The 7 DevSecOps Principles and Concepts for Automation

With the ongoing technological advancements, DevSecOps has become the go-to solution for QA, developers, InfoSec, and IT operations teams. It offers security for organizations to navigate processes and mitigate issues that may arise during all the phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). However, enterprises must keep up with DevSecOps best practices to achieve their desired results. In this blog, we will explain to you all the concepts and principles for DevSecOps implementation. Keep reading until the end to find out.

Before delving into the core principles of DevSecOps, let’s discover more details about the DevSecOps process.

What Is DevSecOps Framework?

The DevSecOps framework consists of four primary phases: Planning, Development, Testing, and Deployment. Let’s explore each of these phases in detail:

Planning

This initial stage entails outlining the development process, which includes defining requirements, designing the architecture, and selecting the necessary tools and technologies.

Development

During this phase, the actual coding and development of the application take place. This involves writing code, conducting testing, and addressing any encountered bugs or issues.

Testing

The testing phase focuses on assessing the application’s adherence to desired security standards. This involves conducting both functional and security testing to ensure optimal performance.

Deployment

The deployment phase involves releasing the application into the production environment. It is crucial to ensure a secure deployment process that safeguards the application against potential security threats.

What Is DevSecOps Principle for Success?

Here are the key principles of DevSecOps:

Holistic Automation

Implementing comprehensive automation for extensive testing and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes is a fundamental aspect of DevSecOps. In the DevSecOps approach, automation is strategically employed after careful consideration, rather than automating all manual processes indiscriminately. It is recognized that automating inefficient processes compromises software quality.

In such instances, addressing quality issues through rework often comes at the expense of security performance, which contradicts the principles of DevSecOps. Instead, DevSecOps teams prioritize the integration of cybersecurity testing within the automation process, focusing on:

• Evaluating software dependencies
• Assessing the impact of every change on the overall security performance of the software application.

Shift Left Security

DevSecOps teams collaborate with cybersecurity experts in the early stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), signifying a significant departure from traditional DevOps approaches. In DevSecOps, cybersecurity becomes a collective responsibility shared by all members of the team. Consequently, software design and implementation adhere to security best practices, taking into account crucial aspects such as:

• Identifying potential security vulnerabilities
• Assessing threat vectors
• Ensuring compliance with relevant regulations

By shifting security measures towards the beginning of the SDLC, known as “shifting left,” every software build is configured with security in mind. This approach optimizes performance, cost, time to market, and other essential business objectives. Consequently, the team can proactively identify security risks and exposures early on, resulting in secure builds for each integration within the CI/CD pipeline.

Collaborative Culture and Communication

To facilitate effective collaboration and communication within DevSecOps teams, organizations are encouraged to create an environment that fosters seamless interaction. In traditional enterprise IT environments, development (Devs), Quality Assurance (QA), Operations (Ops), and Information Security (InfoSec) teams often operate in isolated silos, each adhering to their own policies and pursuing individual objectives. Unfortunately, these objectives frequently clash, necessitating the establishment of a dominant policy to determine priority objectives.

From a DevSecOps standpoint, such an approach is impractical. Any unforeseen consequences, security lapses, or uninformed decisions can have a lasting detrimental impact on overall software quality and performance. Therefore, DevSecOps emphasizes the need for collaboration and shared responsibility, ensuring that all team members are well-informed and actively involved in making security-conscious decisions throughout the software development lifecycle.

Continuous Security Testing

To expand the practice of Continuous Testing, automated testing functionalities are introduced to assess the build quality for potential security vulnerabilities. In the context of DevSecOps, both developers (Devs) and Quality Assurance (QA) teams assume shared responsibility for enhancing software quality through continuous testing of each build. This process is seamlessly integrated into the CI/CD pipeline and encompasses the following elements:

• Static application security testing
• Dynamic testing functions

Additionally, it is advisable to establish a threat model and define security policies early on in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process. To effectively address recurring vulnerabilities that may arise due to the rapid release cycles and fast sprints of DevOps, automated remediation tools can be employed. These tools aid in promptly resolving identified vulnerabilities as Devs and QA teams work at the agile pace of DevOps.

Security as a Code

To facilitate the configuration and development of personalized automation workflows for security testing, Devs and QA teams can adopt the practice of treating security policies, procedures, and controls as code.

By treating security as code, organizations ensure that continuous and automated security testing seamlessly integrates into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), without introducing unnecessary costs or delays. Security testing processes run concurrently with functional testing within automated CI/CD workflows. Devs and QA teams can automatically analyze the results and enhance security performance using a programmable approach to security. This approach allows for the reuse of tools, metrics, testing scopes, and configurations. Additionally, the testing procedure adheres to consistent policies that are established during the security planning and initial design phase.

Continuous Improvement

To address the ever-evolving security threats and mitigate potential risks associated with new development sprints, DevSecOps strives to enhance security capabilities iteratively by incorporating continuous feedback. This feedback is sourced from various stakeholders, including:

• Executives and business decision-makers
• Multiple functional teams
• End-users in real-world environments
• External partners

To enable the seamless integration of security-related feedback throughout iterative sprints and release cycles, it is vital to establish provisions from the outset. This ensures that the necessary mechanisms are in place to effectively incorporate and act upon the received feedback related to security matters.

Traceability, Auditability, and Visibility

One of the primary objectives of DevSecOps is to provide valuable insights that contribute to establishing a dependable environment for achieving the desired security performance within the SDLC pipeline. To accomplish this, DevSecOps incorporates three key characteristics:

Traceability: Thoroughly tracking configuration items to ensure compliance and gain a comprehensive understanding of how security issues and policies are addressed.

Auditability: Ensuring that the process is well-documented, with clear records of administrative controls, policy implementations, and security decisions. This enables audits and ensures accountability.

Visibility: Adopting robust monitoring and observability capabilities to attain a comprehensive and end-to-end view of the security performance across the SDLC pipeline.

An essential concept that encompasses these principles is observability. Discover more about observability and its significance in the context of DevSecOps.

What Tools Are Involved in DevSecOps?

Here is the list of tools used in DevSecOps:

• Static application security testing (SAST) tools: Identify and examine weaknesses within proprietary source code.
• Interactive application security testing (IAST) tools: To assess the potential vulnerabilities of an application in the production environment, IAST utilizes dedicated security monitors embedded within the application itself.
• Software composition analysis (SCA): Automating the visibility into the utilization of open-source software (OSS) to enhance risk management, security, and license compliance.
• Dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools: Simulate the actions of hackers by conducting security testing on the application from an external network perspective.

Leverage DevSecOps Services by Mobiz

In today’s fast-paced corporate environment, software development teams must find a delicate balance between speed and security. Conventional security measures can impede the development process, posing a significant challenge to overcome. At Mobiz, our DevSecOps services are tailored to tackle these issues effectively. With our support, you can effortlessly incorporate security into each phase of the software development lifecycle, ensuring that your software remains safe and secure right from the start.

Reach out to us today and transform your business in no time!

Final Thoughts

DevSecOps has become essential for organizations seeking to balance software development with robust security. By implementing principles such as holistic automation, shifting security left, collaborative culture, continuous security testing, security as code, continuous improvement, and traceability, audibility, and visibility, enterprises can enhance security capabilities throughout the SDLC. Tools like SAST, IAST, SCA, and DAST aid in identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring compliance. DevSecOps enables iterative improvement and incorporates feedback from stakeholders. Embracing these principles establishes a secure development process, delivering high-quality applications and maintaining a strong security posture.