Latest Techniques To Securing Your DevOps Pipeline

Computer Security
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There are several latest techniques to securing your DevOps pipeline. Software companies need to secure their development processes and pipelines to protect their clients. It’s important for all companies to protect their data as cyber breaches are one of the biggest business risks. Recently, a major IT management software provider has been hacked. This attack led to various other organizations, including sections of the US government, to be compromised. In fact, the president issued an executive order on cybersecurity, implementing security requirements for vendors selling software. As a software developer, take the steps required to prevent threats to your company and clients.  Follow the latest techniques to secure your DevOps pipeline.

Perform Container Scanning

Secure your DevOps pipeline by scanning your containers. Find all the containers in which your pipelines and software are developed, examined, or deployed. Scan each container to identify vulnerable configurations, breach of agreements and malware bugs. Additionally, consider scanning any master images you are building projects from. You can create a safer and more effective development process by fixing vulnerabilities at the source. More so, there are fewer issues to address each time you deploy a container. You should perform these scans periodically throughout development.

Establish Security Procedures

Of course, you can secure your DevOps pipeline by establishing security procedures. Create a set of rules and policies for your cybersecurity team or developers. Ensure they follow configuration procedures, implement access control functionalities and review codes. Of course, consider providing your team with automation tools to simplify security procedures. These tools can offer centralized secret management solutions and operational visibility. This strengthens access control functionalities and fine-grained permissions. Surely establish security procedures with tools and policies to secure your DevOps pipeline.

Conduct Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Additionally, conduct static application security tests (SAST) to protect your DevOps pipeline. SAST is a set of technologies that analyze your application from the inside out including binaries, source code and byte code. Additionally, each analysis is completed in a nonrunning state. Here, you can find and locate vulnerabilities in source codes promptly. By finding vulnerabilities earlier in the software development life cycle (SDLC), you can save money and improve code faster within your company. Conduct static application security testing to secure your DevOps pipeline.

Deploy Dynamic Analysis Security Testing (DAST)

Also, consider deploying the dynamic analysis security test (DAST) to secure your DevOps pipeline. DAST searches for vulnerabilities in your application from the outside by imitating external attacks. It helps you by managing application security during the complete development process. By attempting to penetrate the software, you can locate exposed interfaces for flaws and bugs. In fact, you can simply find several of OWASP’s top ten security risks including cross-site scripting, path traversal or injection errors. Unlike SAST, this process is done in a running state. Typically, DAST is executed in a QA environment though it can help in production. Furthermore, advanced properties allow you to find authentication and server configuration issues. You can also find flaws that are only visible through the log in of a known user. Certainly, deploy dynamic analysis security testing.

Implement Continuous Security

Finally, secure your DevOps pipeline by implementing continuous security. There are 5 stages within continuous security including commit, acceptance, capacity, exploratory and production. During the commit phase, you will receive rapid feedback about the code being analyzed. Strong security implications in the infrastructure makeup that could expose vulnerability are vetted and put into use. Next is the acceptance stage where code is built, and acceptance testing is enforced. AWS resources are created as an infrastructure code. These resources modify and create your security posture. Then, the capacity stage is where you will build and confirm environments capable of continuing into production. Lastly are the exploratory and production stages. Exploratory creates clones of the production process for experimentation while production promotes an environment that has passed prior phases.

There are multiple steps for securing your DevOps pipeline. Scan your containers to identify any agreement breaches, malware infections or inadequate secrets management. Establish security procedures so your team knows how to test all pipelines, review codes, and implement access controls. Additionally, you can conduct static application security tests to analyze your app from the inside out to find vulnerabilities earlier in the SDLC. Moreover, deploy dynamic analysis security tests to search your application from the outside for vulnerabilities, flaws, and bugs by imitating an external threat. Finally, implement continuous security for test-drive security, risk assessments and monitoring threats. Follow these steps to secure your DevOps pipeline.

Tech Digest Correspondent