The Invisible Vault: Mastering Secrets Management in CI/CD Pipelines

In the high-speed world of modern software development, Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are the engines of delivery. They automate the process of building, testing, and deploying code, allowing teams to ship faster and more reliably. But this automation introduces a critical challenge: How do you securely manage the "keys to the kingdom"—the API tokens, database passwords, encryption keys, and service account credentials that your applications and infrastructure require?

These are your secrets. And managing them within a CI/CD pipeline is one of the most precarious balancing acts in cybersecurity. A single misstep can expose your entire organization to a devastating data breach. Recent breaches in CI/CD platforms have shown how exposed organizations can be when secrets leak or pipelines are compromised. As pipelines scale, the complexity and risk grow with them.

We’ll explore the high stakes, expose common pitfalls that leave you vulnerable, and outline actionable best practices to fortify your pipelines. Finally, we'll take a look at the horizon and touch upon the emerging relevance of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) in securing these critical assets.

The Stakes: Why Secrets Management Is Non-Negotiable

The speed and automation of CI/CD are its greatest strengths, but they also create an expansive attack surface. A pipeline often has privileged access to everything: your source code, your build environment, your staging servers, and even your production infrastructure.

If an attacker compromises your CI/CD pipeline, they don't just get access to your code; they get the credentials to deploy malicious versions of it, exfiltrate sensitive data from your databases, or hijack your cloud resources for crypto mining. The consequences include:

 

• Massive Data Breaches: Unauthorized access to customer data, PII, and intellectual property.
• Financial Ruin: Costs associated with incident response, legal fees, regulatory fines (DPDPA, GDPR, CCPA), and reputational damage.
• Loss of Trust: Customers and partners lose faith in your ability to protect their information.

The days of "security through obscurity" are long gone. You need a deliberate, robust strategy for managing secrets.

The Pitfalls: How We Get It Wrong

Before we look at the solutions, let's identify the most common—and dangerous—mistakes organizations make.

1. Hardcoding Secrets in Code or Config Files

This is the original sin of secrets management. Embedding a database password directly in your source code or a configuration file (config.json, docker-compose.yml) is a recipe for disaster.

Why it's bad: The secret is committed to your version control system (like Git). It becomes visible to anyone with repo access, is stored in historical commits forever, and can be easily leaked if the repo is ever made public.

2. Relying Solely on Environment Variables

While better than hardcoding, passing secrets as plain environment variables to CI/CD jobs is still a major vulnerability.

 

Why it's bad: Environment variables can be inadvertently printed to build logs, are visible to any process running on the same machine, and can be exposed through debugging tools or crash dumps.

3. Decentralized "Sprawl"

When secrets are scattered across different systems—some in Jenkins credentials, some in GitHub Actions secrets, some on developer machines, and some in a spreadsheet—you have "secrets sprawl."

Why it's bad: There is no single source of truth. Rotating secrets becomes a logistical nightmare. Auditing who has access to what is impossible.

4. Overly Broad Permissions

Granting a CI/CD job "admin" access when it only needs to read from a single S3 bucket is a violation of the Principle of Least Privilege.

Why it's bad: If that job is compromised, the attacker inherits those excessive permissions, maximizing the potential blast radius of the attack.

5. Lack of Secret Rotation

Using the same static API key for years is a ticking time bomb.

Why it's bad: The longer a secret exists, the higher the probability it has been compromised. Without a rotation policy, a stolen key remains valid indefinitely.

The Best Practices: Building a Fortified Pipeline

Now, let's look at the proven strategies for securing your secrets in a CI/CD environment.

1. Use a Dedicated Secrets Management Tool

This is the cornerstone of a secure strategy. Stop using ad-hoc methods and adopt a purpose-built solution like HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or Google Cloud Secret Manager.

How it works: Your CI/CD pipeline authenticates to the secrets manager (using its own identity) and requests the specific secrets it needs at runtime. The secrets are never stored in the pipeline itself.

Benefits: Centralized control, robust audit logs, encryption at rest, and fine-grained access policies.

2. Implement Dynamic Secrets (Just-in-Time Credentials)

This is the gold standard. Instead of using static, long-lived secrets, configure your secrets manager to generate temporary credentials on demand.

 

Example: A CI job needs to deploy to AWS. It asks Vault for credentials. Vault dynamically creates an AWS IAM user with the exact permissions needed and a 15-minute lifespan. The pipeline uses these credentials, and after 15 minutes, they automatically expire and are deleted.

Benefit: Even if these credentials are leaked, they are useless to an attacker almost immediately.

3. Enforce the Principle of Least Privilege

Scope access to secrets tightly. A build job should only have access to the secrets required to build the application, not to deploy it. Use your secrets manager's policy engine to enforce this.

 

Practice: Create distinct identities for different parts of your pipeline (e.g., ci-builder, cd-deployer-staging, cd-deployer-prod) and grant them only the permissions they absolutely need.

4. Separate Secrets from Configuration

Never bake secrets into your application artifacts (like Docker images or VM snapshots).

Practice: Your application's code should expect secrets to be provided at runtime, for example, as environment variables injected only during the deployment phase by your orchestration platform (e.g., Kubernetes Secrets) which fetches them from the secrets manager.

5. Shift Security Left: Automated Secret Scanning

Don't wait for a breach to find out you've committed a secret. Use automated tools to scan your code, commit history, and configuration files for high-entropy strings that look like secrets.

Tools: git-secrets, truffleHog, gitleaks, and built-in scanning features in platforms like GitHub and GitLab.

Practice: Add these scanners as a pre-commit hook on developer machines and as a blocking step in your CI pipeline.

The Future Frontier: Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)

While the practices above secure secrets at rest and in use today, we must also look ahead. The cryptographic algorithms that currently secure nearly all digital communications (like RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography used in TLS/SSL) are vulnerable to being broken by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer.

While such computers do not yet exist at scale, they represent a future threat that has immediate consequences due to "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks. An attacker could intercept and store encrypted traffic from your CI/CD pipeline today—containing sensitive secrets being transmitted from your secrets manager—and decrypt it years from now when quantum computing matures.

What is Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)? PQC refers to a new generation of cryptographic algorithms that are designed to be resistant to attacks from both classical and future quantum computers. NIST is currently in the process of standardizing these algorithms.

Relevance to CI/CD Secrets Management: The primary risk is in the transport of secrets. The secure channel (TLS) established between your CI/CD runner and your Secrets Manager is the point of vulnerability. To future-proof your pipeline, you need to consider moving towards PQC-enabled protocols.

What You Can Do Now:

• Crypto-Agility: Start building "crypto-agility" into your systems. This means designing your applications and infrastructure so that cryptographic algorithms can be updated without massive rewrites.
• Vendor Assessment: Ask your secrets management and cloud providers about their PQC roadmaps. When will they support PQC algorithms for TLS and data encryption?
• Pilot & Test: Begin experimenting with PQC algorithms in non-production environments to understand their performance characteristics and integration challenges.

Conclusion

Secrets management in CI/CD pipelines is a critical component of your organization's security posture. It's not a "set it and forget it" task but an ongoing process of improvement. By moving away from dangerous pitfalls like hardcoding and towards best practices like using dedicated secrets managers and dynamic credentials, you can significantly reduce your risk.

Start today by assessing your current pipeline. Identify your biggest vulnerabilities and implement one of the best practices outlined above. Security is a journey, and every step you take towards a more secure pipeline is a step away from a potential disaster.

Cyber Security Responsibilities of Roles Involved in Software Development

Building secure software is crucial as a vulnerable software would be an easy target for the cyber criminals to exploit. There are people, process and technology forming part of the software supply chain and it is very important that all of these plays a role in securing the supply chain. While process and technology play the role of enablers, it is people who should buy-in and adapt to the mindset of ensuring security in every aspect of their routine work. People's understanding, awareness, and active participation in security practices throughout the software supply chain directly impact the software's overall security posture. This includes developers implementing secure coding techniques, security teams identifying vulnerabilities, and everyone involved staying updated on the latest threats and best practices to prevent potential security breaches.

Whatever said and done, the root cause of a vulnerability in a software ultimately boils down to people, because someone somewhere had missed something and thus a security defect creeps in to the supply chain and shows up as a vulnerability. It could be a missed requirement by the Business Analyst or a simple coding mistake by a developer. So, everyone involved in the software development right from gathering requirements to deployment of the software in production environment need to have the sense of cyber security in what they do. Even those involved in support and maintenance of software systems also has a role in keeping the software secure.

With that context, let's dive into the cyber security responsibilities of various roles involved in the software supply chain.

Product Owner / Product Manager

While some organization may have both the roles some may have only one of the above role. In any case, be it Product Owner or Product Manager, those assuming such role shall ensure to pay attention to security and data protection requirements of the product that they manage.

Product Owners are responsible for delivering maximum value and excellent end user experience. In the SaaS world, they act as a link between stakeholders, development teams, and end users – ensuring the product meets business goals and specific user needs. In today's digital era, security and data protection is a key consideration and is fundamental to the value delivered. Security lapse may easily break the trust and thus make the product useless in no time.

Given this, the Product Owners should know how to protect the product from the dangers and threats of the outside world. To effectively, ensure that the product is reasonably secure, the Product Owners responsibility should set the security and data protection as priority in every phase of the product lifecycle. 

Business Analyst

Business Analyst's role is critical in software development, as it is them who will at the front line, gathering, eliciting and documenting the functional and as well as non-functional requirements for a software product. It will be most beneficial in terms of efforts, if the business analyst could anticipate and call out potential data protection and security requirements for a software product. 

A business analyst's security responsibilities include: 

• identifying potential security risks within business processes.
• ensuring data privacy by analyzing data flows.
• recommending security controls during project planning.
• communicating security concerns to stakeholders.
• staying updated on emerging security threats to incorporate into their analysis.

Essentially the business analysts should act as a bridge between business needs and security requirements. Depending upon the sensitivity and criticality of the domain that the software product caters to, the the responsibilities may extend beyond what is stated above.

Software / Solution Architect 

Software and solution architects play distinct but intertwined roles in developing and implementing IT solutions. Software architects focus on the design and implementation of software components, while solution architects bridge the gap between business needs and technical solutions, ensuring alignment across the entire IT landscape.

Software and Solution Architects play a critical role in ensuring cybersecurity within the software supply chain. Their responsibilities span multiple areas, including designing secure architectures, enforcing compliance, and mitigating risks associated with third-party dependencies. 

Here are some key responsibilities of Software and Solution Architects:

• Ensure zero-trust architecture principles are embedded in design.
• Define and implement security controls for third-party integrations and dependencies.
• Integrate automated security testing (SAST, DAST, SCA) into CI/CD pipelines.
• Conduct risk assessments for third-party software components.
• Monitor for vulnerabilities in open-source and third-party libraries.
• Enforce code signing and provenance verification.
• Establish remediation workflows for compromised dependencies.
• Ensure compliance with NIST 800-161, ISO 27001, and / or such other supply chain security frameworks.
• Align the solution design and security practices with applicable government regulations.

At a minimum, the Software and Solution Architects shall ensure integration of security in the early stages of design and adherence to the Secure Software Design practices which include implementation of Secure Defaults, Least Privilege Principle, Defense in Depth, Secure Configuration Management and Security Testing.

Software Developers

Software developers are the ones who create the application in line with the business requirement and the technical design by writing code. It is important that they understand and interpret the business requirement and technical design in the same way the business analysts and architects have envisioned. 

Off late exploitation of vulnerabilities has been among the most used methods by the cyber criminals. Given that trend, software developers play a crucial role in creating / building secure software, ensuring that the applications remain resilient against cyber threats. Their responsibilities span across secure coding, dependency management, and proactive risk mitigation. 

Here are the key responsibilities of software developers:

• Ensure strict adherence to the secure coding standards to prevent vulnerabilities like SQL injection and buffer overflows.
• Scan software with automated security testing tools (SAST, DAST, SCA).
• Ensure secure CI/CD pipelines to prevent unauthorized code injections.
• Validate checksums to ensure integrity of downloaded dependencies.
• Use lock files to prevent unintended updates to third-party libraries.
• Enforce code signing to verify authenticity of software components.
• Use artifact signing to prevent tampering.
• Develop remediation workflows for compromised dependencies.

QA engineers / Testers

A Software QA Engineer plays a crucial role in security by ensuring software is free from  vulnerabilities. More specifically, their role is very relevant in preventing various injection vulnerabilities by ensuring that the inputs from all sources are properly sanitized and validated before processing. Besides, they are expected to ensure basic authentication and authorization, password rules, MFA requirement, data leak prevention, etc.

The key responsibilities of QA Engineers include:

• Ensuring that proper authentication and authorization is in place.
• Sensitive data is identified and restricted to authorized users only.
• All inputs (through all sources) are sanitized and validated at server side, before processing.
• Data in transit is encrypted and sensitive data is not transmitted in plain text
• Review and test documented feature specific security requirements.
• Ensure regulatory compliance requirements are documented and test the same.
• Test Data downloads to ensure that appropriate level data masking, encryption or password protection for the downloaded files are implemented
• Look for bulk downloads, which shall be restricted to authorized users only.
• Ensure that the error / exception messages doesn't reveal any sensitive environment / technology details.
• Ensure that all uploads are restricted for appropriate file types and file size.

DevOps Engineer

DevOps engineers are IT professionals who oversee code releases and the relationship between development and IT operations teams within an organisation. They aim to establish a culture of collaboration between teams that historically have been siloed. DevOps seeks to automate and streamline the build, test and release processes via a continuous delivery pipeline. 

DevOps engineers play a key role in ensuring supply chain security. focus on the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. With security included, their function transitions to DevSecOps.

Their security specific responsibilities include:

• Ensure that the authentication keys and other secrets associated with the DevOps pipeline are maintained securely, preferably within a Secure Key Management Service.
• Ensure automated static and dynamic application security testing (SAST & DAST) is performed to ensure that the code and the dependent components are free from any vulnerabilities.
• Ensure that the packaged image or code is free from vulnerabilities by performing automated scanning.
• Review and ensure that the deployment script is free from any external injections.
• Ensure that all changes to the deployment scripts impacting the infrastructure configuration are subject proper change management process with requisite approvals.

Production Support / Help Desk Engineer

The production support engineers are the ones who face the customers who report issues in production systems. They extend L1 support and to understand and diagnose the issues reported they may need additional inputs / data for which many organizations just grant them read only access to production databases. This would be the biggest risk, as they are the easy targets for the hackers to gain access to the database. While read-only access may protect the database from unauthorized modification, it would not prevent from data leakage.

Ideally, production support engineers should never have direct access to database, instead they may have a CRM kind of controlled interface to query data pertaining to the one customer (or entity) at a time. Such interface shall have a log of all activities performed.

Here are some of the key responsibilities of the production support / helpdesk engineer:

• Ensure to establish the identity of the caller / customer being serviced and share only the data pertaining to such customer or entity.
• Ensure that while sharing such data, sensitive data is appropriately masked.
• If access to database is absolutely necessary, request for temporary access, so that such credentials are revoked immediately after its intended use.
• Use MFA and / or stronger password and keep the credentials safe.
• Never leave the system unattended.

Conclusion

Each role in the software development lifecycle has a unique set of responsibilities when it comes to cybersecurity. By understanding and implementing these responsibilities, software developers can significantly enhance the security posture of their applications, ensuring a safer digital environment for all.

Remember, cybersecurity is a team effort—everyone plays a part in keeping data safe!

Building Secure Software - Integrating Security in Every Phase of the SDLC

The software development lifecycle (SDLC) is a process for planning, designing, building deploying and maintaining software systems that has been around in one form or another for the better part of the last 6 decades. While the phases of SDLC executed in sequential order seem to describe the waterfall software development process, it is important to realize that waterfall, agile, DevOps, lean, iterative, and spiral are all SDLC methodologies. SDLC methodologies might differ in what the phases are named, which phases are included, or the order in which they are executed.

A common problem in software development is that security related activities are left out or deferred until the final testing phase, which is too late in the SDLC after most of the critical design and implementation has been completed. Besides, the security checks performed during the testing phase can be superficial, limited to scanning and penetration testing, which might not reveal more complex security issues. By adopting shift left principle, teams are able to detect and fix security flaws early on, save money that would otherwise be spent on a costly rework, and have a better chance of avoiding delays going into production.

Integrating security into SDLC should look like weaving rather than stacking. There is no “security phase,” but rather a set of best practices and tools that should be included within the existing phases of the SDLC. A Secure SDLC requires adding security review and testing at each software development stage, from design, to development, to deployment and beyond. From initial planning to deployment and maintenance, embedding security practices ensures the creation of robust and resilient software. A Secure SDLC not only helps in identifying potential vulnerabilities early but also reduces the cost and effort required to fix security flaws later in the development process. Despite the perceived overhead that security efforts add to, the impact from the security incident could be far more devastating than the effort of getting it right the first time around. 

1. Planning

The planning phase sets the foundation for secure software development. During this phase, it’s essential to clearly establish the security strategy and objectives and develop a security plan, which shall be part and parcel of the product or project management plan. While doing so, it is important to take into account the contractual obligations with the client, regulatory requirements as may be relevant and applicable for the functional domain and the country and region where the product or project is likely to be executed and deployed. It is also important to define and document appropriate security policies as relevant to the project / product.  The established Security strategies, objectives and the related implementation plan shall be diseminated to all stakeholders, so that they are aware of their roles and responsibilities in meeting the objectives and achieving these goals.

2. Requirements

In the requirements phase, security requirements should be explicitly defined and documented. Collaborate with stakeholders to understand the security needs of the application. Identify compliance requirements and industry standards that must be adhered to. Incorporate security considerations into functional and non-functional requirements. Ensure that security requirements are clear, measurable, and testable.

Security requirement gathering is a critical part of this phase. Without this effort, the design and implementation phases will be based on unstated choices, which can lead to security gaps. You might need to change the implementation later to accommodate security, which can be expensive.

During this phase, the Business Analysts shall gather relevant security requirements various sources and such requirements are of the following types:

• Security Drivers: The security drivers determine the security needs as per the industry standards, thereby shaping security requirements for the given software project or product. The drivers for security requirements include regulatory compliance like SarbanesOxley, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA),  PCI DSS, Data Protection Regulaations etc.; industry regulations and standards like ISO, OASIS etc.; company policies like privacy policies, coding standards, patching policies, data classification policies etc.; and security features like authentication and authorization model, role-based access control, and administrative interfaces etc. The policies when transformed to detailed requirements demonstrate the security requirements. By using the drivers, managers can determine the security requirements necessary for the project. 
• Functional Security Requirements (FSR): FSRs are the requirements that focus on the given product or project. The requirements for the FSRs can be gathered from the customers and end users. This may also contain security requirements as derived from the Security Drivers. These requirements are normally gathered by means of misuse cases which capture requirements in negative sense, like what should not happen or what should not be permitted. To ensure that the FSR is fully gathered, it is essential that the involved Business Analysts shall have the requisite level of exposure in Security related aspects or shall collaborate with Security Analysts.

3. Design

The design phase is where the Architects document the technical aspects of the software. This is a critical phase for incorporating security aspects with technical and implementation details into the software architecture. In this phase, the Architects shall consider the Drivers and FSRs documented in the Software Requirements Specification as documented in the previous phase. The following are some of the Non Functional security requirements that the Architects shall take into account while designing the Software Architecture.

• The Security dimension: The Architects shall Identify and document the security controls to be considered for protecting the system and interfaces exposed for third parties. For example, component / module segmentation strategy, the types of identities (both human and non-human) needed, authentication and authorization scheme, and the encryption methods to protect data, etc. 
• Shared Responsibilities: It's important to understand and take into account the shared responsibility model of the cloud service provider or such other infrastructure service provider. It will be unnecessary to implement security controls within the system where the service provider has accepted the responsibility. However, it would be appropriate to factor aa conditional compensating controls, so that in the event of any breach on the service provider end, the compensating control could kick-in.
• System Dependencies: Clearly identify the third party or open source components or services to be used after evaluating the security risks associated with such components and services. If appropriate consider factoring additional security controls to compensate any known risks exposed by such components / services.
• Security Design Patterns: Design Patterns offer solutions for standard security concerns like segmentation and isolation, strong authorization, uniform application security, and modern protocols. The Architect shall explicitly call out the relevant and appropriate design patterns to be used by the development teams.

4. Development

During the development phase, secure coding practices are paramount. Educate developers on secure coding techniques and provide them with tools and resources to write secure code. The Developers shall be required to use static code analysis tools to identify and remediate security issues early in the development process. The developers shall have the mindset to expect the unexpected, so that all current and future scenarios are considered while building the software.

The following are some of the common practices that the developers shall adhere to while building the software:

• Input Validation: One of the most common entry points for attackers is through improperly validated inputs. Ensure that all user inputs are thoroughly validated and sanitized. Implement strong input validation techniques to prevent injection attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). It is common that there would be multiple entry points for receiving inputs (e.g. web and mobile user interfaces, APIs, uploads, etc), in which case, the validation and sanitization shall be implemented in all such entry points. 
• Write just enough code: When you reduce your code footprint, you also reduce the chances of security defects. Reuse code and libraries that are already in use and have been through security validations instead of duplicating code.
• Use Parameterized Queries: SQL injection attacks can be devastating, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary SQL code. To prevent this, always use parameterized queries or prepared statements when interacting with databases. This approach ensures that user inputs are treated as data, not executable code.
• Implement Authentication and Authorization: Authentication verifies the identity of users, while authorization determines their access levels. Use strong authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), and implement role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure that users only have access to the resources they need.
• Deny-all approach by default: Create allowlists only for entities that need access. For example, if you have code that needs to determine whether a privileged operation should be allowed, you should write it so that the deny outcome is the default case and the allow outcome occurs only when specifically permitted by code.
• Encrypt Sensitive Data: Encryption is a critical component of secure coding. Encrypt sensitive data both at rest and in transit to protect it from unauthorized access. Use industry-standard encryption algorithms and ensure proper key management practices. With the quantum computing getting closer to commercial adoption, it is time to consider quantum safe encryption methods.
• Secure Session Management: Session hijacking can compromise user accounts. Implement secure session management practices, such as generating unique session IDs, using HTTPS, and setting appropriate session timeouts. Ensure that session tokens are securely stored and transmitted.
• Regularly Update and Patch Dependencies: Outdated libraries and dependencies can introduce vulnerabilities into your software. Regularly update and patch third-party libraries and components to ensure that known security flaws are addressed promptly.
• Implement Error Handling and Logging: Proper error handling and logging are crucial for identifying and mitigating security issues. Avoid exposing sensitive information in error messages. Use logging to track suspicious activities and potential security breaches.
• Conduct Code Reviews: Peer code reviews are essential steps in the development process. Conduct regular code reviews to identify potential security issues. Use automated tools for static and dynamic analysis to uncover vulnerabilities.

5. Testing

The testing phase of the SDLC typically happens after all new code has been written, compiled and the application is deployed in a test environment. This is another opportunity to perform tests in near production environment, even if earlier testing of source code already happened. The testing phase is where security vulnerabilities are identified and addressed. While there exist tools for performing securit testing, the human testers are required to be aware of various security scenarios and accordingly align their test strategy, choice of tools, the level of coverage, etc. Following are some of the widely practiced security testing methods, besides manual functional testing:

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST): SAST is a software testing method that analyzes an application's source code for vulnerabilities. It's also known as static analysis or white box testing. SAST analyzes an application's source code, byte code, and binaries. SAST can help identify vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS). SAST is a white-box testing method that looks for vulnerabilities inside the application.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): DAST is a black-box testing method that analyzes web applications for vulnerabilities by simulating attacks. DAST tests running applications in real-time to find security flaws. DAST evaluates applications from the "outside in". DAST tests for critical threats like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection (SQLi), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF).
• Penetration Testing: A penetration test, also known as a pen test, is a simulated cyber attack against your application to check for exploitable vulnerabilities. The goal is to determine if the application is secure and can withstand potential attacks.
• Fuzz Testing: Fuzz testing is a software testing method that uses automated tools to identify bugs and vulnerabilities in web applications by feeding unexpected or invalid data to see how the application behaves or responds. The goal is to induce unexpected behavior, such as crashes or memory leaks, and see if it leads to an exploitable bug. Fuzz testing can uncover a wide range of vulnerabilities, including those that may not be detected through other testing methods.

6. Deployment

Securing the deployment phase of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) involves ensuring that the software is ready for use and configured securely. This includes implementing access controls to protect the environment used for build and deployment, monitoring for vulnerabilities, and responding to security incidents. The following are some of the best practices to be practiced:

• Environment Hardening: Secure the deployment environment by disabling unnecessary services and applying security patches. Build agents are highly privileged and have access to the build server and the code. They must be protected with the same rigor as the workload components. This means that access to build agents must be authenticated and authorized, they should be network-segmented with firewall controls, they should be subject to vulnerability scanning, and so on.
• Secure the Source Code Repository: The source code repository must be safeguarded as well. Grant access to code repositories on a need-to-know basis and reduce exposure of vulnerabilities as much as possible to avoid attacks. Have a thorough process to review code for security vulnerabilities. Use security groups for that purpose, and implement an approval process that's based on business justifications.
• Protect the deployment pipelines: It's not enough to just secure code. If it runs in exploitable pipelines, all security efforts are futile and incomplete. Build and release environments must also be protected because you want to prevent bad actors from running malicious code in your pipeline.
• Up-to-date Software Bill of Materials (SBOM): Every component that's integrated into an application adds to the attack surface. Ensure that only evaluated and approved components are used within the application. On a regular basis, check that your manifest matches what's in your build process. Doing so helps ensure that no new components that contain back doors or other malware are added unexpectedly.

7. Maintenance

Security does not end with deployment; it is an ongoing process. During the maintenance phase, continuously monitor the application for security threats and vulnerabilities. Apply security patches and updates promptly. Conduct regular security audits and reviews to ensure compliance with security policies and standards. Educate users on security best practices and respond to security incidents swiftly.

Conclusion

Building secure software requires a holistic approach that integrates security into every phase of the SDLC. By adopting these best practices, organizations can create resilient applications that protect sensitive data and withstand cyber threats. Remember, security is a continuous journey, and staying vigilant is key to maintaining a secure software environment.