Automating Security Testing in CI/CD Pipelines

1. Introduction

This tutorial aims to guide you on how to automate security testing in Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. You'll learn how to integrate security testing tools into your CI/CD pipeline to ensure your code is free from security vulnerabilities before deployment.

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with any CI/CD tool (like Jenkins, CircleCI, GitLab CI, etc.).
• Basic knowledge of Docker is beneficial but not mandatory.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Security testing in a CI/CD pipeline involves integrating security testing tools into the pipeline, so they automatically scan your code for vulnerabilities whenever changes are made.

We'll use Jenkins as our CI/CD tool and OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy) as our security testing tool.

Step 1: Install and configure Jenkins on your local machine or server.

Step 2: Install the OWASP ZAP tool. You can do this by using a Docker image. Run the following command:

docker pull owasp/zap2docker-stable

Step 3: Create a new Jenkins job for your project.

Step 4: In the build step, add a shell execute command to run OWASP ZAP Docker container. Here is an example:

docker run -t owasp/zap2docker-stable zap-baseline.py -t https://www.yourwebsite.com

Replace 'https://www.yourwebsite.com' with your website's URL. The script zap-baseline.py will perform the baseline scan, which scans the website for a set of vulnerabilities.

Step 5: Save your job and run it. Jenkins will start a new OWASP ZAP Docker container and scan your website for vulnerabilities.

3. Code Examples

Here is an example of a Jenkins pipeline script that runs OWASP ZAP:

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Security Test') {
            steps {
                sh 'docker run -t owasp/zap2docker-stable zap-baseline.py -t https://www.yourwebsite.com'
            }
        }
    }
}

This script defines a single stage, 'Security Test'. In this stage, it runs a shell command that starts a new OWASP ZAP Docker container and scans a website for vulnerabilities.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, you've learned how to automate security testing in a CI/CD pipeline using Jenkins and OWASP ZAP. The next step is to explore other security testing tools and how to integrate them into your CI/CD pipeline.

Here are some resources for further reading:

• OWASP ZAP User Guide
• Jenkins User Documentation

5. Practice Exercises

1. Modify the Jenkins pipeline script to include both unit tests and security tests.
2. Experiment with different OWASP ZAP scan scripts, such as zap-full-scan.py.
3. Set up email notifications in Jenkins to alert you when a security vulnerability is found.

Remember, the best way to learn is by doing. Keep practicing and exploring different options to make your CI/CD pipeline more secure.