Various companies follow different software development paradigms to create in-house software solutions or to sell powerful applications and suites globally. But in this era, where cyber attacks have become prominent, ensuring the applications’ security can no longer be an afterthought. Therefore, software development enterprises should consider software development security a fundamental aspect of the overall Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
Traditional approaches to software development consider the security aspect an afterthought. Hence, they are no longer an adequate approach assuming the present-day scenario. That is where DevOps application development methodology should come into the picture. To blend the security aspects across different application development phases – the DevOps culture introduced DevSecOps. By embedding security from the design stage to operations – companies can develop resilient, potent, and state-of-the-art apps that can withstand modern attacks.
This article is a quick walkthrough of DevSecOps and various phases of security. It will also discuss how enterprises can use different testing techniques and security tools to optimize security during application development.
Understanding DevSecOps
DevSecOps is an evolved version of the DevOps application development methodology. The term DevSecOps stands for Development, Security, and Operations. The three terms reflect a collaborative approach between the application development teams, security experts, and the operations department. DevSecOps advocates tuning security aspects across every phase of the application development.
DevSecOps helps software development enterprises improve security postures, leveraging technologies like encryption, hashing, access management, privilege checks, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) Scanning, code composition analysis, etc. All these, in turn, help reduce cost, faster time-to-market, and enhance collaboration for a secure application infrastructure. DevSecOps also enables the application development team to design a continuous monitoring and response module within the system for real-time analysis of vulnerability penetration and security incidents.
DevSecOps Life Cycle
According to Ponemon Institute and Rezilion’s report, 78 percent of those surveyed take over three weeks to handle high-risk vulnerabilities in applications & systems. Furthermore, for 30 percent of users, reporting these vulnerabilities takes over five weeks. Another report published by them claims that 47 percent of security leaders express that they have a backlog of vulnerable applications that are yet to be patched.
Therefore, it is a great practice to perform in-depth security checks during application development. The DevSecOps encompasses multiple phases of the application development. This app development methodology ensures application security at every phase – from Design to Operations to Deployment.
Training
Cybersecurity awareness & basic training are necessary for all employees, be they software engineers or operations teams. Every employee should undergo regular training & awareness of secure development practices.
Requirement gathering
Software development starts with a basic understanding of the product requirement. Along with the product requirement, DevSecOps also ensures how to define the security & privacy aspects clearly. The requirement-gathering phase (from a security standpoint) ensures security best practices, how the product will process the data, and what to check for known security vulnerabilities. The software developers and security engineers discuss and plan how to adapt to the ever-shifting threat landscape.
Designing phase
Along with designing the applications’ architecture, workflow, and data-flow diagrams (DFDs), the team develops threat models, helps specify and categorize threats, and predicts the risks in advance. In this process, the developers and security experts outline the different components of a product, determine its attack surfaces, and design the security postures necessary for it. They also design privacy regulations and security standards to align with the products’ ultimate goal.
Development & Implementation
This phase starts when the developer codes the software, depending on the established plan. It is a great option to equip the developer with secure coding practices and techniques. DevSecOps incorporates static and dynamic code analysis, where the developers must identify bugs during the development. Detecting issues like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection, & other such vulnerabilities is also necessary in the implementation phase. Code reviews for insecure cryptographic practices or legacy coding guidelines also fall under this phase.
Testing and Verification
Apart from general software testing like alpha testing & unit testing, the companies should also perform penetration testing (pen-testing) – simulating cyber attacks to identify vulnerabilities. The software testing team should also perform fuzz testing to identify vulnerabilities by placing large amounts of random data within the input sections of the app. Secure regression testing is also necessary so that the company can ensure that the apps’ attack surface security remains intact.
Deployment & Release
Before deploying the product into the market, enterprises should do a thorough review. Secure deployment of the product into the cloud & in different platforms is another essential phase. DevSecOps also considers managing infrastructure using code, enabling security controls to be versioned, reviewed, and tested before every continuous integration & deployment. Enterprises can strengthen security by hardening the deployment environment by closing unwanted ports, disabling unnecessary services, & applying secured platforms for deployment.
Operations monitoring & Response
After deploying and releasing the product, the DevSecOps culture ensures that the system monitors & logs all relevant security events in real-time. Enterprises can use Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) to monitor and respond to real-time security incidents.
Some Well-known DevSecOps Tools
With the help of DevSecOps, the enterprise enables thorough security from design to deployment. To ensure robust application security, the enterprise should leverage security tools essential for DevSecOps. These tools help integrate security principles across every phase of the app development process.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
It is a security test technique that helps identify flaws in the source code, object code, bytecode, or machine-level version of the app. Such tools ensure early vulnerability detection & provide a comprehensive code analysis. Enterprises can integrate SAST tools in the CI/CD pipeline using the DevOps methodology. It will ensure scalable and consistent security tests across all stages of the app development.
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
IAST is another security methodology wherein the security testers and professionals combine the potential of both SAST & DAST. The combination helps deliver a more comprehensive approach to identifying vulnerabilities in apps. IAST tools offer real-time detection, code analysis, and application behaviour during execution. DevSecOps prefers using IAST tools for continuous testing and context awareness that reduces false positives.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
Enterprises need to leverage SCA tools to identify flaws in third-party and open-source application components. SCA includes direct and transitive dependencies. SCA techniques and tools ensure that third-party components, API integrations, and open-source libraries do not invite licensing issues, security vulnerabilities, or compliance mismatches.
DevSecOps Best Practices for Enterprises
Enterprises should implement some best practices in DevSecOps to incorporate robust security postures in the software development life cycle (SDLC).
- Use DevSecOps Metrics: Enterprises should gauge the security postures periodically implemented in the application. Measuring some metrics, including the number of vulnerabilities detected/patched, remediation time, & security compliance check, can help improve the overall app’s security.
- Threat modeling: Early identification of threats can help reduce cyberattacks at large. Enterprises should mitigate the threats through rigorous pentesting and regression analysis during the application development phases. Regular model updates and security patches can help prevent the app from zero-day attacks.
- Secure Software Supply Chain: Another best practice enterprises should consider checking on third-party vendors, open-source modules, dependencies, and APIs to eliminate security loopholes. Through Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools & techniques, enterprises can conduct secure vendor management checks to eliminate external risks and vulnerabilities.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Sometimes, it is better to have cross-functional teams for the project. Enterprises can achieve this by forming cross-functional team members from each discipline, such as development, operations, and security.
Apart from all these approaches, enterprises can improve the DevSecOps culture by incorporating effective review of the various integrations and workflows. Also, adding automation testing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms for automated threat monitoring can improve the continuous DevSecOps culture.
Conclusion
We hope this article provided a crisp idea of how to ensure application security from design to operations. We have also gathered insights into the various techniques and tools used during the secure application development. By fostering internal cooperation between development, operations, and security teams with the help of automation & security best practices, enterprises can build secure & resilient applications more efficiently. Contact VE3 or Visit our Expertise for more information.
