Cloud-native application security

Cloud-native application security

Imagine building a super-fast digital city, constantly changing and evolving. That's the challenge we face with cloud-native applications. These applications have changed the way software is built and run, with speed and flexibility becoming the new currency, but they have brought with them security challenges that require a digital guard to keep pace with this fast-paced era.

Cloud-native applications are those that are specifically designed to make the most of modern cloud environments, and they rely on revolutionary concepts such as containers, microservices, and Infrastructure as Code. These components give businesses unprecedented ability to innovate and scale, but at the same time fragment the traditional security environment, making legacy security inadequate.

This article aims to simplify the concept of cloud-native application security, explain why traditional security is no longer enough, and how we can build strong and resilient defenses.

What are cloud-native applications?
To understand security, we must first understand what we are trying to secure. Cloud-native applications are a radical shift in software engineering, based on four main pillars:

• Microservices: Splitting an application into a group of small, standalone services. Each service works independently and communicates with other services via APIs. This autonomy increases the speed of development, but doubles the number of touchpoints that need to be secured.

• Containers and Kubernetes: Containers are the unified shipping boxes for software that encapsulate the code and its operating requirements. Kubernetes is the port manager that regulates the movement of these containers, ensuring that they are operational and distributed. This dynamic environment requires dynamic security components capable of protecting ever-changing assets.

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Servers and networks are set up via software files using tools such as Terraform. This ensures that the environment is consistent and repeatable, and allows security settings to be checked before deployment.

• Immutable Infrastructure: Instead of repairing the server or container when needed, it is completely replaced with a new, updated version. This principle reduces the risk of misconfigurations and makes the environment cleaner and safer.

New Security Challenges in this World
Shifting to cloud-native applications opens up opportunities for innovation, but it also poses unique security challenges that can't be ignored:

• Expanded Attack Surface: You now have hundreds or thousands of microservices, each running in a container, communicating across multiple APIs. Each touchpoint is a potential entry point. This fragmentation requires a distributed security strategy rather than a traditional perimeter strategy.

• Software Supply Chain Security: Modern applications rely heavily on open-source software libraries and off-the-shelf container images. If one of these external components contains a vulnerability, your entire application becomes vulnerable. Each component must be inspected before it is inserted, and this has become one of the top cybersecurity priorities globally.

• API Security APIs:  APIs are the lifeblood of cloud-native applications. If these interfaces are not secured properly, it can lead to data leaks, or unauthorized access. API protection should be  an integral part of a security strategy.

• Complex IAM: It's about granting access to microservices machines as well as human users. Managing these automated identities, and ensuring that each service has only the minimum privileges needed for its operation, is a formidable challenge that requires advanced CIEM entitlement management tools.

• Runtime Security: Because containers can be created and destroyed in seconds, monitoring what's happening inside them during runtime  is crucial. Security tools should be able to detect anomalous behaviors or intrusion attempts within the container at breakneck speed.

4 C's of Cloud-Native Security

To simplify the security strategy in this complex world, we can divide it into four main levels, known as the 4 C's of Code, Container, Cluster, and Cloud, where security must permeate each layer:

• Code security: Security starts here. The code must be scanned for vulnerabilities before it becomes part of the application.

• Container Security: Make sure that the container images we use are clean and free of loopholes, and that they operate with minimal privileges.

• Cluster Security: This is about securing Kubernetes itself, and ensuring that its settings such as network and access policies follow security best practices.

• Cloud Security: This is the basic level, and it relates to securing the AWS, Azure, GCP cloud  account itself, including identity management, IAM  access, and basic network configurations.

Security Shift Strategies

The most important principle in cloud-native application security is Shift Left. Simply put, instead of waiting for the end of the development process to test the security known as shifting right, security should be integrated into the very early stages of the development lifecycle.

What does it mean to turn left in practice?

• Security in  the Secure IaC Configuration Phase: By using infrastructure as IaC code, we can scan configuration files such as Terraform before they are deployed. If we discover that the configuration will inadvertently create an open Internet server, we can fix the code before it becomes a real security issue. This saves time and effort and prevents vulnerabilities from accessing the production environment.

• SAST/DAST automated code inspection: SAST static code inspection tools and mobile DAST must be used continuously. These tools inspect code as it is written, and immediately alert developers when a vulnerability is detected, allowing them to fix it in a matter of minutes rather than weeks.

• Container image inspection: There should be a security gateway that rejects any container image that contains known vulnerabilities or outdated components. This ensures that everything deployed in the production environment has passed a rigorous security check.

Shifting to the left transforms security from a discrete phase to an integrated and continuous process, making developers partners in security.

CNAPP Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform

As the cloud-native environment becomes more complex, it has become difficult for security teams to use separate tools for each tool layer for code security, one for containers, and one for the cloud. That's where  the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) comes in.

CNAPP is a unified security solution that combines a wide range of security capabilities into one integrated platform. The goal is to provide a comprehensive, unified view of risk across the entire application lifecycle, from code to the cloud.

Main Components of CNAPP:

The intrinsic benefit of CNAPP: is to simplify complexity. Rather than trying to link data from dozens of different tools, CNAPP provides  a single dashboard that gives the security team a clear and coherent view of risks, making it easier to prioritize and respond to incidents.

Additional strategies to enhance security

In addition to the four principles and the CNAPP platform, there are other crucial strategies to adopt:

• Minimum Privilege: Grant each service, container, or user only the minimum permissions necessary to perform their function, limiting potential damage in the event of a breach.

• Encrypt Everything Everywhere: Encrypt data at rest and motion to ensure it's unreadable even if intercepted.

• Continuous Monitoring and Logging: Collect and analyze logs in real-time to detect any unusual behavior or intrusion attempts as they occur in this ever-changing environment.

• Automation is key: automate as many security tasks as possible, such as vulnerability scanning and patch application, to keep pace with change and make security fast and consistent.

Cloud-native applications have revolutionized the world of technology, offering unprecedented speed and flexibility. But this revolution requires a parallel revolution in security, so that security becomes an interlocking fabric that covers every part of the application.

The security of cloud-native applications is not an option, but rather a prerequisite for success in the digital age. This requires adopting a left-leaning mindset, applying the four 4 C's, and leveraging CNAPP.

Organizations that adopt this integrated security approach will be able to innovate safely.

In the cloud-native world, security is speed, and speed is the future.