The Art of Preserving Non-Human Identity

ReportMarch 28, 2024Hacker NewsSecret Management/Zero Trust

In the whirlwind of modern software development, teams race against time to push the boundaries of innovation and efficiency. This evolving pace is driven by an evolving technology environment in which the dominance of SaaS, the proliferation of microservices, and the ubiquity of CI/CD pipelines are not just trends but the new normal.

In this context, a key aspect is neatly integrated into the narrative – the treatment of non-human identities. The need to manage API keys, passwords, and other sensitive data is more than just a checklist item, and is often overshadowed by the rush for faster releases and cutting-edge features. The challenge is clear: How do software teams maintain the sanctity of the secret without slowing down?

Challenges in the Developmental Stages of Non-Human Identity

The pressure to deliver quickly in today’s organizations can lead developers to take shortcuts that compromise security. Secrets are credentials for non-human identities. Some standard practices, such as hardcoding secrets or reusing them across environments, are well known. But while they may speed up workloads, they also introduce significant vulnerabilities. Let’s discuss these challenges and vulnerabilities further:

• hardcoded secrets: Embedding secrets directly into source code is a common but risky practice. Not only does it make it easy to access a secret if the code is compromised, it also creates real challenges in tracking that secret and complicates the secret rotation and management process. When secrets are hardcoded, updating them becomes a tedious task and is often overlooked in the rush of development.
• Scalability challenges: As systems grow, the complexity of managing secret security increases. Large-scale infrastructure and cloud-native environments compound the difficulty of tracking and protecting the growing number of secrets distributed across a variety of systems and platforms.
• Compliance and audit difficulties: Ensuring compliance with various regulations becomes very difficult when faced with vast secrecy. In a dynamic development environment, paying close attention to how secrets are used and preventing misuse is critical, but can also be challenging.
• Integrate with IAM system: Any robust secrets management system can easily integrate with an IAM system to enhance security and streamline processes. However, making these systems work in harmony often presents significant challenges.

Why is the protection of non-human identities ignored during software development?

In the world of software development, the relentless pursuit of speed often overshadows the equally important importance of security, especially when dealing with sensitive information. This neglect stems from a common mentality of managing the development process, where the priority is introducing new features, resolving bugs, and meeting tight product release deadlines. Developer onboarding and offboarding processes are also getting shorter, leaving room for errors and bugs to arise in a hurry.

For many developers, immediate feature requirements and user experience enhancements are top priorities. The concept of a security breach due to mishandling of sensitive data often seems distant, especially when there is no immediate impact during the development cycle or there are no mechanisms to highlight the associated risks. This mentality is further entrenched in environments that lack a strong security culture or adequate training, leading developers to treat secrets and non-human identity management as an afterthought.

This imbalance between prioritizing development speed and ensuring strong security creates dangerous blind spots. While rapid development can bring tangible and immediate benefits, the advantages of implementing comprehensive secrets management (such as avoiding potential leaks and protecting confidential information) are more subtle and long-lasting.

Why is the shift-left safe method no longer sufficient?

The shift-left approach to software security, which prioritizes integrating security early in the development life cycle, marks a positive step forward. However, this is not a cure-all solution. While it effectively targets vulnerabilities in the initial stages, it does not address ongoing security challenges throughout the software development process. During the shift left process, ignoring expired secrets can lead to build failures and significant slowdowns in development.

A developer-centric security strategy, on the other hand, recognizes that security should be an ongoing, pervasive concern. It’s not enough to just initiate a security measure; it must be a consistent thread throughout every stage of development. This requires a cultural shift within security and engineering teams to acknowledge that security is no longer solely the responsibility of the security professional, but a shared obligation of all involved.

6 Best Practices for Security of Non-Human Identities and Secrets in Development

Organizations need to move away from the mindset that security during development is just another checkpoint and embrace it as an art integrated into the coding canvas. Here are some best practices to help achieve this image:

1. Centralized confidentiality management: Imagine a scenario where all your secrets are consolidated into one accessible location, easily monitored and overseen. Taking a centralized approach to secret vault management simplifies the process of tracking and monitoring secret vaults. However, in today’s environment, relying on a single, secure repository of secrets is no longer practical. Instead, each environment may have multiple vaults, including various types such as Kubernetes secrets, GitHub secrets, master vaults, etc. The most effective approach lies in a centralized secrets management and security platform that seamlessly connects to all of these vaults, providing the comprehensive solution needed to effectively manage secrets.
2. Access control: Access to non-human identities should be as tight as security at top-secret facilities. Adopting strict authentication practices, such as multi-factor authentication, plays a key role in protecting sensitive data and ensuring that access is reserved only for authorized users.
3. CI/CD pipeline security: CI/CD pipelines form the critical infrastructure of the software development cycle. Integrating continuous security scanning into the pipeline helps identify vulnerabilities instantly, ensuring every build is efficient, secure, and secret-free.
4. Threat modeling and code review: Identifying potential threats early in the development phase and thoroughly reviewing the code for exposed secrets is like performing a quality check at every step.
5. Incident response plan: When the unexpected happens, this plan is your go-to guide for responding calmly and calmly. It’s all about quick containment, smart investigation and clear communication. After a breakout, this is your chance to turn hindsight into foresight and adjust your defenses for the next round.
6. Secure coding framework and server configuration: Utilizing secure coding frameworks and libraries and ensuring server configuration security is a solid foundation for confidentiality security during development.

Incorporate these practices into your daily workflow and make being the keeper of your secrets a natural part of the development process.

Entro: A case study in efficient secret management

As we wrap up our in-depth look at protecting non-human identities during development, it’s clear that with the right secret management tools and strategies, you can get further along in your cybersecurity journey – which brings us to Entro.

Entro takes a cool, low-key approach to enhancing your development-stage non-human identities and secrets management without disrupting your development team. It’s almost like having a backstage crew at a concert, making sure everything happens without the audience noticing. It works completely out-of-band via API and read logs, keeping your secrets safe without any attention or code changes.

Additionally, Entro stands out in the development-stage security space with features that make secret management safer and smarter. One of its standout features is secret enrichment, where Entro adds a contextual layer to secrets, giving them their own profile – who owns the secret, who created it, its rotation history, and the perks it holds.

With Entro, you know exactly who is using what secrets and for what purpose, keeping everything tight and correct. Click here to learn more.