WaveMaker has updated its platform in response to customer demand for more sophisticated API and code management tools.
The previous chapter in this WhiteHat Security series discussed dependencies as the second step of the Twelve-Factor App. It highlighted the importance of understanding which third party dependencies are in your code, and the benefit of using Software Composition Analysis (SCA) to provide in-depth visibility into the third-party and open source dependencies.
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 1
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 2
This next chapter examines the security component of step three of the Twelve-Factor methodology — storing configurations within the environment. Here follows some actionable advice from the WhiteHat Security Addendum Checklist, which developers and ops engineers can follow during the SaaS build and operations stages.
Defining Configurations in the Twelve-Factor App
The third factor of the Twelve-Factor App advises storing configurations in the environment. According to 12-factor.net, an app's configuration is everything that is likely to vary between deploys (staging, production, developer environments, etc.). This includes resource handles to the database, credentials to external services such as Amazon S3 or Twitter, and per-deploy values such as the canonical hostname for the deployment.
It goes on to explain that apps sometimes store configurations as constants in the code. This is a violation of Twelve-Factor, which requires strict separation of configuration from code. Configuration varies substantially across deploys, code does not. A litmus test for whether an app has all configuration correctly factored out of the code is whether the codebase could be made open source at any moment, without compromising any credentials.
Twelve-Factor encourages the externalizing of that information, but the security catch can lie in the security of the environment itself. For example, if a properties file is marked as ‘world readable', anyone with access to that system can begin to read production properties, which can include confidential credentials to backend services, secret keys and tokens.
Applying Security to Configurations
When externalizing it's very important to audit the environment. Identify and apply hardening guidelines to the environment and take the opportunity to leverage a third party security team to assess the environment.
Other processes that can be followed to maximize security include:
1. Request and configure your own server certificate. Whether it's issued from your organization or rom a trusted certificate authority (CA), a pre-configured domain certificate is a secure practice for web-based systems and also serves to prevent users from experiencing any browser warnings or other unpredicted activities.
2. Restricting file permissions. When loading your environment from a configuration file, it's best practice to set permissions that are only readable by the user/s running your application.
3. Deactivating the primary site administrator account. Some server managers have an account that requires specification when first creating a site. As it's not an operating system account, disabling it ensures that there isn't another means to administer the server manager, other than the group or role that's been specified in the identity store.
4. Describing the shared key for tokens. A string of encrypted information is a token, and the shared key is the cryptographic key used to generate the token. The more complex the shared key, the more difficult it is for a malicious user to break the encryption and figure out the shared key.
5. Using standardized queries. These offer better protection against SQL injection attacks.
6. Disabling the Services Directory. This action minimizes the risk of services being browsed, found in a web search or queried through HTML forms. It also provides increased protection against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
7. Restricting cross-domain requests. These are used in my system attacks and it's therefore recommended to restrict the use of services to applications hosted just in trusted domains.
Industry News
Vercara announced the launch of UltraAPI™, a product suite that protects APIs and web applications from malicious bots and fraudulent activity while ensuring regulatory compliance.
Legit Security announced the launch of its standalone enterprise secrets scanning product, which can detect, remediate, and prevent secrets exposure across the software development pipeline.
Progress announced a strategic partnership with Veeam® Software, the #1 leader by market share in Data Protection and Ransomware Recovery, to provide customers with an enterprise-ready cyber defense solution that strengthens the security of their business-critical data.
GitGuardian released its Software Composition Analysis (SCA) module.
DataStax announced a milestone in its journey to simplify enterprise retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for developers by integrating with Microsoft Semantic Kernel.
Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. is collaborating with NVIDIA to enhance the security of AI cloud infrastructure. Integrating NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, which feature a broad range of purpose-built, innovative security capabilities, the new Check Point AI Cloud Protect solution will help prevent threats at both the network and host levels.
Sentry announced the release of Autofix, an AI-powered feature to debug and fix code in minutes, saving important time and resources.
Apiiro announced a product integration and partnership with Secure Code Warrior, the agile developer security training platform, to extend its ASPM technology and processes to the people layer.
Progress announced that Progress® Semaphore™, its metadata management and semantic AI platform, was named a Champion in SoftwareReviews’ 2024 Metadata Management Emotional Footprint Awards.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®) has partnered with Udemy, an online skills marketplace and learning platform.
GitLab has acquired Oxeye, the provider of a cloud-native application security and risk management solution.
GitHub announced that code scanning autofix, powered by GitHub Copilot and CodeQL, is available in public beta for all GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) customers.
NetApp is collaborating with NVIDIA to advance retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for generative AI applications.
CalypsoAI launched the CalypsoAI Platform, an advanced SaaS-based security and enablement solution for generative AI applications within the enterprise.