The three phrases "development, operations, and security" are combined to form the ideology of DevOps securityEliminating any obstacles between software development and IT operations is the aim.
The need for continuous team communication and teamwork cannot be overstated when writing code and developing applications. Well-written code might run smoothly on the developer's computer. Still, the program also needs to scale and perform well for clients and staff in a business.
An approach to continuous deployment usually drives DevOps. Development teams can add features and resolve defects to enable software to be distributed continually in faster cycles without interfering with the user experience or business activities.
Because developers frequently rely on tools, frameworks, libraries, and software development kits (SDKs) created by outside suppliers, security can become a significant concern. Third-party code may have security flaws that developers can't fix before using it.
Close collaboration between IT and development teams results in software releases with fewer bugs. Moreover, while organizing new features and rollouts, each group can consider the other's needs. DevOps has revolutionized the IT and software development industries.
What Are Some DevOps Security Challenges?
DevOps brings new levels of efficiency and breaks down divisions in the software development process. Still, its adoption can be contentious and challenging to execute. For example, the abrupt merging of engineering and IT might lead to cultural disruptions because these two departments have historically been treated as independent, separate entities. For an IT administrator, what would be a reasonable turnaround time is viewed differently by a developer.
The discovery of an incident, such as a security breach often reveals DevOps's failure. One instance is the Uber hack. In order to obtain login credentials that let them access Uber's Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment, hackers broke into the company's private repository on GitHub. The attackers found the critical rider and driver data they were looking for within AWS.
Security is not often the responsibility of developers. The Uber developers would have been informed that posting usernames and passwords to a GitHub repository-even a secret one-was not a brilliant idea if they had a DevOps security framework in place.
Rapid and safe releases are made possible by a secure DevOps environment that uses various tools, procedures, and policies. To ensure that no credentials were still encoded in the code, a last security scan should have been carried out in Uber's case. The best security controls are implemented at every application development life cycle stage with DevOps.
Organizational Opposition
Developers may experience delays and frustrations when writing code that considers security. On the other hand, because the application is frequently fully designed for them with few alterations needed, IT administrators might not be accustomed to working directly with developers. It takes time for both sides to comprehend one another's mechanisms.
Security Vulnerabilities In The Cloud
Software vulnerabilities can grow exponentially when it is developed in the cloud. It may be used for more conventional security point solutions, such as firewalls, which cannot offer total cloud security. Because of this, the programs and tools used to secure DevOps depend on cloud-based resources and could be vulnerable.
Legacy Infrastructure
Regretfully, many businesses rely on antiquated infrastructure, which produces a hybrid environment when paired with cloud-based services. These mixed settings might not adhere to DevOps process requirements and are frequently complex.
Recruiting
Talent is another obstacle in the DevOps establishment process. There is an excellent need for DevOps engineers. According to ZipRecruiter, the average yearly compensation for a senior DevOps engineer is more than $134,000. If a company doesn't find talent, it might have to teach its current employees, which could be less expensive but take longer and affect everyday operations and software delivery timelines.
What Is DevSecOps?
A methodology called DevSecOps integrates security into the software development lifecycle. The core idea is that software developers and IT administrators must share responsibility for security, frequently including automated security chores in DevOps operations.
Application security in devops was not always a top concern for developers. Typically, security concerns were raised after an application was created. The developers reasoned that customers installing firewalls and antivirus software, which third parties developed, would suffice to secure an IT system.
However, as cybercrime has become more prevalent and sophisticated, vulnerabilities in certain goods and applications have come to light. Companies' expenses, both in terms of money and reputation, surged. This forced the engineering and IT departments to work together to incorporate security elements into programs from the beginning of development and then on an ongoing basis when new features and updates were released.
DevOps vs. DevSecOps
There are similarities between DevOps and DevSecOps.
Communications And Collaboration
They both understand that collaboration is critical to both production quality and speed. Both utilize the agile framework to facilitate an ongoing, dynamic work process that promotes candid communication and teamwork throughout the development lifecycle.
Automation
Both embrace automation, utilizing software to do jobs that would otherwise require laborious physical labor. Automation speeds up the time it takes for DevOps and DevSecOps to accomplish their goals.
Continuous Processes
Although the development cycle has different phases, continuous procedures are embraced by both DevOps and DevSecOps to guarantee that goals are achieved. There are no bottlenecks since there are no silos. Collectively, they consistently:
- Deliver new features, software updates, or entirely new applications
- Test and refactor the codebase
- Monitor and analyze the quality of the codebase and the strength of the security perimeter
- Merge the updated codebase with a secure repository
Also Read: DevOps Practices: Worth the Investment? Maximize Efficiency with These Proven Strategies!
DevOps Security Best Practices
Embrace A DevSecOps Model
Teams must cooperate and communicate with one another for the model to work; otherwise, failure will result. Vulnerable code is the biggest failure, but even a tiny misconfiguration might open the door to an attack. When the DevOps and IT teams prioritize codebase security, everyone is on the same page and responsible for producing the safest code possible.
Policy And Governance
Although DevOps security may represent a new requirement for the engineering and IT teams, it should adhere to the organization's broader enterprise security, governance, and compliance guidelines. This guarantees that the produced and deployed code satisfies the security needs of the enterprise.
Automate Your DevOps Security Processes And Tools
Reviewing every line of code for potential vulnerabilities gets harder and harder as the codebase gets larger. Teams can continuously manage and configure potential hazards with automated security tools. This allows security testing to be completed at the typical DevOps speed without sacrificing quality. Moreover, automation reduces the possibility of human error.
Comprehensive Discovery
It is vital to have visibility into every resource used in the development and delivery of software. To handle hundreds of security groups and server instances, DevOps teams are depending more and more on new, open-source solutions that are publicly available. These technologies spread throughout the cloud, where cloud security may be a concern and must be shared with IT security teams. A DevOps security approach must provide visibility over all these elements to guarantee that every device, tool, account, instance, container, and credential complies with the organization's policies.
Vulnerability Management
Before the code is released, all vulnerabilities must be found and fixed. Tests on the production version can be conducted by DevOps security to see if any problems arise. If they do, the teams can work on security fixes or patches.
Configuration Management
A single setup error can quickly infiltrate a sizable codebase. DevOps environments move fast. Therefore, teams must find and fix configuration mistakes as soon as possible. All codebases ought to follow the practice of continuous configuration.
DevOps Secrets Management
DevOps teams automate software deployment, configuration management, and provisioning using various tools. The management of secrets is necessary for all of these, as developers retain privileged account credentials, secure shell (SSH) keys, application programming interface (API) tokens, and similar items, even in production contexts. This is undoubtedly an attack vector that gives hackers access to a company's data and the ability to compromise the IT system. It's crucial to remove or hide these embedded credentials from the code.
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
Regarding the issue of access to privileged account credentials, it is common for multiple DevOps team members to share them even after the credentials are deleted from the software provisioning and deployment tool. It is necessary to control privileged access management since it poses a risk to the company. The team must apply the least privilege principle, which stipulates that an employee should only be granted the access necessary to do their duties to solve this. This lessens the possibility that attackers can access the code inside and outside the company.
Segment Networks
Another method to improve the security of a DevOps system is to segment the network. This is a classic defensive strategy to prevent an attacker from damaging the network. The result of grouping servers together is enhanced security. Teams can monitor performance to see whether any issues exist.
Conclusion
The growth, intricacy, and dispersion of an organization's endpoints and applications propel the expansion of its attack surface. Malicious actors will have greater chances to launch complex attacks as a result. Automation and increased visibility are required to prevent these attacks before they happen.
