Threats to the software supply chain are leading to a change in DevOps’ philosophy. Organizations must include security deeply into their software development life cycles in order to meet internal and external demands.
To assist manage how code, apps, and infrastructure are protected along the software supply chain, a DevSecOps paradigm is developing.
DevSecOps and software supply chain security work together to guarantee that, if possible, automation is used to make processes repeatable, increasing security and reducing the likelihood of hostile behavior or human error.
For more in-depth explorations of every aspect of software supply chain security, go to the associated links in this extensive handbook.
Security in the software supply chain is crucial
The idea of code security is not new. On the other hand, early development life cycle security promotion is. As “sec” becomes established in the DevOps culture as a result of the movement to move security to the left, the idea is entirely transformed into DevSecOps.
Increased external pressure, including from the federal government, has come along with this transformation to strengthen software supply chains so that major attacks like the SolarWinds hack of 2020 do not endanger the country’s vital infrastructure and do irreversible harm.
In essence, businesses must work out how to internally integrate its development, security, and operations teams while still meeting a variety of external requirements.
DevSecOps and security Adopting a unified DevSecOps approach to software development is the first step toward safeguarding the software supply chain.
By doing this, businesses may move beyond fundamental DevOps security and gain a greater understanding of the many threat vectors.
To enable developers to find and fix security problems, current DevOps solutions go beyond merely moving security features to the left; they also provide end-to-end visibility and control over the whole SDLC for developing, deploying, and running applications.
Teams who incorporate security principles throughout their development process are 1.6 times more likely to achieve or surpass their business goals, according to the Google Cloud DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) “Accelerate State of DevOps 2021 Report”.
Elite DevSecOps teams are advised to use the following practices:
- Use the standard compliance and security measures.
- Common controls and CI/CD should be automated.
- Apply the zero-trust philosophy.
- An inventory of all available resources, including infrastructure, should be made.
- To find novel weaknesses, think about employing an alternative scale.
- Safe containers and orchestrators
- Recognizing government and commercial regulations
- The Biden administration has been vocal about its goal for federal organizations and their contractors to significantly increase software supply chain security.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its Secure Software Development Framework, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s work on Software Bill of Materials standards, and SLSA, an industry collaboration on a supply chain security framework, are just a few examples of standards bodies where this sense of urgency is evident.
Enterprise compliance officers look to DevSecOps teams to simplify auditing the development life cycle and attesting to mandate requirements.
The benefits of a DevOps platform for you
In our 2022 Global DevSecOps survey, participants overwhelmingly responded that their company today needs secure software development and that security is the most crucial justification for using a DevOps platform.
Attacks on the software supply chain may surely be prevented with the help of a DevOps platform. Here are a few illustrations:
- Transparency and auditability throughout: who, where, and when made changes?
- Both the policies used and the measures taken for exceptions are administered and applied consistently.
- Greater end-to-end context produces replies that are more intelligent.
- The attack surface of a streamlined toolchain has been decreased.
Even more advanced software supply chain security procedures, including code signing to safeguard pipeline builds, can be supported by DevOps platforms.
Code signing is a topic of concern to standards organizations creating regulations to safeguard software supply chains.
Software supply chain security features of GitLab
GitLab has been at the vanguard of DevSecOps, helping businesses move away from traditional application testing in their security procedures.
For instance, security testing is automated within the CI pipeline at the conclusion of the development cycle rather than being carried out by security experts using their own tools, with results delivered to developers while they are still refining their code.
Read about how GitLab is also changing security, remediation, and continuous integration processes.
With the advent of continuous compliance and policy engines, automated attestation, and SBOMs, GitLab is laser-focused on enabling organizations to construct and manage security and compliance guardrails that allow developers to work quickly while controlling risk.
Even more security criteria can be met by the platform thanks to the GitLab partner ecosystem, including the ability to generate SBOMs automatically and defend applications against malicious modules.
What does a supply chain attack on software look like?
An issue with the supply chain recently harmed Solar Winds, a well-known IT company in the US. A crucial internal password was made public due to a former intern’s careless information security procedures (solarwinds123).
Once they had the password, the alleged Russian hackers were able to log into a system that SolarWinds used to create updates for Orion, one of the company’s key products.
The attackers then inserted malicious code within a software update that was otherwise legitimate, giving them the ability to track and identify the operating processes used to compile Orion as well as replace the source files with malware called SUNBURST.
An estimated 18,000 users received Orion upgrades, and SUNBURST provided the attackers with data that was used to locate targets for more malware, increased access, and espionage.
This is a typical illustration of a modern software supply chain report attack because the intended targets and victims were separated from the entry point by a number of degrees.
