Qualys Cloud Agent for BSD Release 7.1
October 09, 2025
We are introducing the following new features and enhancements with the Cloud Agent for BSD Agent 7.1.
Support for New Qualys Applications
The Cloud Agent for BSD now supports the following Qualys Applications:
File Integrity Management
Qualys File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) is a cloud-based security solution designed to monitor and detect unauthorized changes to critical files, directories, and registry settings across IT environments.
For optimal performance of FIM we recommend a host asset with 4 Core CPU and 4GB RAM.
Qualys FIM offers the following benefits:
- Real-Time Monitoring: Tracks changes to files, folders, and registry objects in real time.
- Alerting & Reporting: Sends alerts for suspicious or unauthorized changes and generates detailed reports.
- Compliance Support: Helps meet standards like PCI DSS 4.0, HIPAA, and more.
| Required Application Version | File Integrity Monitoring 4.8.1 |
To learn more about FIM, refer File Integrity Monitoring Online Help.
Custom Assessment and Remediation
Qualys Custom Assessment and Remediation (CAR) provides a proactive approach to identifying vulnerabilities and executing custom scripts for rapid remediation. By leveraging automated assessments, role-based access control, and seamless script execution, CAR enhances security posture while eliminating the need for third-party tools.
CAR offers the following benefits:
- Centralized Risk Management: CAR can help you consolidate findings from multiple sources in an unified view. It also help you identify assets with blind spots, custom configurations, and zero-day vulnerabilities.
- Custom Script Execution: CAR supports multiple script languages like Python, PowerShell, Shell, Lua, Perl, and so on. You can execute these scripts as per pre-defined schedules or on demand for various platform such as Windows, Linux, MacOS, AIX, and BSD.
- Automated Remediation: CAR supports specifically designed orchestrated workflows which helps in remediating vulnerabilities faster without relaying on third party remediation tools.
| Required Application Version | Custom Assessment and Remediation 2.6.0 |
To learn more about CAR, refer to Custom Assessment and Remediation Online Help.
Enhancements for BSD Cloud Agent
We have upgraded the BSD Cloud Agent to support the following features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Change Activation Key | Use this feature to change the activation key assigned to a BSD Agent from the Cloud Agent user interface. To learn more about changing the activation key from the Cloud Agent user interface, refer to Change Activation Key. |
| On Demand Scan | Use this feature to launch a Cloud Agent scan instantly, directly from the Cloud Agent user interface. To learn more, refer to the On Demand Scan. |
| Troubleshooting | Use this feature to perform the troubleshooting actions on your Cloud Agents. The Cloud Agent for BSD has support for the following options to help you with troubleshooting: Remote Log Collection: A Remote Log Collection is an opt-in feature to allow Qualys Support to retrieve the Cloud Agent log files and send them to the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk™ Platform for debugging purposes. This feature helps to reduce resolution time for the support cases, especially where the users are remote, and Qualys admins do not have access to the assets where Cloud Agents are installed. Debug/Trace Logs: Using this option, you can enable trace-level logs for BSD agents for debugging purposes.Restart agent(s): Use this option to restart Cloud Agent directly from the Cloud Agent user interface. Refer Troubleshooting Options to learn more about Debug/Trace Logs and Restart agent(s). |
The above-mentioned enhancements for BSD Cloud Agent are available with Enterprise TruRisk™ Platform 3.22.0.0 and higher versions.
Behavioral Change
The following behavior changes are noticed for the BSD Cloud Agent 7.1:
- We are introducing the .pkg installer for BSD Cloud Agents. Previously, they had a .txz installer. Due to this change in installer type, BSD Cloud Agent v3.12 does not support auto-upgrade to the latest version 7.1.0. To use the latest version, upgrade the Cloud Agent manually or freshly install the latest version on your host assets.
- All the features available with BSD Cloud Agent 7.1.0 are also supported for the FreeBSD 13.x platform.
The BSD Cloud Agent 7.1.0 requires /etc/ssl/cert.pem for communicating with Qualys Platforms. Install the ca_root_nss package on your FreeBSD assets to obtain the /etc/ssl/cert.pem file.
Platform Coverage Support
We have extended BSD Cloud Agent support for the FreeBSD 14.x platform.
We recommend installing Cloud Agent for BSD v7.1.0 only for FreeBSD 13.x and 14.x platforms. Previous FreeBSD platforms are not recommended for Cloud Agent for BSD v7.1.0.
Issues Addressed
The following important and notable issues are fixed in this release.
| Component/Category | Issue Description |
|---|---|
| Cloud Agent Process | We fixed an issue where Cloud Agent processes were not starting automatically after booting or rebooting the system. |
| Cloud Agent Scans | We fixed an issue where Cloud Agent could not update the last scan date as the agent scans were getting terminated. |
Known Issues, Limitations, and Workarounds
We observed the following limitations for the BSD Cloud Agent:
Known Issues and Limitations for Cloud Agent
The following are the known issues for the BSD Cloud Agent 7.1.0:
- After installing or manually upgrading the BSD Cloud Agent, the agent processes do not start automatically until the Cloud Agent is provisioned or it is activated using the configuration script.
Use the following command to restart the BSD Cloud Agent after manual upgrades:
sudo service qualys-cloud-agent restart
Known Issues and Limitations for FIM
Qualys FIM has the following limitations when executing for the BSD Cloud Agent:
- FIM does not support the detection file access monitoring features for BSD Cloud Agents.
- The FIM user interface does not display the executed full command, as the BSD Cloud Agent does not report
proctitlein Audit Records for FreeBSD. - For FreeBSD platforms incomplete data from the Audit service can prevent the FIM event reporting. In some cases Cloud Agent may report FIM events incorrectly, due to insufficient audit data. When full audit data is available, FIM event reporting works fine.
The following are known issues for FIM with the BSD Cloud Agent 7.1.0.
- The vi editor, dd command, truncate command reports Create events, while creating a new file or editing an existing file.
- The vim editor reports the Write events while creating a new file or editing an existing file.
- The echo command with a single redirection (>) reports the Create event, for both new files and existing files.
- The echo command with a double redirection (>>) reports the Write event, for both new files and existing files.
- FIM reports the Write event for files created using the touch command instead of the Create event.
- FIM reports the Change event when a touch command is executed for the second time on an existing file.
- FIM reports the event type as File instead of Directory when a directory is renamed or deleted.