OSCAL Metaschema.

What is OSCAL?

OSCAL is an XML/JSON schema standard published by NIST for expressing security control catalogs, component descriptions, system security plans, and assessment results in machine-readable form. It is the required format for FedRAMP authorizations and is widely used in CMMC, HIPAA, and enterprise GRC tooling.

How types are generated

[ NIST Metaschema XML ]
         │
         ▼
  oscal-metaschema-gen  ← parses XML into an IR
         │
         ▼
   quote + syn + rustfmt  ← emits syntactically valid Rust
         │
         ▼
  crates/oscal/src/generated/types.rs  ← checked in

When NIST updates the schema, run cargo run -p oscal-metaschema-gen to regenerate. A weekly CI workflow opens a pull request automatically when the upstream schema changes.

Quick Start

[dependencies]
oscal = "0.1"

use oscal::load_catalog;

fn main() -> Result<(), String> {
    let catalog = load_catalog("nist-800-171")?;

    for control in catalog.all_controls() {
        println!("{}: {}", control.id, control.title);
        if let Some(stmt) = control.statement() {
            println!("  {stmt}");
        }
    }
    Ok(())
}

Embedded Catalogs

Eight community-authored OSCAL catalog JSON files are compiled into the binary and available via [load_catalog]:

Name Framework
nist-800-171 NIST SP 800-171 Rev 3 — CUI protection (CMMC Level 2)
nist-800-172 NIST SP 800-172 Rev 3 — enhanced CUI (CMMC Level 3)
nist-ai-rmf NIST AI Risk Management Framework
eu-ai-act EU AI Act compliance controls
iso-42001 ISO/IEC 42001 AI management system
hipaa HIPAA Security Rule
fda-samd FDA SaMD guidance controls
nist-800-207 NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture

Generated Models

All seven OSCAL document types are covered:

OSCAL model Top-level type
Catalog Catalog
Component Definition ComponentDefinition
Profile Profile
System Security Plan SystemSecurityPlan
Assessment Plan AssessmentPlan
Assessment Results AssessmentResults
Plan of Action and Milestones PlanOfActionAndMilestones

All types derive Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Serialize, and Deserialize. Every assembly also ships a builder: Catalog::builder() returns a CatalogBuilder.

Strong Primitive Types

OSCAL's rich data types map to Rust types that carry semantic meaning:

OSCAL type Rust type
uuid uuid::Uuid
date-time-with-timezone chrono::DateTime<Utc>
uri url::Url
uri-reference oscal::UriReference (relative-safe wrapper)
markup-line oscal::MarkupLine
markup-multiline oscal::MarkupMultiline

Regenerating Types

# Fetch latest NIST metaschemas (first time or to update)
BASE=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usnistgov/OSCAL/main/src/metaschema
for f in oscal_catalog_metaschema.xml oscal_assessment-results_metaschema.xml \
         oscal_component_metaschema.xml oscal_profile_metaschema.xml \
         oscal_ssp_metaschema.xml oscal_poam_metaschema.xml \
         oscal_assessment-plan_metaschema.xml oscal_complete_metaschema.xml \
         oscal_metadata_metaschema.xml oscal_control-common_metaschema.xml \
         oscal_assessment-common_metaschema.xml oscal_implementation-common_metaschema.xml; do
  curl -fsSL "${BASE}/${f}" -o "metaschemas/${f}"
done

# Run the generator
cargo run -p oscal-metaschema-gen

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. The most useful additions are:

  • Corrections to generated type mappings or serde attributes
  • Additional embedded catalog JSON files for frameworks not yet covered
  • Improvements to the oscal-metaschema-gen parser (better handling of edge cases)
  • Hand-written impl blocks in crates/oscal/src/impls.rs for traversal utilities

Please open an issue before large structural changes.

Origin

Extracted from agentcarousel, a behavioral testing and compliance attestation tool for AI agents.

License

Licensed under either of:

at your option.