GitHub is an online source code management site. According to data from the 2021 Octoverse report, there are more than 73 million developers using the platform, with more than 16 million users added in 2021 alone. There are millions of pull requests and code being committed daily!
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In this context, the lack of security reviews in the coding stage of the development flow creates gaps for potential vulnerabilities. As a result, it has become increasingly important for organizations to make sure that every new feature, API or application version requires a new code review process in addition to security-oriented testing.
To ensure that as soon as a new commit happens a code review takes place, we built the integration of our platform with GitHub.
In this post, we will guide you to guarantee the security of the code of your application stored and managed on GitHub using the Conviso Platform, dealing with the control of new versions of your code and guaranteeing your protection from possible threats.
Performing Integration for your application’s continuous security
When talking about the development cycle of an application, we always emphasize the importance of integrating and orchestrating tools to build an agile and secure process.
Through the Conviso Platform it is possible to implement the development process in a centralized and integrated way, delivering data and properly structured information to the teams.
How does integration work?
The integration of Conviso Platform with GitHub is done through an API, built by our team of devs with the best development practices. This API allows integration through CI/CD pipeline tracks and also via Defect Tracker, a resource for creating tickets.
The integration of your CI/CD pipeline is performed by following the steps as per this tutorial from our documentation.
For the Defect Tracker integration, referring to the creation of issues on GitHub, you need to log in to the Conviso Platform, choose the “Integrations” option from the menu, go to the Defect Tracker category and go to “Integrate”, that’s it! This tutorial can be seen here.
So let’s talk specifically about the benefits of this integration and how the platform will contribute to security in your development cycle.
Review code versions
In a systematic software building process (SDLC), the security reviews step usually happens only at the end, when the application is ready.
With the integration of the Conviso Platform, it is possible to build a process of continuous reviews, centralizing vulnerability information in a single place and bringing security measures at the beginning of the flow. This generates efficiencies for teams as it reduces the time to fix software vulnerabilities.
Bringing security further to the left of the development flow (Shift-Left), the development team’s routine saves time by identifying threats early on and during coding.
In addition, the entire review process through a single platform means ensuring that the knowledge gained from the application of the solution over time is maintained and passed on to new team members.
Determine continuous security testing and reviews
With the integration, findings from dynamic (DAST), static (SAST), manual (Pentests) and other tests (SCA, IAST) tests are all centralized in one place. It is important to highlight that the platform allows controlling both the automated review and the manual review, the second being more effective and complementary to the automated one.
How do you ensure your open source dependencies and third-party packages are free from vulnerabilities?
The integration of your development treadmill with the Conviso Platform gives you access to Secure Pipeline. Through this product, you can analyze third-party packages used in your GitHub application via Software Composition Analysis (SCA), ensuring that vulnerabilities in third-party components are not inserted into your code.
In addition, with Secure Pipeline it is possible to orchestrate and generate intelligence in the analysis automation process in the development pipeline, periodically testing your application code. In other words, security testing is automated throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and not just in a few stages.
Tool orchestration
Through this integration with the Conviso Platform, you implement Application Security Testing Orchestration (ASTO) and take advantage of the integration of security analytics into your development or production pipeline. It automatically executes the necessary security tools at the right time, based on the importance of code changes, the total risk score, and the organization’s own security policies.
It is possible to integrate the Conviso Platform with the main security tools on the market or using our own bundle of open source tools to find vulnerabilities. With the platform products, security processes are implemented easily and on an enterprise scale.
All vulnerabilities found in your GitHub code are addressed on the platform itself, providing essential data about the issues and expert guidance for their treatment. Thus, you prevent users from adding new vulnerabilities to the source code.
As a result, it is possible to implement a continuous code review assessment, keeping it more secure.
Manage and control vulnerabilities
Our platform allows integration with several defect tracking tools. This integration allows tickets or tasks to be automatically created when new vulnerabilities are identified in your GitHub code.
As a result, the platform removes duplicate findings, providing a prioritized list of security flaws, optimizing remediation efforts.
In this way, it will significantly facilitate the work of the developer who will have more time to work on solving these problems, since it will not be necessary to change tools constantly.
It is important to remember that vulnerability management is the foundation of a robust security strategy. Issues identified in your GitHub code will rely on the Conviso Platform for their management and production of advanced security reports.
With this data, you can intelligently talk about the status/trends of software security in your organization and illustrate the progress of these processes.
Show the way to Secure Programming
When you have control and management of your application’s vulnerabilities on GitHub, you have important data about the main gaps in secure coding techniques of the development team.
Conviso Platform combines application security best practices in a service based on data and indicators from developers, eliminating vulnerabilities at the coding stage of the development cycle.
By accessing Conviso Platform’s People & Culture, you can identify gaps in knowledge about secure programming, which need to be developed through technical exercises and training provided based on these indicators.
Companies can measure and track developers’ progress on technical exercises in secure coding, helping them to remain compliant with industry regulations and certifications.
Remember that safety goes beyond tools, it is also a process and a culture. Conviso Platform supports them all!
