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Jun 19, 2023The Hacker NewsDevSecOps / AppSec

While the use of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has gained significant popularity as organizations embrace cloud computing and DevOps practices, the speed and flexibility that IaC provides can also introduce the potential for misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities.

IaC allows organizations to define and manage their infrastructure using machine-readable configuration files, which are typically version-controlled and treated as code. IaC misconfigurations are mistakes, or oversights, in the configuration of infrastructure resources and environments that happen when using IaC tools and frameworks.

Misconfigurations in IaC can lead to security vulnerabilities, operational issues, and even potential breaches.

Common misconfigurations include weak access controls, improperly exposed ports, insecure network configurations, or mismanaged encryption settings. Some of the most common types of IaC Security misconfigurations are:

IaC misconfigurations can, of course, lead to security vulnerabilities, but they can also make infrastructure management and maintenance more challenging for AppSec managers and development teams. When misconfigurations are pervasive, it becomes harder to identify and rectify them during updates, scaling, or changing infrastructure requirements. This can result in longer deployment cycles, increased risk of errors during updates, and higher operational complexity.

Beyond the challenges faced by the organization when misconfigurations are present, misconfigurations are often complicated for developers to troubleshoot. Identifying the root cause of misconfigurations can become increasingly time-consuming and complex if not addressed directly, and developers don't always know exactly how to resolve misconfigurations, which can leave a development team frustrated and overwhelmed as they try to resolve the issue.

To make it easier for development teams to address the various types of IaC misconfigurations, Checkmarx is pleased to introduce AI Guided Remediation for IaC Security and KICS.

Security Platform, with KICS (Keeping Infrastructure as Code Secure) is a free, open source solution for static analysis of IaC files. KICS automatically parses common IaC files of any type to detect insecure configurations that could expose your applications, data, or services to attack.analysis of IaC files. KICS automatically parses common IaC files of any type to detect insecure configurations that could expose your applications, data, or services to attack.files. KICS automatically parses common IaC files of any type to detect insecure configurations that could expose your applications, data, or services to attack.files. KICS automatically parses common IaC files of any type to detect insecure configurations that could expose your applications, data, or services to attack.

Powered by GPT4, AI Guided Remediation provides actionable remediation steps and advice to guide teams through the process of remediating IaC misconfigurations identified by Checkmarx IaC Security and KICS. This helps organizations address issues in their IaC files and deploy their applications faster and safer.

IaC Security and AI Guided Remediation is a powerful combination that makes it faster and easier for developers to more deeply understand and quickly remediate misconfigurations.

Organizations wanting to leverage this functionality can rest assured knowing that their proprietary code is secure. Importantly, the organization's code is not shared with AI tooling.

Additionally, AI Guided Remediation detects and removes secrets before sending the code to the chat. Secrets, such as API keys, database passwords, or encryption keys, are sensitive pieces of information that should never be exposed or shared inadvertently. By integrating secret detection and removal into AI Guided Remediation, organizations can significantly enhance the security of their infrastructure as code (IaC) and protect against unauthorized access or misuse.

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Introducing AI-guided Remediation for IaC Security / KICS - The Hacker News