📚 cpe dict

Operations on CPE dictionaries: parse XML dictionary files and search within dictionaries.

A CPE dictionary is a collection of CPE items with metadata such as titles, references, and deprecation status. The official CPE dictionary is published by NIST as an XML file (official-cpe-dictionary_v*.xml).

The dict command is a parent command — it has no behavior of its own and requires one of its subcommands.

Usage

cpe dict <subcommand> [args]

Subcommands

Subcommand	Usage	Description
parse	cpe dict parse <xml-file>	Parse a CPE dictionary XML file and list its items.
search	cpe dict search <xml-file> <criteria-cpe>	Search within a CPE dictionary for items matching a criteria CPE.

Both subcommands inherit the global flags --output, -o (text/json) and --no-color. The parse subcommand honors the json output format; search always prints a text list.

Subcommand Map

The diagram below shows how cpe dict dispatches to its two subcommands and which library function each one calls.

cpe dict parse

cpe dict parse <xml-file>

Arguments

Argument	Description
<xml-file>	Path to a CPE dictionary XML file. Exactly one arg.

Behavior

Parses the XML file with ParseDictionary and prints:

• text (default): a header with Schema Version, Generated At, and Items count, followed by a numbered list of each item's Name, Title (if present), and Deprecated status (if deprecated).
• json: the full Dictionary struct, indented.

Example

cpe dict parse official-cpe-dictionary_v2.3.xml

Expected output:

CPE Dictionary
  Schema Version: 2.3
  Generated At:   2024-01-01T00:00:00Z
  Items:          1

1. cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:windows:10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
   Title: Microsoft Windows 10

JSON output:

cpe -o json dict parse official-cpe-dictionary_v2.3.xml

cpe dict search

cpe dict search <xml-file> <criteria-cpe>

Arguments

Argument	Description
<xml-file>	Path to a CPE dictionary XML file.
<criteria-cpe>	Criteria CPE string (2.2 or 2.3). Exactly two args total.

Behavior

Parses the XML file, parses the criteria CPE, and calls dict.FindItemsByCriteria(criteria, nil). Prints Found N matching item(s): followed by each item's Name and Title (if present).

Example

cpe dict search official-cpe-dictionary_v2.3.xml "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:windows:*"

Expected output:

Found 1 matching item(s):
1. cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:windows:10:*:*:*:*:*:*:* - Microsoft Windows 10

Related API Modules

• Dictionary — ParseDictionary, Dictionary, DictionaryItem, FindItemsByCriteria
• Parsing — parsing of the criteria CPE argument