Regularly assess security properties of the pipelines

Regular assessment of security properties within development pipelines is essential to maintaining a robust security posture. By continually focusing on the separation of permissions and the overall security of the pipeline infrastructure, organizations can prevent risks while ensuring the integrity of the software being deployed.

Best Practices

Regularly Assess Security Properties of the Pipelines

• 1. Establish pipeline security reviews: Schedule regular reviews of your CI/CD pipelines to assess configuration and permission settings, ensuring they align with security best practices and the Well-Architected Framework principles.
• 2. Implement automated security testing: Integrate tools that automatically test for security vulnerabilities in your code during each phase of the development lifecycle. Tools like Snyk, Checkmarx, or OWASP ZAP can help identify issues before deployment.
• 3. Enforce least privilege access: Ensure that permissions are strictly controlled within your pipelines. Only provide access necessary for specific roles, and regularly review access permissions to eliminate any that are no longer needed.
• 4. Conduct dependency scanning: Regularly scan for vulnerabilities in third-party libraries and dependencies used in your application. Use tools like DependencyCheck or npm audit to keep track of known vulnerabilities.
• 5. Utilize logging and monitoring: Enable logging and monitoring for your pipeline activities to detect any unauthorized access or anomalies in real-time. Implement alerts to notify the responsible teams of potential security issues.
• 6. Document security processes: Create and maintain comprehensive documentation regarding your pipeline’s security configurations and procedures. This will help onboard new team members and maintain security standards across the organization.

Questions to ask your team

• How often do you assess the security properties of your pipelines?
• What tools and processes do you use to validate the security of your CI/CD pipelines?
• How do you ensure separation of permissions within your pipeline tools?
• When was the last security assessment conducted on your pipeline infrastructure?
• Are there automated tests in place to check for security vulnerabilities during the build process?

Who should be doing this?

DevOps Engineer

• Implement security best practices in CI/CD pipelines.
• Configure automated security testing tools to assess code vulnerabilities.
• Monitor and maintain security configurations of pipeline infrastructure.

Security Engineer

• Conduct regular security assessments of pipeline processes.
• Define and enforce security policies for pipeline access and permissions.
• Review security findings and recommend mitigation strategies.

Software Developer

• Write secure code by adhering to security best practices.
• Participate in security training and implement learned principles.
• Collaborate with DevOps teams to address identified vulnerabilities.

Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer

• Design and implement test cases that validate security aspects of applications.
• Work with automation tools to integrate security testing into the testing phase.
• Document and communicate security testing results to stakeholders.

Compliance Officer

• Ensure that all pipeline activities comply with relevant regulations and standards.
• Conduct audits of security practices within the pipelines.
• Report compliance status to stakeholders and recommend improvements.

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Security Pipeline Assessment Checklist: A checklist that outlines key security considerations and best practices to assess the security properties of CI/CD pipelines regularly.
• Pipeline Security Assessment Report Template: A structured template for documenting the results of security assessments conducted on application deployment pipelines, including findings and recommendations.
• Separation of Permissions Policy: A policy document that defines the principles of least privilege and separation of duties within deployment pipelines to enhance security.
• Automated Security Testing Playbook: A playbook detailing the steps and tools to implement automated security testing within the application development lifecycle, including CI/CD integration.
• Security Metrics Dashboard: A real-time dashboard that visualizes security metrics related to application pipelines, such as vulnerability scans, compliance checks, and permission assessments.
• DevSecOps Strategy Guide: A comprehensive guide that outlines the integration of security practices within DevOps processes, focusing on continuous security monitoring and validation.

Cloud Services

AWS

• AWS CodePipeline: Automates the application’s release process and enables security assessments as part of each pipeline execution.
• AWS Config: Provides resource inventory, configuration history, and configuration change notifications to help assess the compliance of security policies.
• Amazon Inspector: Automates security assessments of applications deployed on Amazon EC2 and provides a way to validate security properties.

Azure

• Azure DevOps: Facilitates CI/CD pipelines that can integrate security scanning and compliance checks as part of the development lifecycle.
• Azure Security Center: Provides unified security management and threat protection across Azure services, helping to regularly assess security properties.
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Enhances security posture by providing recommendations and alerts on vulnerabilities throughout the deployment pipeline.

Google Cloud Platform

• Cloud Build: Offers a CI/CD platform that can integrate security testing into your builds, allowing for security properties validation.
• Google Cloud Security Command Center: Provides visibility into security and compliance across your Google Cloud resources and helps you assess risks.
• Container Analysis: Provides metadata and vulnerability information for Docker images to help ensure the security of containerized applications.

Question: How do you incorporate and validate the security properties of applications throughout the design, development, and deployment lifecycle?
Pillar: Security (Code: SEC)