What Is Shift Left Security?

What Is Shift Left Security? 

Shift left security, or “taking a shift left approach” to security, is the idea of integrating security and running application security tests as early on in the software development life-cycle (SDLC) as possible to uncover and remediate known vulnerabilities and other issues. The main objective of shifting security left is to improve the efficiency of these tasks, as it’s easier to fix vulnerabilities earlier as opposed to later in the development process. Waiting until the end of the development process almost always results in costly fixes, especially if significant architectural changes are needed. Finding and fixing errors early often results in less time and money spent on remediating security issues in the code. 

Traditional application security practices are not effective in a modern DevOps world. When security scans are run only at the end of the software delivery lifecycle (either right before or after a service is deployed), the ensuing process of compiling and fixing vulnerabilities creates massive overhead for developers; overhead that degrades velocity and puts production deadlines at risk.

Shift left security testing is effective for improving the overall quality of application code, reducing application security testing efforts by avoiding rework, and for reducing the amount of toil that degrades the overall developer experience. Therefore, shift left security is a fundamental tenet of DevSecOps.

Why Is Shift Left Security Beneficial for DevOps? 

DevOps teams enabling the development of modern applications are supporting developers with shift-left security tools and processes that automate security testing, governance, and remediation guidance for software developers.

Developers benefit greatly from shift left security, mainly because they are not interrupted by frequent, arduous remediation processes. The less time it takes to get static analysis, dynamic analysis, or testing results after checking in code, the more likely it is that the recently written code is still fresh in the developer’s mind. 

Shift Left Security Best Practices 

If you’re working on shifting security left in your CI/CD pipelines, here are some guiding principles to follow:

Assess your current software development process and map out a shift left methodology

Where in your CI/CD pipelines are you currently testing for security vulnerabilities? Could those tests be run earlier in the process? Could any waterfall methodologies become more agile (for example, rather than testing for flaws iteratively and integrating security solutions that can continuously monitor code and identify security bugs)?

Once you have a detailed picture about how you’re currently managing application security testing, create a document that defines your new shift left security objectives. This strategy should include how your organization will define shifting left and the processes and tools involved, how you will measure success, and both individual and team responsibilities across software developer teams, devops teams, and application security teams. 

Educate development teams in secure coding best practices

Shift left security training is a shared responsibility; organizations need to provide education to the right teams who can support and enhance shift left security. With more eyes on application code and with developers and application security engineers educated on what issues to look for and which tools to use, shift left security testing will become an important early step in the software development lifecycle.

Secure coding standards provide rules and guidelines compiled by security experts with years of knowledge that help prevent, detect, and eliminate errors that could compromise software security. Key security standards include CERT CWE, OWASP, DISA STIG, IEC 62443, and more. Educating your team about such standards and implementing static analysis tools to enforce coding standards across your codebase will safeguard your code from coding vulnerabilities early in the process. 

Mindsets don’t change overnight, but alignment and a sense of security accountability can be achieved through the following:

• Commitment to regular internal security training– tailored to DevSecOps– that includes developers, DevOps engineers, and security engineers. Skills gaps and needs shouldn’t be underestimated.
• Developer adoption of secure coding methodologies and resources
• Security engineering contributes to application and environment architecture, design reviews. It’s always easier to identify and fix security issues early in the software development lifecycle.

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Shift Security INFORMATION left, and not security workload

It’s easy to think that by simply moving security checks further upstream in the software development lifecycle you’ve achieved your application security objectives. The reality is that WHAT you shift left is what makes or breaks your success.

Shift left security is predicated on the proven idea that performing SCA, SAST, Container, Secret Detection, IaC, and DAST scans earlier in software development pipelines (as opposed to just prior to production) results in a better overall chance of catching known vulnerabilities and remediating them in a timely manner. However, if developers alone bear the entire burden of running tests, collecting scanner output, and prioritizing vulnerabilities on top of remediating them, the resulting mental load and toil is certain to impact speed to production. Instead, following these guidelines offers the best path to success for shift left security:

• Security teams should own the orchestration and automation of application security tests throughout CI and CD pipelines
• Remove the burden of deduplicating and prioritizing detected vulnerabilities from developers. Instead, security should ensure developers get a fully processed vulnerability list in a timely manner
• Accelerate remediation by generating actionable developer-oriented guidance for understanding and resolving each vulnerability

How Harness Security Testing Orchestration (STO) Shifts Security Left

Harness Security Testing Orchestration (STO) is shift-left security built for your CI/CD pipelines and designed for developers. With Harness STO, you can seamlessly integrate security scanners and orchestrate tests anywhere across your build pipelines and enable developers to rapidly remediate vulnerabilities through intelligent prioritization and deduplication.

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Benefits of Harness STO

Shift security left without friction

Easily configure and run SAST, SCA, Container, Secret Detection, and DAST scans within Harness CI/CD stages or in a standalone mode, integrating with any CI/CD tooling.

Use your preferred security scanners

Natively integrate with over 40 open source and commercial security scanners and create custom integrations to support your scanner of choice.

Accelerate vulnerability remediation with AI

Harness STO allows you to zero in on consequential security vulnerabilities through intelligent organization and deduplication. Developers get AI-enhanced remediation guidance and contextual information enabling them to apply the right fixes with no additional toil.

Strengthen application security governance

Create customized policies with centralized security governance templates powered by OPA and granular RBAC, ensuring that all desired application security scans are performed and achieve acceptable results.