Understand DevSecOps and how it works?
Introduction:
DevSecOps is an abbreviated term for Development, Security and Operations. To help an organization eliminate risk and achieve its IT and business objectives, it introduces security early in the software and application development lifecycle. As a result, both developers and operations staff care about security from the beginning. DevSecOps refers to a subset of DevOps called Secure DevOps.
Planning application and infrastructure security in DevSecOps is essential. In order to achieve continuous security integration, it is important to select an integrated development environment (IDE) with some security features.
DevSecOps workflow:
• Develop security throughout the software development lifecycle to minimize vulnerabilities in software code.
• Share responsibility for following security best practices with all members of the DevOps team, including developers and operations personnel.
• Integrate security controls, tools, and processes into DevOps workflows to automate security checks at each stage of software development.
Security in DevSecOps
A DevOps pipeline is characterized by continuous delivery. It includes continuous integration, continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD), as well as continuous feedback. Each function occurs continuously, rather than as part of a one-off test or a scheduled deployment.
Developing agile cloud computing platforms, flexible storage and data solutions, and other state-of-the-art technologies is imperative for today’s organizations. DevOps which would suffice once, now is outdated due to the security and continuous workflow mandate. Today’s hackers use codes and techniques more advanced than ever before in order to launch attacks that can cripple any business and put both its employees and clients at risk. If software engineers are unable to recognize cyber vulnerabilities, they risk releasing systems with spyware, viruses, and other security threats.
Both DevOps and security are combined in DevSecOps. It encourages the incorporation of security into software development and fosters collaboration between software developers and security personnel in order to achieve tangible commercial results.
How DevSecOps is carried out?
1. Plan
The plan step of DevSecOps is the least automated, comprising collaboration, discussion, review, and security analysis approach. Teams should conduct a security analysis and develop a plan outlining where, how, and when security testing will take place. Threat model policies are discussed and implemented into everyday processes in order to eliminate the gap between development and the security of the product.
2. Code
Developers can use DevSecOps technologies in the code phase to help them write better secure programs. Static code analysis, code reviews, and pre-commit hooks are all important code-phase security procedures.
Every commit and merge is automatically triggered by a security test or review when security technologies are integrated directly into developers’ existing workflow. Different programming languages and integrated development environments are supported by these technologies.
3. Build
When developers contribute code to the source repository, the build process begins. The emphasis of DevSecOps build tools is on automated security analysis of build output artifacts. Software component analysis, static application software testing (SAST), and unit tests are all important security approaches. To automate these tests, tools can be inserted into an existing CI/CD pipeline.
Third-party code dependencies, which may come from an unknown or untrustworthy source, are constantly installed and built upon by developers. External code dependencies may contain vulnerabilities and exploits, either accidentally or maliciously. It is crucial to review and analyze these dependencies for potential security vulnerabilities during the development phase.
4. Test
After a build artifact is built and successfully deployed to staging or testing environments, the test phase begins. Executing a complete test suite requires a significant amount of time. This phase should fall quickly so that the more costly test jobs can be saved for later.
During the test phase, DAST tools are used to detect real application flows such as user authentication, authorisations, SQL injection, and API-related endpoints.
5. Release
End users can be notified when compliance policy configurations change from a known approved state by integrating real-time security alerts and notifications into their apps.
The application code and executable should have been properly tested by the time the DevSecOps cycle reaches the release phase. The phase examines environment configuration variables such as user access control, network firewall access, and secret data management to secure the runtime environment infrastructure.
6. Deploy
After the completion of the previous processes, the artifact design is deployed into production.
The only security issues to address during the deployment phase are those that occur against the live production system. Any configuration variations between the production environment and the prior staging and development environments, for example, should be extensively examined. Validate and examine production TLS and DRM certificates for imminent renewal. Logs and audits are accounted for and threat intelligence programs are addressed through chaos engineering during this stage.
7. Monitoring & Response
Once the application is deployed into the real world environment, additional measures are required to address further security concerns. Companies look out for any attacks and leaks with automated security checks and security monitoring loops.
RASP, or runtime application self-protection, detects and stops inbound security threats in real time. RASP functions as a reverse proxy, observing incoming threats and allowing the application to automatically reconfigure in response to defined conditions without the need for human intervention. An internal team set to seek out vulnerabilities or any potential attack perform security and response programs or sometimes even bug bounties are paid to external individuals who report any attack or vulnerabilities.
