Practical Tools for Implementing Basic SDLC
In my previous article I have shared my thoughts about importance of SDLC in the Generative AI Era. I will share some practical tools for implementing some basic SDLC practice for your development.
In my last article, I highlighted the importance of the Secure Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in the Generative AI Era we are living in. Even though SDLC practices require significant mindset change and approach to software development.
I will share some practical strategies and tools to make your life easier and more productive while keeping your applications secure against critical vulnerabilities. Today, the strategy and approaches explained in this article can be mentioned as a part of the “Shift Left” strategy.
Disclaimer: In this article, several tools and SaaS solutions will be mentioned as a guideline. I have no direct or indirect affiliation with any of these tools and SaaS solutions. The tools and SaaS solutions highlighted in this article are only the ones I have personally and professionally used over several years. There may be many other solutions or tools that I will not cover here. This does not mean any negative review for the tool and platforms not mentioned here.
Introducing Automation to Your Development
This becomes more important if you are a solo developer or a member of a small team. To keep a certain productivity level, you need to find a good balance between development, operations, and security tasks. The most efficient method to achieve this is utilizing Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines.
The implementation of CI pipelines gives you the advantage of running multiple tests in a staged or parallel way to gather the results as early as possible to address and fix identified issues after each commit or merge request.
With this shortest feedback loop, you can fix the identified issues before you move to another part or functionality of your code. This method is also helpful for solo developers not to go out of the current context or forget their code.
As developers, we have multiple options to have the desired automation for our needs. The most popular tool is Jenkins. With Jenkins, you are not limited to only your CI needs. You can use it for many other automation needs including but not limited to Continuous Deployment (CD) processes to reduce the workload of production deployments.
If you are already using Github as your source code management platform you can use Github Actions as your integrated automation feature. This way the integrated automation gives you more control and customization capabilities to fit your special needs.
Another well-known source code management platform is GitLab. This platform also has Continuous Integration and Delivery solutions as part of its offerings. GitLab has a separate Security and Compliance offering to help streamline SDLC processes more native and integrated way.
The options are not limited to the above three. If you are a cloud-native developer who develops and deploys for a particular public cloud provider they all have their similar native services. On AWS you can use AWS Code Pipeline. If you are developing your applications for deploying Google Cloud, you have the option to use Google Code Build as a native and integrated managed automation service.
These are the services, tools, and platforms I have used in the past for different projects and with teams I have been part of. All of the tools and platforms have their different pros and cons. You can find the best tool and platform fit for yourself by doing your due diligence based on your needs.
Dependency Management
Regardless of the programming language we are using, we all need to rely on third-party and open-source dependencies. By nature, all these dependencies are standalone applications. Normally, all these dependencies may contain some vulnerabilities. As soon as we have compiled or packaged our application, all the dependency vulnerabilities become our application’s vulnerabilities.
Concerning this fact, managing these dependencies by regularly updating them to their most recent versions with fewer and less critical vulnerabilities becomes an important aspect of SDLC practices.
It is known that for solo developers and small development teams, dependency management activities are a significant effort. Because the activity is not simply updating dependency versions in the package definition files. This activity should include some level of testing for software composition and functionalities.
Here our previous section about automation comes into the place. Regardless of the tool or platform you choose, you can introduce the following tools to solve the biggest hassle you need to tackle.
These tools have one common approach. They check the source code repositories on a regular schedule. After every execution, they scan the package manifests. For each dependency, they check the latest versions of these dependencies. If the existing package version is lower than the latest version, this tool updates the package manifest in a separate branch. Following committing the modified package manifest in the new branch, a merge request is created.
As a developer or development team, these new branch merge requests only need to be tested to prevent failures because of the dependency's backward compatibility. If all the tests developed for the application pass without any failure, the branch is merged, and the main branch of the application is updated.
All the above flow shortens the dependency management process to simply testing a branch and merging a merge request in the source code repository.
The first tool that comes into our focus is Dependabot. This tool is primarily built to be used by Github and Github Actions. It has intensive documentation here.
The second tool is Renovatebot from Mend. This tool has more integration options and these options are explained in its documentation with further details.
By implementing this automated process of Dependency Management, we can easily get rid of our software vulnerabilities caused by outdated third-party dependency packages. This will be a more important step to improve the security of our applications.
More Capable Tools
The tools mentioned above section are single-purpose tools to address a single aspect of Secure Development Life Cycle. Implementation of more detailed and more capable secure development practices requires different controls and safeguards to defend against cybersecurity threats.
As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, we need to use and integrate more capable and sophisticated tools into our processes. Tools like Snyk, Trivy, and Semgrep have emerged as vital components in the secure development lifecycle (SDLC), offering developers and security teams the capabilities to detect vulnerabilities, enforce security policies, and ensure compliance. These platforms and tools provide more visibility and control over the development and deployment processes.
Instead of going over each of these tools one by one, we will dive into their common capabilities below. I would like to emphasize one important point here. These tools are not equivalent to each other. They have their strengths. Therefore, you can use two or three of these tools at the same time for their strengths.
Open Source and Community-Driven:
Snyk, Trivy, and Semgrep are open-source tools, which means they benefit from the contributions of a vast community of developers and security experts. This open nature fosters rapid development, continuous improvement, and up-to-date security intelligence.Comprehensive Vulnerability Detection:
All three tools are designed to detect a wide range of vulnerabilities. Snyk focuses on vulnerabilities in open-source dependencies, container images, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Trivy is known for its prowess in scanning container images and detecting vulnerabilities in both the OS packages and application dependencies. Semgrep, on the other hand, excels at finding security issues in the source code by using custom and predefined rules to identify potential risks.Integration with CI/CD Pipelines:
The integration capabilities of Snyk, Trivy, and Semgrep are vital for implementing security checks early and throughout the development process. These tools can be easily integrated into continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, enabling automatic scanning and vulnerability detection as part of the development workflow.Developer-Friendly:
A key feature of these tools is their focus on being developer-friendly. They provide actionable insights and recommendations that are easy to understand and implement. This approach helps bridge the gap between development and security teams, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for security.Customizable Rules and Policies:
Customization is a strong suit for these tools. Semgrep allows developers to write custom rules in a simple syntax to detect patterns specific to their codebases. Snyk and Trivy offer the ability to define custom security policies, helping organizations enforce standards and compliance requirements specific to their industry.
Benefits of Implementation of These Tools
Incorporating these tools and platforms into the secure development lifecycle is a proactive approach to managing and mitigating security risks. These tools provide comprehensive vulnerability detection, seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines, and developer-friendly interfaces, making them invaluable assets in the quest for secure software. By leveraging these tools, organizations or development teams can ensure that their software development processes are not only efficient but also secure, protecting both the organization and its customers from potential threats.
Here we can explain the gains and advantages below by implementing these tools in our development processes.
Early Vulnerability Detection:
Integrating any of these tools into the development lifecycle allows for the early detection of vulnerabilities for different parts of our applications. By scanning code, dependencies, and container images as they are developed, these tools can identify potential security issues before they reach production. This early detection reduces the cost and effort required to fix vulnerabilities, as issues can be addressed during the development phase rather than after deployment.Continuous Monitoring and Compliance:
Continuous monitoring is essential for maintaining security postures as projects evolve. Snyk provides continuous monitoring of dependencies and alerts for new vulnerabilities. Trivy offers scheduled scans that can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines to ensure that container images remain secure over time. Semgrep, with its customizable rules, can be used to enforce coding standards and compliance requirements, ensuring that the code adheres to best practices and regulatory standards.Automated Security Testing:
Automation is a cornerstone of modern development practices as we have discussed in the first part of this article. These tools can automate security testing, reducing the manual burden on developers and security teams. Automated scanning ensures that every change, whether in code or configuration, is assessed for potential security risks, thus maintaining a consistent security baseline.Shift-Left Security:
The concept of "shift-left" involves moving security considerations to the earliest stages of the development process. By integrating these tools early in the development process, organizations or development teams can embed security into the development workflow, encouraging developers to think about security from the start. This shift-left approach not only improves security but also promotes a culture where security is viewed as a shared responsibility across the organization.
In this article, I have tried to share my knowledge and best practices I have used, implemented, and got significant benefits for securing applications against cyber attacks. In today’s cyber threat landscape, for all the applications we develop, deploy, and distribute, we are carrying a significant responsibility against our customers and their users.
Ensuring a certain level of security, compliance, and assurance will help us to build and protect a better reputation and brand value for long-term business success.
If you have different or supporting thoughts, I will be happy to hear from you.