Why must your CI/CD server’s security be a top priority?
CI/CD servers are becoming a prime target of attacks, since they are at the core of all critical development processes. A CI/CD server has access to source code, which is one of the most valuable assets any software company owns. The server produces build artifacts and can even deploy code to production environments, posing serious risks if not properly secured. Exploiting just one weakness can give an attacker access to the supply chain and, therefore, sensitive data, allowing them to inject malware and take control of the systems – something that has been occurring with increasing frequency. According to “The State of Software Supply Chain Security 2023” special report, enterprises have seen an exponential increase in supply chain attacks since 2020. A Forrester study states that 57% of organizations have suffered from a security incident related to exposures in the DevOps toolchain.
To prevent data breaches and business disruptions that may result in huge financial losses, properly securing your CI/CD server should be a top priority today. Moreover, Google reveals in its “2022 Accelerate State of DevOps Report” that implementing appropriate security controls has a positive effect on software delivery performance and even brings additional benefits, such as reduced developer burnout.
What are the actual risks of a security breach?
- Financial losses – Depending on the nature of a breach, organizations may have to compensate affected customers, undertake expensive incident investigations and other response efforts, and pay fines for non-compliance. In addition, they may also lose significant business and see their share prices fall. According to the “Cost of a Data Breach 2022 Report”, the average cost of a breach is now USD 4.35 million.
- Business disruptions – The investigation and recovery process can take a long time, and organizations often have to shut down some or even all of their operations during that period. Obviously, the longer operations are down, the more likely customers are to leave, which can result in additional revenue loss.
- Reputation damage – The risk of losing current and potential customers to competitors that are viewed as more secure is exceptionally high.
- Legal ramifications – Security breaches that involve personal information and target the organization’s clients often result in class-action lawsuits, and authorities may even restrict companies from performing certain business activities until legal investigations are complete.
How can you enhance the security of your CI/CD server and avoid a data breach?
CI/CD servers are at the heart of your software development processes. They check out, compile, test, and build your source code into deployable artifacts and often deploy them, which means potential access to sensitive information and critical systems. The number, frequency, and severity of incidents targeting vulnerabilities in the CI/CD ecosystem are increasing in the industry, as reported by the OWASP Foundation in their recent “Top 10 CI/CD Security Risks”. Security is not a one-off task, but rather a continuous process, so we’ve prepared some practical tips to help you improve the security of your CI/CD pipelines and protect your business from attackers, in alignment with the latest application security framework outlined in that document.
This whitepaper highlights 9 best practices for strengthening the security of both on-premises and cloud-based CI/CD solutions. However, since a significant number of companies worldwide use on-premises CI/CD servers, around 50% according to one of our recent studies, some of these tips are only applicable to on-premises setups.
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