Modern software needs Infrastructure as Code (IaC), which gives developers the opportunity to rapidly set up infrastructure while giving systems the flexibility to expand as needed.
Infrastructure as code (IaC) has emerged as a critical element of contemporary cloud methods in order to make infrastructure procurement reliable, scalable, and quick.
Despite all of its advantages and versatility, IaC has significant disadvantages, particularly in terms of security and compliance. The first step in fully embracing IaC to automate cloud security and shift it left is becoming aware of its risks and challenges. We’ll go over some of those difficulties in this piece, along with potential solutions. Leveraging infrastructures for online services and applications has changed as a result of IaC. Developers can create infrastructures by using scripts written in code rather than managing actual system setups.
Configuring an IaC template and image sensitivity
As a means of provisioning infrastructure, developers incorporate basic images into IaC templates. When designers don’t use base pictures from reputable registries, these models become vulnerable to security issues. A project is more likely to develop vulnerabilities as a result, ostensibly driving up the cost of the remedy. It is additionally challenging to distinguish between application and infrastructure because of container images.
Secret keys, access codes, and IP addresses are frequently hard-coded with sensitive information by security teams in IaC templates. Instead, data should be kept in services like AWS Secrets Manager and Microsoft Azure Key Vault that offer the necessary details for building an infrastructure plan. Catch syntax mistakes before utilizing an IaC template by checking it with the current infrastructure installation or an infrastructure tool, and then perform sanity and security checks after the deployment.
Configuration instability
Although developers can use automated tools to scan the environment when configuration alterations are made explicit in the production environment, cloud infrastructure’s integrity is compromised. Teams should avoid manually altering infrastructure after deployment while updating or correcting any infrastructure through code as skipping pre-deployment testing raises the chance of human mistakes. Ensuring the infrastructure’s integrity is essential for minimizing configuration drift.
Also Read: Embracing and Securing Infrastructure as Code
Access control and a lack of enforcement of the least-privilege principle
Despite the fact that developers frequently need privileged access to particular systems, this raises the possibility of unauthorized access to mission-critical systems. The most frequent risk occurs when cloud administrators grant users vast access even when they only need a portion of those permissions to do activities.
The phrase “least privilege” refers to limiting user or developer identities’ access to only the information necessary for their jobs, as well as routinely assessing the levels of access across accounts and “trimming” unused privileges. PoLP implementation reduces the possibility of introducing security concerns into IaC by restricting developers’ and users’ access to sensitive data or materials.
Managing secrets
When building and administering infrastructures, credentials are frequently required in order for services to effectively communicate. The credentials and privileges enabled in the service context must be shared by these. When one service tries to connect to another, the link is verified and read access is given. These services frequently include delicate information like passwords, SSH keys, API tokens, RSA keys, Encryption keys, etc.
Ghost Resources
When performing IaC processes, failing to tag assets may leave behind “ghost” resources. These untagged assets are hard to find and see, and they are also tricky for developers to monitor on the cloud. Additionally, these resources might not have the same level of observability as the rest of the system. They deplete resources, produce potential assault routes, and impact posture, sometimes leading to drift.
These “ghost” resources may cause higher costs, more challenging maintenance, and less dependability. These untagged resources also pose a dangerous attack surface, making them potential entry points for security breaches. To reduce these dangers, it is crucial to tag and monitor untagged resources.
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