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A well-functioning DevOps process revolves around its CI/CD pipeline. Much of what engineers accomplish comes to a halt when a CI/CD pipeline fails. Even a highly productive engineering team might become completely ineffective due to a malfunctioning CI/CD pipeline, as these pipelines facilitate automation, cross-team collaboration (between Dev, QA, Ops, and Sec teams), and the prevention of critical errors.
The Necessity Of CI/CD Pipeline Security And 100% Compliance
The fact that code is deployed thousands of times a day by some of the top technical teams in the world—Amazon, Netflix, and Airbnb—is evidence of the significance of automated delivery and deployment. Some studies state that the corporations' technical teams release code 125k times a day. For all the right reasons, it is reasonable to conclude that the most sophisticated engineering teams rely too much on CI/CD pipelines.
The Security and compliance of automated delivery pipelines, also known as CI/CD pipelines, are critical, and engineering teams at large firms have a lot riding on them. Their basic presence cannot be questioned or devalued, even though the degree of compliance and policy adherence may vary based on the business and industry they serve.
Having highlighted the necessity of CI/CD pipeline security and compliance, let's delve directly into the core focus of this blog: outlining the optimal practices to ensure security and compliance within CI/CD pipelines.
Best Practices For Security And Compliance In CI/CD Pipelines
For the advantage of you, the readers, we have first enumerated every best practice that teams ought to adhere to because this is a long list. We've delved deeper into each of the issues below, offering comprehensive insights tailored to your preferences. Explore the best practices for CI/CD pipelines, finding valuable guidance in the sections that resonate with your specific interests.
Security-Specific Best Practices For CI/CD Pipelines
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Implementing DevSecOps principles
- Shift-Left Security
- Development, security, and operations teams working together in a collaborative manner
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Code Scanning and Analysis
- Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
- Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
- Threat Modeling, Code Provenance, and Software Composition Analysis
- Bringing together data & results from SAST, DAST, SCA, etc.
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Container Security and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security
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Secrets Management
- Implementing proper access controls
- Separation of duties to enforce permissions
Compliance-Specific Best Practices For CI/CD Pipelines
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Policy Enforcement
- Policy-as-Code
- Policy-enforcement Engine
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Compliance Adherence
- Automation of Compliance checks
- Implementing Compliance-as-Code
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Auditing & Attestation
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Security-Specific Best Practices For CI/CD Pipelines
There are several security-related best practices for the CI/CD pipeline. Let me start by talking to them.
Implementing Devsecops Principles
Embracing and implementing DevSecOps is the first step towards securing your DevOps pipeline. While DevOps emphasizes the importance of bringing Development and Operations together, DevSecOps emphasizes the importance of bringing Security, another team, closer to the process. DevSecOps basically operates on two guiding principles:
- Shift-left Security: You may have heard of the concept known as shift-left testing already. Shift-left was born into the same school of thought as Security highlights how important it is to give security factors top priority from the very beginning of software development. Organizations who neglect to accomplish this run the danger of having to re-architect their codebase and design patterns to conform to security frameworks at the very end of the project.
- Improved collaboration between Dev, Sec, and Ops: The process of software engineering is intricate and involves many teams, each with distinct goals. The coherence and unity of the Development, QA, Operations, and Security teams is essential for delivering software that is not just functional but also reliable and secure.
Code Scanning And Analysis Combined With Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)
It is crucial to make sure your application has a strong security posture both before and after deployment. Among other security procedures, two of the most crucial ones to handle AppSec issues are code scanning and code analysis.
- SAST stands for Static Application Security Testing: Searching the codebase for security flaws, static code analysis, and code reviews are helpful tools for locating vulnerabilities like code injection and other types of risky development practices. It is carried out by examining an application's source code, bytecode, or binary code without really running it throughout the software development process. SAST can be carried out with a variety of tools.
- DAST stands for dynamic application security testing: However, runtime environments are used for dynamic testing of applications in order to find vulnerabilities that static analysis could miss. In order to do this, the application must be tested as though a real hostile actor were attacking it. Like SAST, DAST can also be facilitated by a multitude of technologies.
- Software Composition Analysis, Code Provenance, and Threat Modeling: Another method for locating flaws and implementing fixes is threat modeling, which also helps find structural vulnerabilities, inconsistent code, and a lack of security safeguards. Finding the owner and the source of the code is known as code provenance. Finding every open-source component in your codebase and analyzing it for Security, license compliance, and code quality is known as software composition analysis.
- Combining information and findings from SAST, DAST, SCA, etc: Together, these approaches comprise the majority of ASPM. To finish the checklist, it is insufficient to gather only the scan findings and carry out these tests in isolation. The outcomes of the scan and analysis must be understood. A solution such as CISIN deploy Shield would be ideal since it would be able to interact with many AppSec tools, compare the results of post-build and post-deploy scans, assess the vulnerability score, pinpoint the source of code that is vulnerable to threats and vulnerabilities, and instantly identify production issues.
Infrastructure As Code (IaC) Security And Container Security
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security and container security are essential for protecting contemporary development and deployment methods in today's sophisticated software environment. Containers have revolutionized application development, but Security must always come first. To guarantee safe container deployments, image scanning, signing, runtime Security, and orchestration security are essential tasks.
IaC requires strict Security since it uses code to define and deliver infrastructure. Misconfigurations may impact the entire infrastructure. Effective IaC security requires tasks like least privilege, automated compliance checks, safe deployment pipelines, secrets management, and constant monitoring.
Secrets Management
Implementing Proper Access Controls
- Managing Secrets – The core of security operations is the implementation of appropriate access restrictions. Implementing specialized tools for secret management is necessary. These solutions, which can securely handle and store sensitive data, including API keys, passwords, and certificates, are Kubernetes Secrets, AWS Secrets Manager, and HashiCorp Vault.
- Approval Workflows – In large teams, it should be mandatory to implement approval workflows for essential tasks like pushing changes between environments or deploying to production. Several people or teams may need to authorize before deployments may start, depending on the size of the team. This idea is frequently referred to as Automated Policy Enforcement-enforced deployment gates.
Separation Of Duties To Enforce Permissions
- RBAC (Separation of Duties) – By using RBAC, you can make sure that only services and people with permission can access and retrieve secrets from your secrets management tool. By limiting the ability of unauthorized people or teams to carry out particular tasks inside the CI/CD pipeline, these procedures serve to lower the risk of security breaches and guarantee adherence to corporate guidelines and legal obligations.
- MFA/ 2FA – Setting up MFA or 2FA is an upstream recommended practice for implementing RBAC. This is especially necessary for people or groups who have elevated access, such as those who deploy to production or change important pipeline parameters.
- Separation of Environments – Another best practice that teams can adhere to is setting up distinct environments for distinct phases of the CI/CD pipeline (such as development, testing, staging, and production).
Read More: 7 Key Benefits Of CI/CD: How Implementing CI/CD Save Your Business?
Compliance-Specific Best Practices For CI/CD Pipelines
Compliance and Security go hand in hand. Compliance is more concerned with the "future posture" of the application than Security is with the "current posture" of the application. Put differently, you may guarantee that the security posture is upheld long into the future by enforcing compliance. In actuality, policies and compliance go hand in hand. As part of the compliance-specific best practices for the CI/CD pipeline, allow me to discuss these ideas.
Policy Enforcement
In the context of software security, a "policy" refers to the established guidelines unique to the company and sector they work in. These guidelines provide a foundation for guaranteeing the integrity and Security of the application, system, and procedures. They are based on the permitted behavior of the application.
You can eliminate the possibility of malpractice, unauthorized access, and human error by imposing policies that development teams must follow. In order to safeguard CI/CD pipelines, this is a crucial best practice.
- Policy-as-Code: One effective method for automating, standardizing, and securing the application of organizational policies is Policy-as-Code (PaC). Instead of relying on manual procedures or paperwork, machine-readable code is used to define, manage, and enforce governance rules.
- Policy-enforcement Engine: Policies must be enforced using two things: 1) a set of rules; and 2) data that serves as the foundation for the rules' governance. Although the PaC functions as a set of guidelines, data—basically, the acts taken by end users—need to be governed.Teams, with the aid of PaC and an enforcement layer, can accomplish data-driven policy governance. This will guarantee that the application's security posture is never jeopardized.
Compliance Adherence
In the context of Security and governance, the notions of policies and compliance are closely intertwined. Policies provide guidelines and standards, while compliance is the act of following the rules and guidelines set forth by the policies. Policies serve to establish expectations, and compliance is the act of proving that these policies are being followed.
Compliance is evaluated in relation to policies and serves corporate objectives. Compliance evaluations determine if the policies are correctly and consistently followed. By definition, noncompliance with policies may give rise to security lapses, legal ramifications, and harm to one's reputation.
- Automation of Compliance checks: It is well known that manual processes are prone to errors. Based on this knowledge, automated compliance checks are required. In addition to ensuring Security, teams that are able to specify policies and demonstrate adherence through automated checks also demonstrate speed in their DevOps and CI/CD processes.
- Implementing Compliance-as-Code: This only expands upon Policy-as-Code. Compliance-as-Code, or CaC, deals with automating compliance assessments and enforcement at the infrastructure level, making sure that the organization's IT resources and configurations comply with external regulations, industry standards, and internal policies. In contrast to PAC, which focuses on automating security and governance policy checks within code and CI/CD pipelines.Teams with a strong security posture are more likely to automate compliance tests and use compliance-as-code. One of the most important best practices for securing your CI/CD pipeline.
Auditing & Attestation
In software development, auditing is essential because it checks code, configurations, and access controls to guarantee system security and integrity. By identifying weaknesses, this technique lowers the possibility of security breaches. Businesses in regulated sectors are subject to recurring audits to confirm adherence to regulations such as HITRUST and HIPAA. Serious fines and, in certain situations, the loss of operating licenses may follow noncompliance. Following these guidelines reduces the possibility of violations, lessens the effect of occurrences, and protects the organization's reputation.
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Conclusion
The $5 million compliance risk emphasizes how critical it is to safeguard CI/CD pipelines in regulated sectors. Robust security postures are ensured by following best practices in Security, including secrets management, code scanning, container security, and the application of DevSecOps concepts.
Practices focused on compliance, such as automation of adherence, enforcement of policies, and thorough auditing, strengthen CI/CD pipelines against possible violations and fines from the authorities. CI/CD pipelines are the lifeblood of DevOps; they must be handled with extreme caution and adhered to 100% of the time in order to protect companies from dangers and preserve the integrity of their software development and deployment processes.
At CISIN, we excel in ensuring impeccable CI/CD pipeline solutions, offering expertise honed through years of proficiency in the field. Leverage our expertise at CISIN, where we stand ready to guide you through building CI/CD pipelines. Safeguard your company from potential dangers, ensuring the integrity of your software development and deployment processes.
