CI/CD pipeline security
See why protecting your continuous integration and delivery process is critical to safeguard the security and reliability of your codebase and deployments.
CI/CD pipeline security
Continuous integration and continuous deployment/delivery pipelines are the heartbeat of any efficient software development lifecycle, but they’re also a prime target for attackers looking to scrape data or cause havoc. Strong CI/CD pipeline security is more than integrating an open-source tool with npm install or migrating to a different CI/CD platform—you need to develop a comprehensive plan for security code repositories, protecting build servers, safeguarding artifacts, and locking down secrets.
Security vulnerabilities at any stage of the CI/CD process leave you vulnerable to data breaches, downtime, and a dent in customer trust.
year-over-year increase in supply chain attacks involving malicious third-party components
Sonatype
of companies cite CI/CD toolchain exposures, like the accidental leakage of secrets, as a critical software supply chain risk.
ReversingLabs
of companies either confirm they have experienced a CI/CD security incident in the last year, or do not have enough visibility to confidently say they have not.
Techstrong Research
An example of CI/CD pipeline security and how it works
As mentioned, developing comprehensive CI/CD pipeline security isn’t a one-off procurement and setup process; it doesn’t cover just one area of the software development lifecycle. Instead, it’s a holistic approach to your testing and automation processes, with many touch points from your IDE to a production environment.
For example, CI/CD pipeline security starts with your source code management (SCM) system. The benefits of CI/CD automation, where you can deploy approved and merged code to a production environment automatically, can also become an attack vector if you let untrusted code slip through. Your SCM—think GitHub, Bitbucket, and others—should require multiple reviews before merging (with automatic merges disabled entirely), protected branches, and signed commits. Each step provides more opportunities to catch attacks or vulnerabilities before entering your CI/CD pipeline.
That’s just the first stage of the CI/CD pipeline—when you broaden the scope, you expand the attack vectors dramatically.
How does CI/CD pipeline security help developers?
A secure CI/CD pipeline lets you and your peers push changes frequently without constant fear of introducing vulnerabilities or exposing sensitive data, like credentials or your customers' personal information.
You don’t ever want to be on the hook to write a postmortem for a breach or data loss incident—the best way to prepare is to minimize the risk as much as possible, and that starts with how you deliver software to production environments.
In addition to standard compliance requirements like GDPR and CCPA, CI/CD security plays a significant role in industry-specific compliance requirements and voluntary standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and others.
Implementing CI/CD pipeline security: an overview
As mentioned, CI/CD pipeline security is a cycle of continuous improvement with many stops along the way:
The difficult truth about CI/CD pipeline security is that properly implementing each step requires new tools and platforms, which come with learning curves and additional complexity, particularly for developers.
Or, you can shortcut all that complexity with Aikido:
Best practices for effective CI/CD pipeline security
As with all things security in software, the fundamentals are your starting point—you have plenty more you can do to improve your security posture across CI/CD configurations, builds, and artifacts.
Whether you’re picking a CI/CD provider for the first time or are validating the ecosystem for a potential migration, first insist that all builds and tests use ephemeral, isolated environments that prevent cross-contamination—and are immediately destroyed upon completion. Next, adopt the principle of least privilege for all pipeline components and processes, which prevents attackers from moving laterally across your infrastructure.
Finally, implement a consistent strategy for rotating the access credentials that keep your CI/CD pipeline moving, just in case an exposure slipped under your radar.
Get started with CI/CD pipeline security for free
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