Identify and Remediate Insecure Templates

[ENwankwo]

By Emmanuel Nwanko, Customer Success Engineer

Cloud Code Security is critical for businesses that use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates to manage their cloud environments. As IaC templates become more popular, it's crucial to understand how to identify and remediate insecure code to protect your organization from malicious actors and security threats. This blog will discuss the various methods of identifying and remediating uncertain IaC templates and provide some best practices for maintaining cloud code security.

Prisma Cloud: Cloud Code Security (CCS) integrates security into all development and operational lifecycles. IaC creates new opportunities and added risk for cloud-native security. Cloud technologies, IaC, and microservices have dramatically increased the developer's capability to develop software at scale. It is nearly impossible for security teams to address issues for every component. An organization must automate security to catch vulnerabilities and misconfigurations before deploying services.

Figure 1:  Code_Security_Catalog_Palo-Alto-Networks

Figure 2:  The_image_above_describes_the_steps_for_viewing_a_report_Palo-Alto-Networks

Figure 3:  Fix/remediate_insecure_template_with_a_pull_request_Palo-Alto-Networks

Figure 4:  Submit_a_pull_request_Palo-Alto-Networks

Use Checkov as part of your CI/CD pipeline: Integrating these tools into your CI/CD pipeline allows you to scan your IaC templates for security issues as soon as they are committed to your repository. This helps catch security issues early in the development cycle and prevents them from making it to production. Checkov scans cloud infrastructure configurations to find misconfigurations before they are deployed. Checkov uses a familiar command line interface to manage and analyze infrastructure as code (IaC) scans results across platforms such as Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes,Helm, ARM Templates, and Serverless framework.

Figure 5:  Scan_for_passwords_and_tokens_with_Checkov_CLI_Palo-Alto-Networks

Figure 6:  Checkov_detect_misconfiguration_in_the_code_snippet_Palo-Alto-Networks

Shift-left security is a software development approach that emphasizes integrating security practices into the early stages of the development process, such as during design and coding, rather than waiting until later stages, such as testing or deployment. 

Checkov's plug-in for IDEs, such as Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA, supports shift-left security by providing developers real-time feedback on potential security issues as they write code. With the Checkov plug-in for IDEs, developers can customize policies to fit their specific requirements and integrate Checkov into their development workflows, making security a seamless part of the development process. By integrating shift-left security practices with Checkov, organizations can proactively identify and address security issues early in the development process, reducing the cost and effort of addressing security issues later in the lifecycle.

Figure 7:  Checkov_plugin_for_VS_Code_IDE_Palo-Alto-Networks

Figure 8:  Misconfiguration_found_in_the_underlined_code_snippet_Palo-Alto-Networks

Building a cloud-native infrastructure that is dynamic and resilient with security built in is a challenge. Fortunately, some tools, such as software composition analysis (SCA), can automate the building of the infrastructure and leverage CCS scanning, providing cloud security integration across all of your development phases. Shifting security to the left, CCS enables and automates security capabilities in a DevSecOps workflow to identify and resolve misconfigurations.

Figure 9:  DevSecOps_workflow_Palo-Alto-Networks

Leveraging Software Composition Analysis

• Can detect vulnerabilities in open-source packages and their dependencies with high accuracy based on trusted sources and proprietary research.
• It is embedded in DevOps tools with fixed guidance to improve remediation rates.
• Generate a comprehensive Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for risk tracking.
• It helps avoid costly license compliance issues with early detection and blocking of restrictive licenses.

Figure 10:  Software_Composition_Analysis_Palo-Alto-Networks

What is a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)?

• SBOM is a contextualized inventory of a software or application which lists components, libraries, and versions of all open-source packages and third-party components used to build it.

• Insights into components provide versions, vulnerabilities, and open-source licenses.
• You can also use it to identify software supply chain risks in your organization.
• Creating an SBOM scans package manager files.
• Generate via UI or CI/CD.

Figure 11:  Generate_SBOM_Palo-Alto-Networks

Code Visibility Value

With onboarded repositories, you can see what libraries & snippets of code have vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Informing yourself with complete code visibility is one of the best ways to know what needs to be adjusted before deployment, preventing data leaks & exploits before they even happen.

In conclusion, identifying and remediating insecure templates requires ongoing diligence and attention to security best practices. Following these steps can help ensure your application is secure and protected from attacks. Cloud Code Security is essential for businesses that rely on IaC to manage their cloud environments. It requires vigilance and expertise to ensure that the code used in your cloud infrastructure is secure. Taking the time at the outset to understand the security challenges IaC poses and the best practices for managing and protecting your code can save you from many headaches down the line.

About the Author