Don’t Blindly Trust Software Building Blocks, Report Says

Olemedia/istockphoto.com

Developers must use safer tools, a recent report concluded.

After the SolarWinds and Kaseya attacks spread malware far and wide across government and business networks, Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 Cloud Threat Team wanted to investigate how it was possible for bad actors to infiltrate cloud-native applications by attacking the cloud supply chain.

The company has now issued a Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report, “Secure the Software Supply Chain to Secure the Cloud,” that identifies the serious problems lurking below the surface of open-source software repositories. The Cyber Threat Alliance hosted a webcast for the report’s author to walk through its key findings.

“What most people missed about SolarWinds, including myself, is what the CEO said” about the attack, said Matt Chiodi, Palo Alto’s CSO of Cloud. “He said, ‘The threat actor did not modify our source code repository. The malicious activity occurred within the automated build environment for our Orion Platform software.’”

In other words, the bad actors didn’t insert the malicious code into their main source code, they went after common software development build tools that actually create and handle the source code.

“Open-source tools are great, [and] anyone can scrutinize them, but no one’s obligated to maintain or secure them,” Chiodi said. “Some of the most popular modules haven’t been updated in years.”

He walked through the hypothetical creation of a very simple cloud infrastructure built in a cloud-native way to demonstrate the problem.

“Phase one is cloud infrastructure provisioning, where developers will typically use infrastructure as code,” he said. “In this case, the developer has chosen three specific modules” from a popular repository – storage, VPC and Kubernetes. “Storage is dependent on two others,” for a total of five modules.

“We found nine misconfigurations already, even though no applications are running yet,” Chiodi said.

In phase two, the developer started to deploy Kubernetes, using something called a helm chart – which itself depends on two other helm charts. “There are now five Kubernetes misconfigurations [to] add to the nine from above,” he said.

In the final phase, the developer began to deploy the container images. Inside each container is the application code and all its elements. “There are 40 application vulnerabilities in the application code in the container itself,” Chiodi said. “This is how vulnerabilities and misconfigurations can snowball within the supply chain. This would be fully functional, except the default configurations aren’t likely to be very secure.”

The most effective way to address the problem is to encourage developers to use safer tools. “You don’t want to stifle innovation, but get them to scan for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities to begin with,” he said. “As applications build up their dependencies, they build up their misconfigurations … One application we examined had 23 dependencies, and 92% of the misconfigurations were in those dependencies.” It is also important that DevOps and security teams have visibility into all of the bill of materials for every cloud workload, he said.

Chiodi laid out four steps for mitigation:

  • The Cloud Native Computing Foundation released a white paper on software supply chain best practices. “Read it,” he said.
  • Create a strategic plan for what “shift-left security” looks like, including the vision, milestones and metrics.
  • Investigate and identify where software is being created throughout the entire organization.
  • Implement quality assurance by making sure that in every step of the software development process, the developers can receive feedback and address identified security issues.

Using open-source tools to create new and innovative applications does an excellent job of speeding up time to use. But they require vigilance from developers and transparency for security professionals.

Editor's note: This article was updated to clarify the types of build tools hackers targeted. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.