DevSecOps Tools

Why DevSecOps Tools?

As the software development landscape continues to evolve, enterprises find themselves vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated security threats. One solution is to adopt a DevSecOps model, which moves testing for security vulnerabilities from the end of the development process to the beginning. With DevSecOps, security testing is fully integrated throughout the process from planning through deployment and into production.

To reduce security risk and adopt DevSecOps, both Development and Operations teams need tools that provide them with the most comprehensive view of threats for each step of the product development lifecycle. Some tools focus on one phase of the software development process such as plan, build or test, while others cover multiple phases. 

To survive and thrive in a high-threat landscape, savvy enterprises are moving a step beyond DevSecOps to a Continuous Security model. This model helps break down the silos between security and SRE-Ops teams.  Because DevSecOps and SRE-Ops teams are focused on securing different phases of the software delivery process and security teams are often dedicated to the production side, bad actors find the gaps between the silos and take every opportunity to wreak havoc. Continuous security fills these gaps, covering the entire value stream from planning to production.

Types of DevSecOps Tools

In the planning stages, threat modeling tools can provide a solid start to building security into your development process. During Code and Build, SAST (Software Application Security Testing) tools help developers detect problems in proprietary code by using automation to catch bugs and security holes.  For open code, SCA (Software Composition Analysis) tools check for vulnerabilities. Some offerings are standalone while others require you to already be a user of the provider’s mainstay software tools. 

(DAST) Dynamic Application Security Testing tools help you simulate threats that may occur once your software moves into a production environment. Additional types of security testing tools include IAST(Interactive AST), IaC (Infrastructure as code), and RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection)

While some providers specialize in a single phase of the development or type of security monitoring or testing tool, there are also several providers whose products include a broad range of security capabilities such as SAST, DAST, IAST, and SCA. Note that some providers offer a broad set of capabilities through partnerships rather than homegrown solutions.

Enterprises can take advantage of both free and commercial tools. Two resources that are helpful include the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Application Security Testing, the Gartner Market Guide for Software Composition Analysis and OWASP.org for SCA tools. 

Leveraging your DevSecOps Tools and Data Implementing Continuous Security

Reducing security risks in your software development process is essential to maintaining trust with customers and can help protect your enterprise from embarrassing, costly incidents. Because there are so many tools needed to secure each part of your development process, it can be difficult to get a complete view that allows you to monitor every aspect of your CI/CD pipeline. 

While using SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) or XDR (Extended Detection and Response) tools are necessary to protect against threats, Plutora’s Value Stream Management platform can help your enterprise achieve a continuous security approach with security dashboards that enable your entire organization to gain visibility and spot threats across all of your development pipelines from development through production.

DevSecOps Tools Providers

While there are many tools available in every category from SCA to IAC, below are a few great options to explore.

DevSecOps Tools

Offers a platform that covers the SDLC from development to production environments, security checks begin by analyzing developer code (Contrast Scan) and open source scanning (Contrast SCA), followed by an assessment phase (Contrast Assess) during functional testing. Cloud native apps are then scanned (Contrast Serverless) and scanning continues into the production phase (Contrast Protect).

Named a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application security testing, Data Theorem provides both SAST and DAST solutions. This tool provides a continuous inventory of apps, APIs and shadow assets, and allows the creation of custom policies for different asset groups. Application and cloud data are checked for compliance before moving into production. Auto-Remediation is offered with rollback opportunities.

This tool checks open source code against a vulnerability database. Offerings also include IDE integration and license and vulnerability identification (Docker and OCI images). New vulnerabilities trigger alerts in Slack, Jira or email. The API provides real-time security status.

AppScan Standard is a DAST tool with an automated vulnerability scanning engine. Once identified, security risks are accompanied by fix recommendations. Continuous testing and risk assessment applies to both web services and apps.

RASP Attack Detection is designed for the application runtime environment, with the goal of identifying and preventing attacks as they occur. Vulnerability detection is focused on Clickjacking, HTTP Method Tampering, Software Supply Chain attacks, and more. Injections include Command injection, Database Access Violations, and others.  Other security risk checks include Logging Sensitive Information and Unauthorized Network Activity.

A threat modeling provider, IrisRisk provides a diagramming tool and embedded questionnaires that allow users to define their architecture. Depending on the architecture, a list of threats and fixes is generated. Selected countermeasures sync with issue trackers such as Jira Cloud. Threat modeling continues in real-time thereafter with fixes inserted into workflows. Key benefits include an automation engine, countermeasure recommendations, and integration with issue trackers. Provides a security approach to governance and compliance.

Utilizing STRIDE  (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service (DoS), and Elevation of Privilege), this tool provides free, open-source threat modeling. Benefits include building security checks early in the application design process, identifying requirements and user stories, and creating consistent security design patterns. Easy to use UX.

Offering a solution that improves code quality security by checking code against automated SCA rules, SonarQube benefits include catching bugs on undefined behavior and providing fixes for application security issues. This tool is designed to catch bugs that prevent undefined behavior from impacting end users. SonarQube covers a wide range of programming languages.

(SAST, DAST, IAST, SCA) is designed to build security into all phases of the SDLC.  Features include architecture risk analysis which helps developers identify and fix defects and vulnerabilities while they code.  Synopsys Intelligent Orchestration moves security checks into CI pipelines. This feature allows organizations to define risk policies, run relevant analyses and get prioritized results. The Coverity SAST solution delivers scalable static analysis that detects security weaknesses in code, ensuring that code meets security standards. BlackDuck, which offers a comprehensive database of open source components, vulnerability, and license information was acquired by Synopsys in 2017. With it, users reduce security and license compliance risks while automatically enforcing existing open source policies and processes.

Helps organizations reduce threat drift from code to cloud by delivering continuous visibility into app vulnerabilities from development to deployment. ThreatModeler provides visualizations of the attack surfaces and recommendations for fixes. Additionally, it provides automated threat modeling for mobile and IoT application design. CloudModeler™ helps scale modeling for AWS while measuring drift.

(SAST, DAST, IAST, SCA) Veracode provides a fully integrated solution including SAST, DAST, IAST, and SCA. In addition to continuous security scanning, Veracode provides AppSec learning tools for developers. Veracode governance tools also help organizations to manage risk-related reporting and compliance.

Deliver Better Software Faster with Plutora

Environment Impact Matrix in the Plutora dashboard
Enterprise Release analytics dashboard
Relase dashboard in the Plutora tool

Deliver Better Software Faster with Plutora

Relase dashboard in the Plutora tool

Deliver Better Software Faster with Plutora

Environment Impact Matrix in the Plutora dashboard
Enterprise Release analytics dashboard