Category Archives: Security

Introduction to the Linux Foundation’s SLSA project

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Supply Chain Security is a hot topic these days. And more and more, we as developers are dealing with this daily. But what does this mean for us, and how is this influencing our job? I want to give an overview of common attacks against the Software Supply Chain from the developer’s view and will introduce the Open Source project SLSA from the Linux Foundation. 

a) Who is the project SLSA

Various experts from the security field started this project to share their knowledge, leading to the mentioned project. There is no company or governmental organisation behind this project. It is a pure Open Source project under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation. 

b) What is the goal of this project?

The SLSA project is open-source and will not provide its own source code. It is, therefore, not a classic open-source project to publish a specific solution. Instead, it is a documentation project to process knowledge about supply chain security in software development and make it freely accessible. The structure contains examples of where the events or attacks mentioned have been successfully taken and which countermeasures should be taken. We’ll look at the security levels provided a little later. The aim here is to allow the reader to prepare for these threats with specific steps slowly. 

After all, based on your options and the current environment, you have to decide which next steps and measures make sense to implement. 

c) What is the current status of the project?

The project is currently (beginning of 2022) still in the alpha phase. There is a lot of documentation, but some places still provide references to future content. So it’s always worth taking a look inside. Since this is an open-source project, you can, of course, also contribute yourself. Here you have the opportunity to make your expertise available to others. 

SLSA security levels?

a) Why do we need these security levels?

When you look around the SLSA project website for the first time, the description of the security levels quickly catches your eye. But what are these levels all about? With these levels, you want to achieve two things. First, it should help to enable a self-assessment. This first consideration serves to classify the own existing environment and to identify the primary weak points. The second goal of this level is to help you plan the following purposes that should be implemented to increase your protection significantly. These recommendations are based on evaluating many projects and environments and on the security experts’ knowledge. This enables you to use the available means and opportunities to increase your security. 

b) Level 0

The first level mentioned is marked with the number zero. This is the state in which no action has yet been taken. The documentation that describes the entire build process must be available and up-to-date to reach this level. This enables an initial analysis of the environment to be secured. It can also be seen as a way of taking stock.

c) Level 1

The level with the number one requires first actions on the environment. The point here is to list all the components used to create a binary file. Not only are the dependencies used listed, but all other metadata is recorded if possible. There is the term SBOM, Software Bills Of Materials in the industry. However, the term can be broadened considerably here. Within JFrog Artifactory, there is “build info”, which means a superset of SBOM. All sorts of metadata are recorded here, such as the operating system and version of the build machine, environment variables and their contents, etc. I have created my video for this.    

In this video, I’ll go over the details of SBOM and Build Info.

Within the SLSA project, the term SBOM or Build Info is not explicitly mentioned. Instead, the requirement is described more generally, and it is also clearly pointed out that this level does not yet help against the compromise itself. It is only the basis for the follow-up and the comprehensive risk assessment. Based on this level, one can start with vulnerability management.

d) Level 2

Level two describes code versioning software in combination with a hosted build service. With this combination, you want to trust the build service and thus trust the origin of the generated files. Here you must take a critical look at where and who will offer these services. The fundamental consideration is based on the assumption that a specialized provider has a better grip on the issue of security within the build infrastructure than you can guarantee yourself. However, the manipulation of protection of the build service can be increased in various ways.

e) Level 3

With level three, auditors are now included in the considerations. Here, trained security specialists are used to check the existing build environment for possible vulnerabilities. As part of an accreditation process, the auditors determine whether specific standards are met to ensure the verifiability of the source and the integrity of the provenance (origin). This level offers better protection than all previous levels to ward off well-known threats. Preventing cross-build contamination is an example.

f) Level 4

In the SLSA project, level four is the highest currently achieved. To reach this level, the following conditions are set. The first requirement describes the necessity that two people constantly carry out all changes. This does not only refer to the changes made to the source code. The term is broader here and also includes all changes to the system and the configurations. This ensures that no intentional or unintentional compromise can occur at any point. Such a process has prevented most bugs, vulnerabilities and compromise attempts.

The second requirement relates to the technical environment. It is assumed here that it is a hermetic and reproducible creation process. However, a distinction should be made between the requirement for hermetic builds and reproducible builds. The former guarantees that all required dependencies are known and checked for vulnerabilities. Here, of course, it plays a role from which sources these dependencies were obtained. On the other hand, reproducible builds help detect changes and conduct subsequent analyses. However, the reproducibility of a build is not a mandatory part of the fourth level.

g) Limitations

Even if many supply chain threads are addressed with the SLSA project, there are some limitations that I would like to list here.

1) The list of all dependencies in a project can simply become too large to be able to fully record and evaluate them. That can depend on different things. The point that shows this most clearly is based on the possibility of some dependency management systems not only specifying explicit dependency versions. In some scenarios, you can also define a version range. This now results in an exponential increase in all possible version combinations.

2) The number of all components to be backed up can exceed the available capacities. The teams then have to decide which elements are subjected to safety analysis.

3) The SLSA security levels are not transitive. This means that this component itself consists of components that have a lower security level. So here, you have to pay very close attention to the details.

4) Even if automation is the solution in many areas, there may be areas where this will not be possible. Again, this refers in many areas to closed-source projects. Here, some analyzes are simply not feasible. It must then be decided how this dependency will be classified on a case-by-case basis.

What are the requirements? 

All the requirements mentioned here are a little more detailed in reality. An overview of the requirements was provided to guide what exactly is meant by each point. Here, you can see which condition belongs to which level and how this is understood. Then the details are discussed, such as what difference it makes if you only use a building service or if you also use the “Build as Code” strategy. All the details are too extensive here, so I refer to the section on the project’s website.  

Supply Chain Threads

a) Overview 

To better understand the project and its limitations, you should look at the individual types of attacks on a typical software development environment. A distinction is generally made between source, image and dependency threads. The SLSA project also delimits precisely what it includes and what it does not.

The following overview comes directly from the project and will be further developed if necessary. At this point, one must not forget that this project is only in the alpha phase (early 2022). However, these types of attacks mentioned are timeless and apply to almost every development environment.

Let’s get to the source threads. This type of attack aims to compromise the source code itself. 

b.1) Bypass Code Review

The attack called “Bypass Code Review” describes a scenario in which an attempt is made to bypass the control mechanisms and directly add compromised source code to the project. Here public paths are taken to reach the destination. Such attacks were carried out on the Linux kernel, for example, via the mailing list. The best and probably simplest way to thwart such attacks is to have all source code changes checked independently by at least two people. However, at this point, one must also find ways to prevent mutual “covering up”.

b.2) Compromised Source Control System

If importing compromised source code does not work, you can try to attack the CVS itself. Attempts are being made here to make changes to the source code on the server, bypassing the official channels. A prominent example is a successful attack on the source code of PHP. The self-managed system was attacked, and the changes were imported directly as a commit. Only securing the system helps against this type of attack. To manage such a system yourself, you must have the necessary resources and knowledge. In this case, it is often easier and cheaper to use a managed system with Github.

Next, we come to the build threads.

b.3) Modified Source Code after Source Control

The source code cannot only be changed where it is stored. When a Build process is started, the source code is fetched from the specified source. The source text on the build page can also be modified before the translation process starts. One attack in which this approach was used is the “Webmin” project. Here, additional and modified source texts were injected into the translation process. The agents responsible for carrying out the individual build steps must be secured to prevent this attack. Here, too, one has to weigh up how much of this work is carried out by oneself since how safe such an environment depends primarily on one’s own abilities. 

b.4) Compromised Build Platform

Since the built environment is part of the value chain, this part must also be secured classically. Here, too, it is again the case that one’s own abilities in ​​safety must be assessed. A well-known representative of this type of attack is the Solarwinds Hack. Here, the build route was modified to compromise the newly created binary with each run. 

b.5) ​​Using Bad Dependencies – Dependency Thread

At this point, I would like to insert the dependency threads briefly. Dependencies are specifically modified and then offered. The security of the repositories plays a central role here. I’ll come back to that in a moment. However, this attack pattern refers to external locations where dependencies are fetched to process them. Particular attention should be paid to assessing the integrity of caches and mirrors of known official bodies. Often the “official” mirror servers of publicly accessible repositories do not have the same financial resources as the original. This causes attacks to be placed there.

You may be offered modified versions of known commonly used dependencies when you dock at such a place.

b.6) Bypassed CI/CD

Let’s get back to the build threads. Sometimes it is easier to bypass the CI/CD environment at an appropriate point. Here, the topics within a development path are selected where a transfer between the build server and the associated repositories is not sufficiently secured. The attack involves offering a recipient such as a repository a modified binary to make it look like it is from the CI environment. Malicious code is injected parallel to its own build infrastructure. 

b.7) Compromised package repo

A component repository is also part of the infrastructure and can fall victim to an attack. As with all other elements, protection is necessary here. Attackers try to gain access to the repositories to replace the binaries of known and frequently used dependencies with modified versions. Depending on your ability to harden such a system against attacks, you have to decide whether an externally managed alternative will increase the security standard of your value chain.

b.8) Using a bad package

We come to the last attack variant mentioned here. In this scenario, known dependencies are taken as a template and then their own modified versions are offered in a public repository. Here, an attempt is made to give the own variant a name close to the original name and depicts typical spelling errors. This dependency can still be resolved if a misspelling of the original name is used in a version definition. Only in this case a modified version of it will be loaded.

The only way to protect yourself against this attack is to carefully check how each individual dependency has been defined in your own projects. 

Project Persia Overview

We have seen which general types of attacks on a classic software development environment are possible. These are always generic attack patterns that can be used independently of the current products. Others also saw this as an idea to develop a general strategy to counter this. The language here is from the open-source project Persia, which is currently (early 2022) in the alpha phase. We are close to officially accepting it as an incubator in the CD Foundation. The project website is https://pyrsia.io.

The basic idea of ​​this project is that there will be a network of trust for open-source projects. A P2P network consisting of build and distribution nodes should exist where the sources are fetched, built and offered decentrally. In addition to the classic advantages such as reliability and better utilisation of the network resources of a P2P network, increased security should also be achieved with the binaries themselves. The types of attacks on source code management software are excluded. But all subsequent attack patterns can be repelled in this way. 

Unfortunately, it is not possible to fully describe the project. But at this point, I would like to draw attention to my video about this project. (https://pyrsia.io/) 

Cheers Sven

The Power of #JFrog Build Info (Build Metadata)

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Intro

This article will take a detailed look at what the term build-info is all about and why it will help us protect against attacks such as the Solarwinds Hack. 

What is the concept behind the term – build-info?

Let’s start at the very beginning and clarify the basic principle behind the term build-info. The term build-info has been coined for many years by the company JFrog, among others. This is a particular type of repository.

This repository stores the information that describes the context that led to the creation of a binary file. With this information, you can now achieve a wide variety of things.

What components does build-info consist of?

The content of a build-info is not strictly defined. Instead, the approach that applies is that the more, the better. Of course, you have to proceed with caution here too. All possible parameters are collected. In addition to the date and time, the system on which the process was run, which operating system was used in which patch level, to active environment variables, compiler switches and library versions.

The challenge is actually that it is not known which information will later be helpful and expedient. For this reason, more rather than less should be saved.

Why do we actually need a build-info?

The task of a build-info is to enable the observation, or rather, the analysis of a past situation. There can be a variety of reasons for this. For example, it can be used to improve quality, or it can be the basis for reconstructing a cyber attack that has taken place. And with that, we come straight to the event that got everything rolling in the recent past.

Trigger – SolarWinds Hack

One of the others will have heard or read something about it. We are talking about one of the most significant cyberattacks that have ever taken place. It’s the SolarWinds Hack. Here it was not the final target that was attacked directly, but a point in the supply chain. SolarWinds is a software company that provides a product for managing network infrastructure. With just over 300,000 customers worldwide, this software’s automatic update process has been the target of the attack. It was not the update process itself that was compromised, but the creation of the binaries that will be distributed with this update process. The attack took place on the company’s CI route to immediately infect the newly created binaries with each build. Here the CI route was manipulated so that another component was added to the binary to be generated. This component can be thought of as a kind of initial charge. As soon as this has been ignited or activated, further components are dynamically reloaded. As a result, each infection had different forms. These files were then offered to all customers by means of an automatic update. Thus, over 15,000 systems were infiltrated within a short time.

Reaction – Executive Order of Cybersecurity

Since there were many well-known US companies, US organizations and US government institutions among the victims, the question arose of how to counter such a threat from the US state in the future. The US government has decided that one begins with the complete cataloguing of all software components in use, including all their constituent parts. This obligation to provide evidence was formulated in the “Executive Order of Cybersecurity”. However, when I first heard about an executive order, I wasn’t sure what that actually meant.

What is an executive order?

An executive order is a decree of the US President that regulates or changes internal affairs within the state apparatus. You can think of it as a US president like a managing director of a company who can influence his company’s internal processes and procedures. In doing so, no applicable law can be circumvented or changed. With such an executive order, no law can be changed, stopped or restricted. But it can change the internal processes of the US authorities very drastically. And that’s exactly what happened with this Executive Order of Cybersecurity, which has directly impacted the US economy. Every company that works directly or indirectly for the state must meet these requirements to continue doing business with the US authorities.

What is the key message of the Executive Order?

The Executive Order of Cybersecurity contains a little more text, the content of which I would like to shorten here and reproduce without guaranteeing legal correctness.

This arrangement aims to record the software operated by or for the US authorities in its entirety. This means that all components of the software used must be documented. This can be thought of as follows; If you want to bake a cake, you need a list of ingredients. However, listing these would not meet the requirements, as knowledge of all elements down to the last link is required. In our example, an ingredient that consists of more than one component would have to provide a list of all existing parts. This is how you get all the components used that are needed for the cake. If we now transfer this to the software, it is necessary to record all direct and indirect dependencies. The list of all components is then called – SBOM (Software Bills Of Material) 

And what does that mean for me?

Now I am not directly working for an organ of the US government. But it will still reach me sooner or later. Because through the indirection, all possible economic sectors worldwide will be affected. It can also affect me in the private sector. If I have an open-source project that is used indirectly in this environment, it can only continue if I prepare the project accordingly. Long story short; It will come our way in whatever way it will happen.

What are the general requirements for a build-info?

Let’s get back to the build-info. A build-info is a superset of an SBOM (Software Bills Of Material). So the dependencies are catalogued, and additional information from the runtime environment in which the binary is generated is recorded. However, there are also some requirements for such build-info. By this, I mean properties that must be present in order to be able to deal with this information in a meaningful way.

Accessibility:

The information that is collected must be quickly and easily accessible and therefore usable. A central storage location such as Artifactory is suitable here, as all binaries and dependencies are also stored here. You also have all the meta-information of a respective binary file at this location.

Immutability:

When information is collected, it makes sense to store it in such a way that it can no longer be changed. This promotes the acceptance of the data situation and gives particular security when evaluating a case.

Combinability:

The static data are also suitable for enriching them with current secondary data. In this case, I am talking about the vulnerabilities that can be found in the dependencies used. In contrast to the static information, this image has to be constantly updated. In practical use, this means that the data must be stored in a machine-readable manner in order to enable the connection of other data sources. In the case of Artifactory, it is the data from JFrog Xray that is displayed here.

How can a build-info be generated?

It would be best if you had the following things.

First, the JFrog CLI generates the build-info and second, it is possible to save this information permanently. You can do this very quickly with the Build-Info Repositories from Artifactory. But one step at a time.

The process for generating a build-info is as follows.

In the following example, we assume that we are going to build a Java project with maven. Here you have to get involved in the build process. You can do that quite easily with the JFrog CLI tools. These represent a wrapper for the build process used in each case. In our example, it is maven. To install the JFrog CLI Tools, you can go on the website https://jfrog.com/getcli/ choose the installer that is suitable for it. After installing and configuring the JFrog CLI Tools, you can start the build via the CLI on the command line. After a successful build, you can find the build-info as a JSON file in the target directory. This file can be viewed with a text editor to get a feel for the wealth of information that is stored here. This file is regenerated with each build. This means that there is a 1: 1 relationship between the build cycle and the binaries generated in the process. Using the CLI, you can then transfer this information to the Artifactory build repository and evaluate it there using a graphical user interface.

How can I link vulnerability scans to the build-info?

If you are now within Artifactory (https://bit.ly/SvenYouTube ), look at the build-information; you also get the current information regarding the known vulnerabilities. This is an example of how the build-information can be enriched with further system information.

Since there is not enough space at this point to clarify the generation and evaluation, I refer to a demo project in which I have stored the steps in the README, including detailed explanations of the individual practical steps.

If you want, you can also register for one of my free DevSecOps workshops. You are also welcome to speak to me directly if you’re going to do this in a free community or company event.

The URL for the demo project is: 

https://github.com/Java-Workshops/JFrog-FreeTier-JVM

Have fun trying it out.

Cheers, Sven! 

SolarWinds hack and the Executive Order from Mr Biden — And now?

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In the past two years, we have had to learn a lot about cybersecurity. The new attack vectors are becoming more and more sophisticated and are directed more and more against the value chain in general. But what does that mean for us? What can be done about it, and what reactions have the state already taken?

Let’s start with the story that got all of this rolling and made sure that the general attention was drawn to the vulnerabilities of the available IT infrastructure. We’re talking about the SolarWinds Hack. What happened here, and what is more critical; What are the lessons learned from this incident?

It is essential to know that the SolarWinds company produces software that is used to manage network infrastructure. With the name “Orion Platform, ” this software should help manage and administer the network components efficiently. If you look at the product description on the SolarWinds website, you can read that the software can monitor, analyse, and manage the network infrastructure. And that’s exactly what the customers did. The company itself has around 300,000 customers worldwide, including individual companies and government organisations and corporations from a wide variety of areas. To always stay up to date, the software platform includes an automatic update mechanism. And that was exactly what the attackers were after. They saw in the SolarWinds company a multiplier for their own activities. But how can you go about this? The attackers obtained the necessary software tools by breaking into the FireEye company and infiltrating the SolarWinds network. The goal was the software development department in which the binaries of the Orion platform are created. Here, the CI routes have been manipulated to include compromised binaries in every build of the software. As a result, the company produced these binaries and put them into circulation through the automatic update process. In this way, around 18,000 targets could be infiltrated and compromised within a short time.

What does that mean for us now?

There are two angles here. The first is from the consumer’s point of view. However, for your own production, it must be ensured that no compromised binaries are used. That means that all, and here I mean all binaries used, must be checked. These are the dependencies of the application and the tools used in the production process. This includes the tools such as the CI server used, e.g. Jenkins, or the operating system components of the infrastructure and Docker images.

The second perspective represents the point of view that one has as a software distributor. This means anyone who distributes binaries in any form. This includes customers in the classic sense and other departments that may be considered consumers of the binaries created. The associated loss of trust can cause a company severe financial damage.

What can we do to protect ourselves?

If you look at the different approaches to arm yourself against these threats, you can see two fundamental differences.

DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing

An application can be subjected to a black box test. This is called DAST, Dynamic Application Security Testing. Here you go the way a hacker would do it. The application is attacked via the available interaction points. Attack vectors based on the most common vulnerabilities are usually used here. SQL injection can be cited as an example. These attack patterns are initially independent of the technology used and represent typical security holes in web applications.

This approach has advantages as well as disadvantages. A serious disadvantage is that the tests cannot be started until the application has been developed. This means that the measures to eliminate weak points found are more costly than is the case with other approaches. On the other hand, a significant advantage of this approach is that the dynamic context can also be checked when testing the production system. Examples include weak configurations, open ports, and more.

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

The counterpart to the dynamic tests is the static tests. These tests analyse the individual components of the infrastructure involved. This includes not only the applications created but also the components involved in operating and creating the application.

A disadvantage of the SAST method is that it can only search for known security vulnerabilities. However, this point is put into perspective in that the number of known security gaps increases steadily. Still, it is also assumed that the number of known security gaps exceeds the number of unknown security gaps. Another advantage of the SAST method is that it checks the licenses used. This area also contributes to the security of the company, albeit in a legal sense.

So what has the most significant effect when you start with the topic of security?

When looking at the different approaches, it becomes clear that the proportion of directly or indirectly used binaries makes up the most significant amount in a technology stack. This means that you should also start securing precisely these parts. Unfortunately, there is only one way to ensure with SAST that it is really 100% checked directly. All other methods do not achieve this coverage, or if they do, then only in sporadic exceptional cases.

However, it should be noted that one understands the interdependencies. This is the only way to identify and extract the possible attack vector. Here it is of essential importance that not only the binaries themselves are examined, but also the associated meta-information is evaluated. Within software development, there are two points for these analyses where such an analysis fits very well. The first point that most people will think of is the CI segment. Here the CI server can carry out the analysis during the execution of a build pipeline and all the checks and also take over the reporting. If the violations are too massive, the build is cancelled. The second position, which is ideally suited for such an analysis, is directly in the IDE. Here it can already be determined during the definition whether the license used is permitted. The known vulnerabilities can also be extracted and thus provide enough information to decide whether this version of this dependency may be used.

Lesson Learned – what we learned from the SolarWinds Hack.

We learned the following things from SolarWinds. First, the attacks are no longer aimed at the final targets themselves but against the suppliers. Here one tries to reach multipliers who massively increase the effectiveness of this attack. Likewise, you no longer only have to protect yourself against your use of compromised binaries. The newly added component means that the self-generated binaries must also be secured. Nobody wants to become a distributor of infected software. It follows that all parts involved must be subjected to permanent checks.

Reactions – The Executive Order from Mr Biden

One or the other has undoubtedly noticed that the US President gave this Executive Order of Cybersecurity. But what exactly does that mean, and who can even do something like that under what conditions?

In the United States, the president – the “executive branch” of the US government – can issue what is known as an executive order. Much like a CEO in a company, the executive branch has the power to make some unilateral decisions that affect the behaviour of the US government. These orders must be limited to government conduct and policies and not to general laws or statutes that encroach on the rights of any individual or state. If the executive transgresses in this area, the US Supreme Court or other legal remedies can appeal and revoke all measures. Only the president – due to his status as head of state – can issue an executive order. No other officer is allowed to do this.

Significantly, executive orders are mostly limited to how the US government operates internally. For example, an executive order might not simply resolve to raise taxes in a state or issue far-reaching commercial guidelines. However, executive orders are legally binding on the behaviour of the US government if they do not violate fundamental rights or make something unconstitutional. Because of this, these commands can be found to change the policy from the president to the president as, like a CEO, they set some of the government’s agendas. In this case, the Executive Ordinance refers to how the US government monitors and regulates its software usage and sets out requirements for how that software must be documented to be sold to the government. It doesn’t dictate trading on a broad scale.

Since the US government can define its way of working, it was decided that the SBOM requirements (in preparation) will be the only way to approve software purchases – to get an idea of ​​the volume, you have to know it is one amount in the tens of billions per year. This means that any company that wants to sell to US government agencies, likely state and local agencies, and anyone who works with resellers who sell to the government and more, must meet all of these new standards.

When the European Union agreed on comprehensive data protection and data security laws with the GDPR, the effect was felt worldwide and quickly. In a globally networked economy, decisions by the world’s largest GDP producers can set standards for other areas. With the GDPR, companies in the US and elsewhere had to immediately revise and update software and processes to continue doing business in the EU. It became a worldwide rule so as not to lose EU treaties. Likewise, the US cybersecurity order is believed to be reversing, with U.S.-based global corporations influencing global software security behaviour.

Wow – what now?

What does that mean for me as a software developer? Well, the effects at this point are not as severe as you might want to imagine. In the end, it is said that a complete list of all contained dependencies must be created. This means the direct and indirect dependencies. To obtain such a dependency graph, one can, for example, use the tools that already do this. It means the tools that can generate a complete dependency graph, for example. For this, you need a logical point through which all dependencies are fetched. A tool such as Artifactory is best, as this is where the knowledge of all dependency managers used comes together. Devices such as the vulnerability scanner JFrog Xray can then access this information, scan for known vulnerabilities and licenses used, and extract the entire dependency graph. This information can thus be generated as build information by the CI route (e.g. JFrog Pipelines) and stored in a build repository within Artifactory.

Conclusion

We have seen that the new qualities of attacks on software systems, in general, will lead to advanced countermeasures. What is meant here is a complete analysis of all artefacts involved and produced. The tools required for this must combine the information into aggregated impact graphs across technology boundaries. One point within software development that is ideal for this is the logical point via which all binaries are fed into the system. However, the components alone are insufficient since all indirect elements can only be reached and checked by understanding the associated meta-information.

The tools used for this can then also be used to create the SBOMs.

In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before we also have to meet this requirement if we do not want to suffer economic disadvantages from the Executive Order of Cybersecurity.

If you want to find out more about the topic or test the tools briefly mentioned here, don’t hesitate to contact me.

In addition to further information, we at JFrog offer free workshops to prepare for these challenges in a purely practical manner.

And if you want to know more immediately, you are welcome to go to my YouTube channel. There I have other videos on this topic.

It would be nice to leave a subscription on my YouTube channel as a small thank you. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNkQKejDX-pQM9-lKZRpEwA

Cheers Sven

What is the difference between SAST, DAST, IAST and RASP?

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Intro:

In this post, we’re going to look at the differences between the various cybersecurity defence techniques. Here you can identify four main groups, which we will go through briefly one after another to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages.

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

SAST describes the process in which the components of an application are subjected to a static analysis. This approach not only searches for security gaps but also determines the licenses for the individual elements. In the following, however, I will only deal with the consideration of vulnerabilities in this post.

The term static comes from the fact that only the static context is used for this evaluation. All dynamic or context-related assessments are not possible with this method. SAST can be used to analyze the entire tech stack of an application if access to these components is possible, which is also one of the advantages of SAST compared to other analysis methods. The only exception is the IAST procedure, which we will come back to later.

What exactly happens now with the SAST procedure? SAST is available in two forms. The first that I would like to mention relates to checking your source code. Here the attempt is made to determine whether there are patterns that make a later vulnerability easier or even possible in the first place. For example, it searches for calls to critical libraries or identifies unsafe handling of resources. However, one honestly has to admit at this point that, first of all, your source code will be by far the smallest part of the overall application in the vast majority of projects. Second, the analysis methods in this area are still at a very early stage of development.

When using SAST, it makes a lot more sense to deal with all the other components first. Therefore, all binary files of the entire application environment are meant here. This also includes all elements that play a role in the development, such as the CI server and the other tools used.

DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing

The DAST analysis method does precisely the opposite in comparison to the SAST method. Here the application is viewed as a black box. As soon as an executable version of the application is available, it is attacked through automatically executed cyber attacks. In most cases, the general attack patterns are based on the Most Common Vulnerabilities defined by the OSWAP. Defining your attack vectors is either not provided for in the tools I know or requires very detailed knowledge in this area. For developers who do not use these tools daily and intensively, their use is limited to the predefined attack vectors. It is a good thing with this procedure that unknown security gaps can also be identified, as long as they are based on the Most Common Vulnerabilities. Some manufacturers extend this approach with AI or ML techniques. This approach using AI and ML techniques is still in a very early stage of development, and the currently available potential cannot be foreseen.

Unfortunately, the method can only be used sensibly against the production environment, as this is the only way to identify all gaps based on configuration deficiencies. Therefore, in contrast to the SAST process, it makes no sense to use it within the CI route.

IAST – Interactive Application Security Testing

IAST uses software tools to evaluate application performance and identify vulnerabilities. IAST takes an “agent-like” approach; H. Agents and sensors run to continuously analyze application functions during automated tests, manual tests, or a mixture of both.

The process and feedback occur in real-time in the IDE, Continuous Integration (CI) environment or quality assurance or during production. The sensors have access to:

  • All source code
  • Data and control flow
  • System configuration data
  • Web components
  • Backend connection data

The main difference between IAST, SAST, and DAST is that it runs inside the application.

Access to all static components as well as the runtime information enables a very comprehensive picture.

It is a combination of static and dynamic analysis. However, the part of the dynamic analysis is not a pure black-box test as it is implemented at DAST.

Some reasons for using IAST:

Potential problems are identified earlier, so IAST minimizes the cost of eliminating potential costs and delays.

This is due to a “shift left” approach, meaning it is carried out in the early stages of the project life cycle.

Similar to SAST, the IAST analysis provides complete lines of data-rich code so that security teams can immediately lookout for a specific bug.

With the wealth of information that the tool has access to, the source of vulnerabilities can be precisely identified.

Unlike other dynamic software tests, IAST can be easily integrated into Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI / CD) pipelines.

The evaluations take place in real-time in the production environment.

On the other hand:

IAST tools can slow down the operation of the application.

This is based on the fact that the agents change the bytecode themselves. This leads to a lower performance of the overall system.

The change itself can, of course, also lead to problems in the production environment.

The use of agents naturally also represents a potential source of danger since these agents can also be compromised.

– See Solarwinds Hack

RASP – Runtime Application Self Protection

RASP is the approach to secure the application from within.

The backup takes place at runtime and generally consists of looking for suspicious commands when they are executed.

What does that mean now?

With the RASP approach, you can examine the entire application context on the production machine and real-time.

Here all commands that are processed are examined for possible attack patterns.

Therefore, this procedure aims to identify existing security gaps and attack patterns and those that are not yet known.

Here it goes very clearly into the use of AI and ML techniques.

RASP tools can usually be used in two operating modes.

The first operating mode (monitoring) is limited to observing and reporting possible attacks.

The second operating mode (protection) then includes implementing defensive measures in real-time and directly on the production environment.

RASP aims to fill the gap left by application security testing and network perimeter controls.

The two approaches (SAST and DAST) do not have sufficient visibility into real-time data and event flows to prevent vulnerabilities from sliding through the verification process or block new threats that were overlooked during development.

RASP is similar to Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST); the main difference is that IAST focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in the applications, and RASPs focus on protecting against cybersecurity attacks that can exploit these vulnerabilities or other attack vectors.

The RASP technology has the following advantages:

First, RASP complements SAST and DAST with an additional layer of protection after the application is started (usually in production).

It can be easily applied with faster development cycles.

Unexpected entries are checked and checked.

It enables you to react quickly to an attack by providing comprehensive analysis and information about the possible vulnerabilities.

However, RASP tools have certain disadvantages:

By sitting on the application server, RASP tools can adversely affect application performance.

In addition, the technology (RASP) may not be compliant with regulations or internal guidelines,

which allows the installation of other software or

the automatic blocking of services is permitted.

The use of this technology can also lead to the people involved believing themselves to be false security.

The application must also be switched offline until the vulnerability is eliminated.

RASP is not a substitute for application security testing because it cannot provide comprehensive protection.

While RASP and IAST have similar methods and uses, RASP does not perform extensive scans but instead runs as part of the application to examine traffic and activity. Both report attacks as soon as they occur; with IAST, this happens at the time of the test, while with RASP, it takes place at runtime in production.

Conclusion

All approaches result in a wide range of options for arming yourself against known and unknown security gaps. Here it is essential to reconcile your own needs and those of the company for the future direction.

Conclusion RASP:

We have seen that with RASP, there is an approach in which the application can protect itself against attacks at runtime. The permanent monitoring of your activities and the data transferred to the application enable an analysis based on the runtime environment. Here you can choose between pure monitoring or alerting and active self-protection. However, software components are added to the runtime environment with RASP approaches to manipulate the system independently. This has an impact on performance. With this approach, RASP concentrates on the detection and defence of current cyber attacks. So it analyzes the data and user behaviour in order to identify suspicious activities.

Conclusion IAST:

The IAST approach combines the SAST and DAST approach and is already used within the SDLC, i.e. within the development itself. This means that the IAST tools are already further “to the left” compared to the RASP tools. Another difference to the RASP tools is that IAST consists of static, dynamic and manual tests. Here it also becomes clear that IAST is more in the development phase. The combination of dynamic, static and manual tests promises a comprehensive security solution. However, one should not underestimate the complexity of the manual and dynamic security tests at this point.

Conclusion DAST:

The DAST approach focuses on how a hacker would approach the system. The overall system is understood like a black box, and the attacks occur without knowing the technologies used. The point here is to harden the production system against the Most Common Vulnerabilities. However, one must not forget at this point that this technology can only be used at the end of the production cycle.

Conclusion SAST:

If you have access to all system components, the SAST approach can be used very effectively against known security gaps and license problems. This procedure is the only guarantee that the entire tech stack can be subjected to direct control. The focus of the SAST approach is on static semantics and, in turn, is completely blind to security holes in the dynamic context. A huge advantage is that this approach can be used with the first line of source code.

My personal opinion:

My personal opinion on these different approaches is as follows:

If you start with DevSecOps or security in IT in general, the SAST approach makes the most sense. This is where the greatest potential threat can be eliminated with minimal effort. It is also a process that can be used in all steps of the production line. Only when all components in the system are secured against known security gaps do the following methods show their highest potential. After introducing SAST, I would raise the IAST approach and, finally, the RASP approach. This also ensures that the respective teams can grow with the task and that there are no obstacles or delays in production.

Cheers Sven

The Lifeline of a Vulnerability

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Intro

Again and again, we read something in the IT news about security gaps that have been found. The more severe the classification of this loophole, the more attention this information will get in the general press. Most of the time, you don’t even hear or read anything about all the security holes found that are not as well known as the SolarWinds Hack, for example. But what is the typical lifeline of such a security gap?

Vulnerability was generated until found 

Let’s start with the birth of a vulnerability. This birth can be done in two differently motivated ways. On the one hand, it can happen to any developer that he creates a security hole by an unfortunate combination of source code pieces. On the other hand, it can also be based on targeted manipulation. However, this has essentially no effect on the further course of the lifeline of a security vulnerability. In the following, we assume that a security hole has been created and that it is now active in some software. These can be executable programs or libraries offered that are integrated into other software projects as a dependency.

Found until Public available

In most cases, it is not possible to understand precisely when a security hole was created. But let’s assume that there is a security hole and that it will be found. It clearly depends on which person or which team finds this weak point. This has a severe impact on the subsequent course of history. Let’s start with the fact that this vulnerability has been found by people who are interested in using this vulnerability themselves or having it exploited by other parties. Here the information is either kept under lock and key or offered for purchase at relevant places on the Internet. There are primarily financial or political motives here, which I do not want to go into here. However, at this point, it can be clearly seen that the information is passed on at this point in channels that are not generally available to the public.

However, if the security gap is found by people or groups who are interested in making the knowledge about it available to the general public, various mechanisms now take effect. However, one must not forget that commercial interests will also play a role in most cases. However, the motivation is different. If the company or the project itself is affected by this vulnerability, there is usually an interest in presenting the information relatively harmless. The feared damage can even lead to the security gap being fixed, but knowledge about it further is hidden. This approach is to be viewed as critical, as it must be assumed that there will also be other groups or people who will gain this knowledge.

But let’s assume that people who are not directly involved in the affected components found the information about the vulnerability. In most cases, this is the motivation to sell knowledge of the vulnerability. In addition to the affected projects or products, there are also providers of the vulnerability databases. These companies have a direct and obvious interest in acquiring this knowledge. But to which company will the finder of the vulnerability sell this knowledge? Here it can be assumed that there is a very high probability that it will be the company that pays the better price. This has another side effect that affects the classification of the vulnerability. Many vulnerabilities are given an assessment using the CVSS. Here, the base value is made by different people. Different people will have other personal interests here, which will then also be reflected in this value. 

Here I refer to the blog post about CVSS – explained. https://svenruppert.com/2021/04/07/cvss-explained-the-basics/

Regardless of the detours via which the knowledge comes to the vulnerabilities databases. Only when the information has reached one of these points can one assume that this knowledge will be available to the general public over time.

Public available bis consumable

However, one fact can be seen very clearly at this point. Regardless of which provider of vulnerabilities you choose, there will only ever be a subset of all known vulnerabilities in this data set. As an end consumer, there is only one sensible way to go here. Instead of contacting the providers directly, you should rely on integrators. This refers to services that integrate various sources themselves and then offer them processed and merged. It is also essential that the findings are processed so that further processing by machines is possible. This means that the meta-information such as the CVE or the CVSS value is supplied. This is the only way other programs can work with this information. The CVSS value is given as an example. This is used, for example, in CI environments to interrupt further processing when a particular threshold value is reached. Only when the information is prepared in this way and is available to the end-user can this information be consumable. Since the information generally represents a considerable financial value, it can be assumed in the vast majority of cases that the commercial providers of such data sets will have access to updated information more quickly than freely available data collections.

Consumable bis running in Production

If the information can now be consumed, i.e. processed with the tools used in software development, the storyline begins in your projects. Whichever provider you have decided on, this information is available from a particular point in time, and you can now react to it yourself. The requirement is that the necessary changes are activated in production as quickly as possible. This is the only way to avoid the potential damage that can result from this security vulnerability. This results in various requirements for your software development processes. The most obvious need is the throughput times. Only those who have implemented a high degree of automation can enable short response times in the delivery processes. It is also an advantage if the team concerned can make the necessary decisions themselves and quickly. Lengthy approval processes are annoying at this point and can also cause extensive damage to the company.

Another point that can release high potential is the provision of safety-critical information in all production stages involved. The earlier the data is taken into account in production, the lower the cost of removing security gaps. We’ll come back to that in more detail when the shift-left topic is discussed.

Another question that arises is that of the effective mechanisms against vulnerabilities.

TestCoverage is your safety-belt; try Mutation Testing

The best knowledge of security gaps is of no use if this knowledge cannot be put to use. But what tools do you have in software development to take efficient action against known security gaps? Here I would like to highlight one metric in particular: the test coverage of your own source code parts. If you have strong test coverage, you can make changes to the system and rely on the test suite. If a smooth test of all affected system components has taken place, nothing stands in the way of making the software available from a technical point of view.

But let’s take a step back and take a closer look at the situation. In most cases, changing the version of the same dependency in use will remove known vulnerabilities. This means that efficient version management gives you the agility you need to be able to react quickly. In very few cases, the affected components have to be replaced by semantic equivalents from other manufacturers. And to classify the new composition of versions of the same ingredients as valid, strong test coverage is required. Manual tests would go far beyond the time frame and cannot be carried out with the same quality in every run. But what is strong test coverage?

I use the technique of mutation testing. This gives you more concrete test coverage than is usually the case with the conventional line or branch coverage. Unfortunately, a complete description of this procedure is not possible at this point.

However, if you want to learn more about mutation testing, visit the following URL. This video explains the theoretical and practical part of the mutation test for Java and Kotlin.

The need for a single point that understands all repo-types

If we now assume that we want to search for known security vulnerabilities in the development and the operation of the software, we need a place where we can carry out the search processes. Different areas are suitable here. However, there is a requirement that enables an efficient scan across all technologies used. We are talking about a logical central point through which all binaries must go. I don’t just mean the jar files declared as dependencies, but also all other files such as the Debian packages or Docker images. Artifactory is suitable for this as a central hub as it supports pretty much all package managers at one point. Because you have knowledge of the individual files and have the metadata, the following things can also be evaluated.

First of all, it is not only possible to capture the direct dependencies. Knowing the structures of the package managers used means that all indirect dependencies are also known. Second, it is possible to receive cross-technology evaluations. This means the full impact graph to capture the practical meaning of the individual vulnerabilities. The tool from JFrog that can give an overview here is JFrog Xray, and we are directly connected to JFrog Artifactory. Whichever tool you choose, it is crucial that you don’t just scan one technology layer. Only with a comprehensive look at the entire tech stack can one guarantee that there are no known security gaps, either directly or indirectly, in production.

Conclusion

Now we come to a conclusion. We have seen that we have little influence on most sections of a typical lifeline of an IT security vulnerability. Actually, there are only two sections that we can influence directly. On the one hand, it is the quickest and most comprehensive possible access to reliable security databases. Here it is essential that you not only entrust yourself to one provider but rather concentrate on so-called “mergers” or “aggregators”. The use of such supersets can compensate for the economically motivated vagueness of the individual providers. I named JFrog Xray as an example of such an aggregator. The second section of a typical lifeline is in your own home. That means, as soon as you know about a security gap, you have to act yourself—robust automation and a well-coordinated DevSecOps team help here. We will deal with precisely this section from the “security” perspective in another blogpost. Here, however, we had already seen that strong test coverage is one of the critical elements in the fight against vulnerabilities. Here I would like to refer again to the test method “Mutation Testing”, which is a very effective tool in TDD.

And what can I do right now?

Anyone who would like to try out such a DevSecOps approach is welcome to register for one of my free workshops. (https://jfrog.com/resources/upcoming-webinars/) These are offered in German and English. There I will use JFrog Artifactory and JFrog Xray to show how one can practically proceed against known vulnerabilities. And if you don’t want to wait that long, you can, of course, take a look at my YouTube channel and find out a little more about the topic there. I would be delighted to welcome you as my new subscriber. Thanks!

Happy Coding

Sven