What is IaC Security?
IaC (Infrastructure as Code) is the management and provisioning of IT infrastructure through code, rather than through manual processes. It is about using scripts to set up, provision and manage hardware, operating systems, configurations, Kubernetes clusters, third-party services and more. With IaC, developers can automate processes, track versions and reuse code. This results in higher scalability and efficiency.
However, IaC brings new security challenges. These include misconfigurations, poor handling of Secrets, drift, unauthorized access, vulnerabilities and more. IaC security is the practice of securing the IaC codebase and the resources managed using IaC, to prevent breaches.
How to Implement Infrastructure as Code
There are two primary methods for developing IaC, according to infrastructure as code principles:
- Declarative (Functional) Configuration – Specifying the desired state of infrastructure without explicitly listing the steps to achieve it. It’s about defining the end goal, like how many servers should run, which applications should be installed, or which services should be active. Then, the underlying system or tool is responsible for figuring out how to achieve that state. This approach often simplifies management and interpretation of IaC configurations. Popular tools that support this approach include Terraform, AWS CloudFormation and Kubernetes configuration files.
- Imperative (Procedural) Configuration – Specifying the sequence of commands or actions to reach the desired state. It’s about detailing the ‘how’ and providing a step-by-step guide for setting up the infrastructure. This method offers more control over the provisioning process but can become complex, especially in large environments or when changes to the infrastructure are frequent. Ansible, Chef and Puppet are examples of tools that can be used for imperative IaC.
Common Infrastructure as Code Risks
IaC offers developer productivity benefits, but also security risks. These include:
- Since infrastructure setup is defined through code, errors in the code can lead to misconfigured IaC templates and environments. This could result in a range of risks, from exposing sensitive data due to incorrect access settings to over-provisioning resources.
- IaC scripts can accidentally embed secrets or sensitive information, such as passwords or API keys. If these scripts are stored in version control systems without proper access controls, they can expose sensitive information.
- Manually changing the infrastructure directly, outside of the IaC processes, can lead to drift, which are inconsistencies between the actual state and the code-defined state of the infrastructure. This can lead to deployment failures and breaches.
- Outdated dependencies and modules within IaC can also introduce security vulnerabilities.
How to Defend Against IaC Risks: IaC Security Best Practices
To protect your infrastructure and source code from IaC-related security risks, follow these infrastructure as code security best practices.
How to secure infrastructure as code:
- Use version control systems to manage and track changes to your infrastructure scripts.
- Implement a code review process for your IaC templates. Having another set of eyes on the code helps in identifying potential security issues, logic errors, or misconfigurations that could lead to vulnerabilities. This also promotes a culture of security and quality. A security IDE plugin can also help.
- Use static analysis tools designed for IaC to detect misconfigurations, hardcoded secrets and other security issues before they are deployed. These tools can integrate with your CI/CD pipeline, to provide automated security checks during the development process.
- Engage in dynamic analysis. This helps in identifying runtime issues that static analysis might miss, including interactions with other services and runtime permissions issues.
- Avoid hardcoding secrets like passwords, API keys, and tokens in your IaC scripts. Use a secure secrets management solution to inject these values at runtime. This reduces the risk of exposure and makes it easier to rotate secrets regularly.
- Apply the principle of least privilege to your IaC scripts. Overprivileged accounts can lead to significant security risks if compromised.
- Monitor infrastructure drift to help you respond quickly to potential security incidents or misconfigurations.
- Prevent modification of infrastructure post-deployment (immutability).
- Regularly update and patch components like dependencies, modules and images.
- Manage inventory with an SBOM so you always have an updated and accurate picture of the attack surface.
IaC Security with Checkmarx
Checkmarx secures IaC templates with advanced scanning, vulnerability identification and misconfiguration detection, following IAc best practices 2024 for IaC security 2024.
Main capabilities include:
- Scanning and detecting vulnerabilities and misconfigurations early in the SDLC and in the IDE.
- Prioritization of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
- Automated ticketing for remediation.
- Tailoring of securing rules to alert and halt builds.
Secure your IaC templates today.