Integrate security by placing proportionate checks and safeguards throughout planning, coding, building, testing, release, and operations—not by postponing all security review until the end. Protect the CI/CD pipeline itself as well as the software it produces: repositories, automation, build environments, dependencies, credentials, and artifacts can all affect what reaches production.
What DevSecOps means in practice
DevSecOps embeds security work in the development and delivery activities a team already performs. The OWASP DevSecOps Guideline describes adding security steps to an existing CI/CD pipeline; OWASP’s secure-development guidance similarly recommends building security actions into the existing software development lifecycle (SDLC).
The aim is not to make every change wait for an exhaustive security review. It is to identify relevant risks early, provide useful feedback at the right point in the workflow, and continue detecting issues as the software and its environment change. OWASP’s guideline puts the goal this way: “Detect security issues — whether design flaws or application vulnerabilities — as early and as cheaply as possible, and keep detecting them continuously.”
Where security fits across the delivery lifecycle
Use these stages as a way to decide where controls belong, not as a requirement to run every kind of scan on every change. The right mix depends on your architecture, SDLC, threat model, and capacity to review and act on findings. OWASP’s DevSecOps Guideline supports adapting security activities to the existing pipeline and introducing automation progressively.
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- Plan and design: Define security requirements alongside functional requirements. Threat-model the application and, where appropriate, the pipeline that builds and deploys it. The OWASP guideline includes pipeline threat modeling among its foundational topics.
- Code and commit: Apply secure coding practices and use code analysis suited to the project. Scan repositories for exposed credentials so a secret committed by mistake can be identified before it travels further through the delivery process.
- Build and resolve dependencies: Use software composition analysis (SCA) to review third-party components. Pin dependency versions and validate package integrity where appropriate. Keep build environments secure and limit each job’s credentials and permissions to what it needs.
- Test: Select static, dynamic, or interactive application security testing (SAST, DAST, or IAST) according to the application and when useful feedback can be produced. Add infrastructure-as-code (IaC) or container checks if those assets are part of your system.
- Package and release: Create a software bill of materials (SBOM) to inventory components, and protect artifact integrity and provenance. Use suitable review or approval gates for production deployment.
- Operate and improve: Maintain logging and visibility, respond to findings, and use continuous detection where it is useful. Revisit controls as the architecture and risks change; pipeline visibility is itself a security concern.
Secure the CI/CD pipeline as well as the application
A CI/CD process automates building and delivering software. It also connects repositories, automation systems, build nodes, deployment procedures, dependencies, and credentials. Pipeline steps may have significant privileges, so an attacker who can manipulate the delivery system may be able to affect software before it reaches users. OWASP’s CI/CD Security Cheat Sheet treats the pipeline as part of the attack surface and identifies these areas of risk:
- Insufficient flow control, such as weak protection of changes or inadequate review.
- Inadequate identity and access management, including permissions that are broader than needed.
- Dependency-chain abuse and poisoned pipeline execution.
- Poor credential hygiene, insecure configuration, or ungoverned third-party services.
- Failures to protect artifact integrity and insufficient logging or visibility.
Practical safeguards include reviewing pull requests, protecting branches, using multifactor authentication (MFA) where available, limiting permissions, isolating build nodes, managing secrets, pinning dependencies, checking package integrity, and reviewing production deployments. These are examples to choose from, not a universal configuration: select them according to the pipeline’s design and threat model.
Choose controls by risk and workflow fit
Before adding a scanner or gate, decide what risk it addresses and who will act on its output. A useful comparison considers both application security and protection of the delivery system:
- Coverage: Does the control examine source code, dependencies, infrastructure, containers, artifacts, or runtime behavior?
- Risk addressed: Which failure mode does it reduce, and is that risk relevant to your system?
- Feedback timing: Will it help a developer while coding, during review, in a build, or later in the pipeline?
- Integration and upkeep: How well does it fit the current workflow, and who will maintain its rules and integrations?
- Operational impact: How much triage, review, and remediation work will its findings create?
- Pipeline protection: Does it protect the application, the CI/CD infrastructure, or both?
Start with the risks and stages that matter most, then expand as the team can reliably review and remediate findings. The OWASP guidance supplies control categories, not a ranked vendor comparison or a single best tool choice.
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A practical way to get started
- Map the delivery path. Identify where code enters the repository, how builds run, which dependencies and credentials they use, where artifacts are stored, and how deployments reach production.
- Identify high-impact risks. Consider who can change the pipeline, what permissions its jobs hold, how secrets and dependencies are handled, and whether changes and releases have suitable review.
- Choose a small, actionable control set. Prioritize checks and safeguards that address those risks and fit existing stages. Ensure there is a clear owner for reviewing findings and following through.
- Place feedback where it can be used. Fast feedback may fit code review or a build; other checks may be more appropriate later. Avoid adding gates that generate findings the team cannot assess or act on.
- Review and adjust. Use findings, workflow changes, and visibility gaps to refine the controls. Add automation progressively rather than assuming every check belongs on every change.
The OWASP DevSecOps Guideline is described as actively developing, so consult its current project page for evolving implementation detail. Its guidance and the CI/CD cheat sheet are vendor-neutral; they do not establish that a particular product is best or prescribe one universal pipeline setup.
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