Listing built-in policies will now hide older versions, unless -v is used.

src/ssh_audit/policy.py

@@ -513,18 +513,46 @@ macs = %s
         server_policy_descriptions = []
         client_policy_descriptions = []
 
+        latest_server_policies: Dict[str, Dict[str, Union[int, str]]] = {}
+        latest_client_policies: Dict[str, Dict[str, Union[int, str]]] = {}
         for policy_name, policy in BUILTIN_POLICIES.items():
-            policy_description = ""
+
-            if verbose:
+            # If not in verbose mode, only store the latest version of each policy.
-                policy_description = "\"{:s}\": {:s}".format(policy_name, policy['changelog'])
+            if not verbose:
-            else:
                 policy_description = "\"{:s}\"".format(policy_name)
 
-            if policy['server_policy']:
+                # Truncate the version off the policy name and obtain the version as an integer. (i.e.: "Platform X (version 3)" -> "Platform X", 3
-                server_policy_descriptions.append(policy_description)
+                policy_name_no_version = ""
-            else:
+                version = 0
-                client_policy_descriptions.append(policy_description)
+                version_pos = policy_name.find(" (version ")
+                if version_pos != -1:
+                    policy_name_no_version = policy_name[0:version_pos]
+                    version = int(cast(str, policy['version']))  # Unit tests guarantee this to be parseable as an int.
 
+                d = latest_server_policies if policy['server_policy'] else latest_client_policies
+                if policy_name_no_version not in d:
+                    d[policy_name_no_version] = {}
+                    d[policy_name_no_version]['latest_version'] = version
+                    d[policy_name_no_version]['description'] = policy_description
+                elif version > cast(int, d[policy_name_no_version]['latest_version']):  # If an updated version of the policy was found, replace the old one.
+                    d[policy_name_no_version]['latest_version'] = version
+                    d[policy_name_no_version]['description'] = policy_description
+            else:  # In verbose mode, return all policy versions.
+                policy_description = "\"{:s}\": {:s}".format(policy_name, policy['changelog'])
+                if policy['server_policy']:
+                    server_policy_descriptions.append(policy_description)
+                else:
+                    client_policy_descriptions.append(policy_description)
+
+        # Now that we have references to the latest policies only, add their full descriptions to the lists for returning.
+        if not verbose:
+            for _, dd in latest_server_policies.items():
+                server_policy_descriptions.append(cast(str, dd['description']))
+
+            for _, dd in latest_client_policies.items():
+                client_policy_descriptions.append(cast(str, dd['description']))
+
+        # Sort the lists for better readability.
         server_policy_descriptions.sort()
         client_policy_descriptions.sort()
         return server_policy_descriptions, client_policy_descriptions

src/ssh_audit/ssh_audit.py

@@ -782,7 +782,7 @@ def list_policies(out: OutputBuffer, verbose: bool) -> None:
         out.fail("Error: no built-in policies found!")
     else:
         out.info("\nHint: Use -P and provide the full name of a policy to run a policy scan with.\n")
-        out.info("Hint: Use -L -v to also see the change log for each policy.\n")
+        out.info("Hint: Use -L -v to see the change log for each policy, as well as previous versions.\n")
         out.info("Note: the general OpenSSH policies apply to the official releases only. OS distributions may back-port changes that cause failures (for example, Debian 11 back-ported the strict KEX mode into their package of OpenSSH v8.4, whereas it was only officially added to OpenSSH v9.6 and later).  In these cases, consider creating a custom policy (-M option).\n")
         out.info("Note: instructions for hardening targets, which correspond to the above policies, can be found at: <https://ssh-audit.com/hardening_guides.html>\n")
     out.write()

test/test_policy.py

@@ -52,6 +52,14 @@ class TestPolicy:
             version_str = " (version %s)" % BUILTIN_POLICIES[policy_name]['version']
             assert policy_name.endswith(version_str)
 
+            # Ensure version field is a string, but can be parsed as an integer.
+            version_field = BUILTIN_POLICIES[policy_name]['version']
+            assert type(version_field) is str
+            try:
+                int(version_field)
+            except ValueError:
+                assert False, "version field of %s policy is not parseable as an integer." % policy_name
+
             # Ensure no extra fields are present.
             assert len(required_fields) == len(BUILTIN_POLICIES[policy_name])