In this lesson,
we will learn about development and deployment.
Development and deployment involves creating, configuring,
and releasing cloud-based applications and infrastructure.
Development and deployment should ensure
that security best practices are integrated
throughout the entire process.
Development and deployment includes tools,
such as Terraform and Ansible,
as well as concepts such as package monitoring.
Terraform is an infrastructure as code, or IaC, tool,
automating the provisioning of cloud infrastructure.
Ansible is another automation tool
that focuses on configuration management,
application deployment, and task automation.
Finally, package monitoring involves tracking
and analyzing the security and integrity
of software packages and dependencies used in development
to prevent vulnerabilities from being introduced
during deployment.
Let's learn more about Terraform, Ansible,
and package monitoring.
First, we have Terraform.
Terraform is an infrastructure as code, or IaC, tool
that automates the provisioning
and management of cloud infrastructure.
By writing code to define infrastructure,
Terraform allows teams to create, update,
and manage resources like servers, databases,
and networking components.
For example, a development team might use Terraform
to define and deploy a secure virtual private cloud,
including setting up subnets, security groups,
and access control lists.
By using a version-controlled configuration file,
the team could ensure that every environment, development,
staging, and production follows the same security policies
and network structure,
reducing the risk of misconfigurations.
Another key advantage of Terraform is its ability
to work across multiple cloud providers,
such as Amazon Web Services, or AWS, Microsoft Azure,
and Google Cloud Platform, or GCP.
This means that an organization can manage complex
multi-cloud environments from a single code base.
Terraform also has a feature called state
that tracks the real-time state of deployed resources,
ensuring that any changes made
to the infrastructure are deliberate
and in line with the defined configuration.
For instance, if a security setting is accidentally modified
in the cloud, Terraform can detect this drift
and help return the infrastructure
to its intended and secure state.
Second, we have Ansible.
Ansible is an automation tool
that focuses on configuration management,
application deployment,
and task automation across cloud environments.
Unlike Terraform, which provisions infrastructure,
Ansible is used to configure
and manage the applications running on that infrastructure.
For example, after using Terraform
to set up a virtual machine, the team could use Ansible
and an Ansible playbook to install security patches,
configure firewalls, and deploy necessary software.
Ansible operates using playbooks which are simple YAML,
or Yet Another Markup Language, files
that describe the tasks to be executed, making them easy
to read, write, and manage automation processes with.
One of Ansible's strengths is its agentless architecture,
meaning Ansible does not require any special software
to be installed on the servers it manages.
Instead, Ansible uses secure connections like Secure Shell,
or SSH, to communicate with systems,
making it lightweight
and easy to integrate into existing environments.
For example, if an organization needs to ensure
that all servers have the latest version
of a web server package with secure configuration settings,
they can write a playbook
that applies these changes across hundreds
of servers simultaneously.
This ensures consistency
and helps avoid configuration drift, enhancing the security
and reliability of cloud-based applications.
Third and last, we have package monitoring.
Package monitoring is the process of tracking
and analyzing the security
and integrity of software packages
and dependencies used in development and deployment.
This is important
because vulnerabilities can be introduced
through outdated or compromised packages,
leading to potential security risks
in the deployed application.
For example, a development team might use
open source libraries to speed up the deployment process,
but if one of those libraries contains
a known vulnerability,
it could expose the application to attacks.
Package monitoring tools like OWASP Dependency-Check
and the Node Package Manager, or npm audit,
regularly scan these dependencies
to ensure that no insecure
or outdated versions are being used
in the deployment pipeline.
To effectively implement package monitoring,
organizations can use tools that automatically scan
and track dependencies for vulnerabilities
and security issues.
OWASP Dependency-Check is a widely used tool
that scans project dependencies
for known vulnerabilities across various
programming languages.
While npm audit focuses on scanning dependencies
in JavaScript and Node.js projects.
By integrating these tools into a continuous integration
pipeline, teams can be notified when vulnerabilities
are found, allowing them to address the issues quickly
and ensure secure software deployment.
This proactive approach helps teams maintain up-to-date
and secure software packages, significantly reducing
the attack surface of cloud-based applications.
Package monitoring is essential in preventing
vulnerabilities from being introduced during development,
and by using tools like the OWASP Dependency-Check
and npm audit, organizations can enhance their security
posture and safeguard their cloud applications.
Now, let's do a demonstration
of the node package manager or npm.
In this demonstration,
I'm using a parrot security operating system
and node.js and npm, the node packet manager,
are already installed.
So the first thing we're going to do is create a directory
to initialize the node packet manager in.
We'll do that with the mkdir command,
and our folder or our directory will be called Demo.
Now let's navigate to that directory.
Then let's initialize npm, the node package manager,
within that directory.
There we go.
Now let's install three different packages
that are known to have vulnerabilities.
We'll do this with npm install lodash@4.17.11.
Npm install express@4.16.0.
And npm install jquery@3.3.0.
Now let's take a look at the packages that are installed.
We'll do this with the npm list command,
and you can see that we have three packages installed.
Let's use the node package manager
or npm audit to scan for vulnerabilities
in these installed packages.
As you can see, there are 45 vulnerabilities
that are discovered, two low level vulnerabilities,
13 moderate, 23 high, and seven critical.
We can look through some of the details
of these vulnerabilities in the command line output above.
You can see that npm, the node package manager,
also sometimes suggests fixes
such as upgrading to a secure version
of the vulnerable package.
Also, at the end it says to address
all of these issues all at once,
just use the npm audit fix command.
Let's go ahead and try that.
It's going through and fixing everything that it can.
Now, let's take a look at that npm audit again
and see if it fixed all the vulnerabilities, and it did.
It fixed all vulnerabilities
and is now finding zero vulnerabilities.
For more complex issues, we would need to manually review
and update dependencies to resolve the vulnerabilities.
And in a real world scenario, we would integrate npm audit
or similar tools into a continuous integration pipeline.
This would ensure that package monitoring
happens automatically during every build or deployment,
preventing vulnerable packages from being introduced.
And this is the end of our demonstration.
So remember, development and deployment involve building,
configuring, and releasing cloud-based applications
and infrastructure
with security integrated throughout the entire process.
Tools like Terraform and Ansible play a key role
in automating these tasks,
where Terraform helps automate the provisioning
of cloud infrastructure by defining
and managing resources through code,
ensuring consistency across environments.
And Ansible focuses on configuring
and managing the applications running
on that infrastructure,
allowing for easy automation of tasks
like software updates and security patches.
Last, package monitoring.
Using tools like the OWASP Dependency-Check
and the Node Package Manager, or npm audit,
ensure the security of software dependencies
by tracking vulnerabilities in packages,
helping organizations keep their applications
secure and up-to-date.