The efficiency of CI/CD pipelines determines the life and death of modern software delivery systems. In ensuring efficient pipelines, we sometimes open up security risks through integration points, automated jobs, and environment variables.

Malicious actors continuously probe the automation framework, from source code repositories to deployment triggers, seeking to identify its weaknesses, and to be honest, CI/CD pipelines have emerged as one of the primary attack targets in the software delivery lifecycle.

An example is a reported attack on the Grafana GitHub actions workflow.

The evolving landscape of software engineering demands a new kind of professional, a guardian who must be embedded within automation systems, not just to ensure their smooth operation, but also to safeguard them from potential security threats. This is where the role of a DevSecOps engineer becomes crucial.

DevSecOps represents a fundamental change, beyond its status as a buzzword. With it, organizations can maintain rapid development speed through direct security integration within their CI/CD workflows. The successful implementation of this approach requires more than tools because it needs a strategic plan.

This article is the strategic plan that aims to equip teams to:

• Identify and neutralize common CI/CD threats
• Build secure pipelines from code commit to production
• Implement scanning and monitoring with access control functions without release delays
• Apply real-world patterns from production-hardened pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, FluxCD, and Kubernetes

Before we dive into the intricacies of securing CI/CD pipelines, it's crucial to first understand what DevSecOps is and why it's so important in the context of software development and security.

What is DevSecOps?

DevSecOps, a combination of development, security, and operations, is an application development approach that identifies and remediates security issues early in the development life cycle (SDLC), empowering teams to take proactive measures against them. 

It evolved from DevOps, which prioritized collaboration between developers and operations teams to accelerate delivery and embed security as a shared responsibility, not an afterthought. DevSecOps fosters a culture of shared responsibility and reveals the security posture of systems at all levels by identifying issues and what needs to be fixed without compromising the speed and agility of DevOps practices.

Common security threats in CI/CD pipelines and their solutions

The foundation of a secure software delivery system starts by detecting possible security risks. DevSecOps teams need to address several actual security risks that are described below, alongside their corresponding risk mitigation measures.

1. Unreliable code dependency: Most often than not, software engineers rely on the use of third-party libraries and containers while in fact, the use of these libraries speeds up development, yet occasionally, they expose the applications to security issues.
   
   Snyk and OWASP Dependency-Check are dependency scanning tools that can be integrated into pipelines to detect vulnerabilities in third-party libraries.
   

2. Disclosure of secrets: Another common security threat is loosely stored cloud tokens, database credentials and API keys within source code and logs.
   
   Tools such as TruffleHog and GitGuardian detect secrets stored in repositories and flag them immediately. You can use these tools to scan your repositories for loosely stored secrets and store them securely using HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.

3. Misconfigured tools: Jenkins and GitHub Actions can expose internal systems to unauthorized access when their CI/CD tools are improperly configured. The most common security threat includes publicly accessible artifact repositories alongside AWS S3 storage buckets, which allow excessive permissions.
   
   A tool like Terascan, an open-source static code analyzer used to secure Infrastructure as Code (IaC), can be integrated into your pipeline right after the Infrastructure-as-Code is written or updated to flag misconfigurations before deployment.

4. Too many access rights: The main threat within CI/CD systems occurs from over privileged access, which grants excessive permissions to users and service accounts beyond their required roles. When a breach occurs, this situation forms an ideal situation for lateral movement to occur. Unnecessary production-level access granted to developers without proper need leads to untested deployments along with accidental configuration mistakes, which can result in vital system damage through abuse.
   
   To address this, implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which requires a precise definition of authorization permissions for people and  CI/CD tools across all infrastructure layers, thereby restricting access to only what each position absolutely needs.
   
   For situations where temporary elevated access is needed, tools like Teleport and Azure Privileged Identity Management (PIM) enable temporary privilege elevation that is automatically revoked once the task finishes, rather than granting permanent elevation.

5. Untrusted Dependencies: Running untrusted base images , executable files, such as shell scripts, Python scripts, or deployment tools that are downloaded or cloned into a pipeline without any form of digital signature or integrity check can raise supply chain issues.
   
   These issues refers to risks introduced by third-party components such as open-source libraries, container base images, and external scripts that your application or pipeline depends on. In CI/CD workflows, developers often import dependencies or use prebuilt Docker images from public registries like Docker Hub . If these components are not vetted, signed, or verified, they can become vectors for injecting malware or backdoors into your application.
   
   To control deployment operations, use Cosign or GPG to sign containers and binaries, then validate these signatures.  Additionally, you can run CI jobs inside ephemeral containers or virtual machines to prevent continuous threats from developing.

Security testing automation

Implement a layered testing approach that combines Static Application Security Testing (SAST)  with Software Composition Analysis (SCA) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) to protect applications throughout development.

The DevSecOps team can integrate SAST tools such as SonarQube or Checkmarx into the CI workflow which would be executed automatically during pull request submissions and will analyze the codebase for SQL injection (SQLi) and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities before code merging occurs.

To carry out SCA, tools like WhiteSource or Dependabot can be integrated to track third-party libraries and dependencies for their known security vulnerabilities. These tools will continuously detect outdated or vulnerable packages, helping to protect the software supply chain.

The final step involves running DAST tests through OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite in staging environments. These are tools that execute real-world attack simulations against running applications to detect runtime vulnerabilities that static scans cannot identify.

Example: The GitHub Actions SAST Workflow contains the following configuration, which includes  SonarQube Scan:

# GitHub Actions SAST Workflow
  - name: SonarQube Scan
    uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@v1
    env:
      SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONARQUBE_TOKEN }}

Immutable infrastructure

Organizations need to implement code-based infrastructure management and automation for their operations. The implementation of CloudFormation or Terraform tools will help organizations maintain consistent configurations across different environments.

Example: The code block below shows the process of creating hardened VM images through Packer :

{
  "builders": [{
    "type": "amazon-ebs",
    "ami_name": "secure-base-image-{{timestamp}}"
  }],
  "provisioners": [{
    "type": "shell",
    "script": "scripts/harden-server.sh"
  }]
}

Secrets management

The DevSecOps team should deploy HashiCorp Vault’s Transit Engine together with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to achieve strong encryption for secrets stored at rest and transmitted in transit. The combined solution provides powerful cryptographic protection for all sensitive data that flows through and exists in the CI/CD environment.

The team should also automate password rotation to prevent manual credential handling and stale secret exposure. For example, the database Secrets Engine in Hashicorp Vault enables automatic database credential generation through short-lived credentials, which are rotated according to defined schedules or on a per-request basis. Another essential feature of Vault is its audit logging feature, which enables teams to track which users or services access specific secrets

Principle of least privilege

To reduce the attack surface within CI/CD environments, enforce the principle of least privilege. This means restricting access rights for both human users and CI/CD service accounts to only the minimal permissions required to perform their tasks—nothing more. A tool like Open Policy Agent (OPA) can be deployed as a centralized policy enforcement engine to implement these fine-grained access controls.

Monitor logs

Organizations should implement centralized log storage with tools like Elasticsearch or Grafana Loki to achieve pipeline visibility across all stages. These tools will gather logs from build servers, deployment tools, and infrastructure components to provide real-time pipeline monitoring and detailed audit capabilities.

Some examples of scenarios that should trigger an immediate alert are:

• Unscheduled deployments during off-hours, such as late-night or weekend pushes.
• Suspicious credential activity, including unexpected use of secrets or multiple failed authentication attempts.

Compliance and regular audits

 The CI/CD pipeline security posture needs improvement through third-party security firms conducting pipeline attack simulations. The simulated attacks will reveal actual security weaknesses, misconfigurations, and unanticipated edge cases that internal teams might miss. The independent assessments objectively assess your pipeline's resistance to targeted threats.

In addition, the DevSecOps team must establish automated policy enforcement to maintain continuous security standard compliance. Tools like HashiCorp Sentinel and AWS Config Rules allow you to write infrastructure policies, such as S3 bucket encryption requirements, directly into your pipeline.

Safe code signing

To maintain the integrity of the build artifact, all artifacts should be digitally signed using a tool like Cosign. These signatures will verify that the artifact was created by a trusted source and has not been tampered with.

For example, during deployment, Kubernetes should enforce signature verification by using admission controllers that validate each artifact’s authenticity before allowing it into the cluster. Any artifact that fails this verification or lacks a valid, trusted signature should be automatically rejected.

For example,. the following command uses Cosign to create a signature of the myorg/myimage: latest container using the Cosign.key key.

cosign sign --key cosign.key myorg/myimage: latest

Engineering team training workshops on secure coding

The DevSecOps team must provide scheduled training about secure software development principles and practices to establish a security-first culture within the development team.

The training program should also emphasize both theoretical and practical knowledge of  OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities including injection attacks ,broken authentication, insecure deserialization and secure design patterns for preventing these issues in actual applications.

The combination of continuous education with real-world simulations enables developers and staff to identify and handle both code-level vulnerabilities and general security threats effectively.

Conclusion

DevSecOps teams can achieve a balance between speed and pipeline security by implementing Vault together with IAM and RBAC, which reduces typical risks and adopts practical solutions while following best practices. This approach is known as “Shifting Security Left.”

As threats continue to evolve, continuous learning, alongside automation and cross-functional collaboration among development, security, and operations teams, will remain crucial.

Extra reading

• HashiCorp Vault Documentation
• AWS IAM Best Practices
• NIST Guidelines on CI/CD Security
• https://coralbusinesstimes.com/how-cloud-user-provisioning-services-can-benefit-your-organization.html
• https://www.socinvestigation.com/how-to-detect-malware-hijacking-digital-signatures/

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