In a previous post, we discussed Dazz’s approach to securing Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines through visibility and gating features. This empowers security and DevOps teams to monitor the adoption of critical security measures, like Static Application Security Testing (SAST), and block deployments containing vulnerabilities before they reach production. Building upon these capabilities, Dazz has introduced a significant enhancement: Pipeline Validation, a new patented technology that analyzes CI/CD pipeline definitions to ensure key security steps are in place, validated, and optimized.

This innovative technology elevates CI/CD security by identifying whether security controls such as SAST and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) are implemented, while flagging missing guardrails that leave applications vulnerable. Below, we’ll explore how this innovation transforms the CI/CD security landscape, ensuring that organizations can safely scale their development operations.

Dazz’s platform acts as a security data warehouse, connecting to development, infrastructure, and security tools to deliver security teams a view of where security tools like SAST are deployed. With this insight, they can identify gaps in their security coverage and prevent CVEs and CWEs from reaching production environments.

However, a key challenge remains—ensuring that essential security steps are always correctly integrated across all pipelines. This is where Pipeline Validation comes into play, taking security to the next level by providing detailed analysis and validation of pipeline definitions.

Introducing Pipeline Validation: Dazz’s New Patented Technology

Ensuring that software development pipelines are configured properly with the right security controls and processes has emerged as an important capability for Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) solutions. Dazz’s Pipeline Validation technology is specifically designed to address the complexities of modern CI/CD pipelines. As organizations increasingly implement automated pipelines for rapid development, it’s easy for security checks to be misconfigured or missing entirely. Pipeline Validation ensures that essential security steps like SAST, SCA, IaC scanning, and other security measures are properly implemented and validated across every pipeline.

Key Features of Pipeline Validation

1. Automated Pipeline Analysis Pipeline Validation analyzes CI/CD pipeline definitions in real time, detecting security-relevant controls, such as SAST and SCA. This automation removes the burden of manually reviewing pipeline configurations, ensuring no pipeline is deployed without essential security scans. By detecting security tools within the pipeline configurations, the Dazz platform is designed to automatically validate whether scanners are correctly configured and operational.

2. Validating Security Controls The platform doesn’t just detect whether security steps are present; it also verifies that they are functioning as intended. For instance, Pipeline Validation checks if SAST scans are properly integrated into the build process and whether they take place before code is packaged and deployed. If any part of the security control chain is missing or misconfigured, the Dazz platform will immediately alert teams with specific recommendations for remediation.

3. Identifying Missing Guardrails: a critical function of Pipeline Validation is to flag missing security guardrails and provide recommendations. For example, if a CI/CD pipeline lacks SCA scanning—leaving open-source dependencies unchecked—the Dazz solution identifies this omission and provides a path forward to integrate SCA scans. This is intended to prevent security gaps from going unnoticed, ensuring that pipelines are fully secured before code ever reaches production.

How Pipeline Validation Enhances Visibility and Gating

While CI/CD pipeline visibility helps you enforce gating policies, Pipeline Validation adds a crucial extra layer of security. Previously, teams could monitor which pipelines had security tools like SAST deployed. Now, with Pipeline Validation, they can ensure these tools are correctly implemented and functioning as expected.

This enhancement also extends to Dazz’s gating capabilities. With Pipeline Validation, CI/CD gates can now block deployments that lack critical security steps or contain misconfigured security checks. This ensures that deployments are only allowed if they meet strict security requirements, preventing vulnerabilities from slipping through the cracks.

Real-World Example: Pipeline Validation in Action

Imagine a scenario where a development team manages several CI/CD pipelines, each with its own unique configuration. Without a comprehensive validation tool, security teams must manually inspect each pipeline to ensure the appropriate security measures—like SAST for detecting code vulnerabilities and SCA for identifying issues in open-source dependencies—are in place.

Dazz’s Pipeline Validation automates this entire process. When integrated into the team’s CI/CD workflows, Dazz inspects pipeline definitions and finds that several pipelines lack SCA scanning, exposing them to risks from vulnerable third-party libraries. Dazz’s platform then flags these gaps, recommending specific actions to add and configure SCA tools at the appropriate stages of the pipeline.

Once the security tools are properly implemented, Pipeline Validation continues to monitor the pipelines, ensuring they remain secure and compliant.

Benefits of Pipeline Validation

1. Comprehensive Security Coverage: Pipeline Validation ensures that all CI/CD pipelines are secured with essential security tools like SAST and SCA. By identifying and correcting missing security controls, the Dazz platform provides a solution for complete coverage across every pipeline.

2. Proactive Security: By identifying and validating security steps early in the development lifecycle, Pipeline Validation prevents vulnerabilities from reaching production, dramatically reducing risk and improving security posture.

3. Contextual Insights: With the ability to prioritize vulnerabilities based on real-world factors such as business impact and exploitability, Pipeline Validation ensures that security teams focus their efforts on the most critical threats.

4. Seamless Integration with Existing Tools: Dazz’s Pipeline Validation works on top of existing CI/CD and security tools, making it easy to integrate without overhauling the current tech stack. This flexibility allows organizations to adopt the technology without disrupting their workflows.

Conclusion: Elevating CI/CD Security with Pipeline Validation

Dazz’s Pipeline Validation represents a significant step forward in CI/CD security. By automating the analysis, validation, and correction of security steps in pipeline definitions, the Dazz solution ensures that vulnerabilities are identified and addressed early in the development process. This latest innovation complements the existing visibility and gating features, making the Dazz platform the ultimate tool for securing modern development workflows.

With Pipeline Validation, organizations can be confident that their pipelines are secured by design, preventing vulnerabilities from slipping through and reducing the risk of security incidents in production environments.