Kubernetes is a powerful and widely adopted container orchestration platform, which also makes it a common target for malicious actors trying to infiltrate networks. The rising prominence of Kubernetes security issues prompted development of a comprehensive security approach that covers all stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC). This approach combines two concepts: shift left and shield right.

The shift left approach embeds rigorous security measures in the early, pre-deployment stages of the SDLC. Conversely, the shield right concept applies security practices after deployment via enhanced monitoring and robust threat detection mechanisms. 

In this article, we’ll examine how teams can combine and implement both of these concepts throughout their SDLC to achieve a much stronger overall security posture in any Kubernetes cluster.  

Shift left in Kubernetes

In a rush to meet deadlines, some teams put off addressing security flaws until post-release, unfortunately allowing exploitable vulnerabilities to proliferate in production environments. The shift left paradigm aims to address these security issues early and proactively in the SDLC, saving time and reducing the probability of a breach.

Conceptually, the shift left methodology utilizes specific and targeted practices to achieve a set of key security objectives. The first objective is early integration. Identifying Kubernetes security issues as early as possible supports a “fail fast” approach, allowing for simpler and quicker issue resolution. This saves time in the long term, removing roadblocks before they become critical bottlenecks. Early resolution eventually becomes a major driver of cost efficiency, as early-stage issues typically demand fewer resources and less developer time than those detected in later stages of the SDLC. 

Key practices

The main practices in a shift left approach include:

• Static application security testing (SAST): Analyzes the source code or inner workings of applications for vulnerabilities and weaknesses to identify and fix security issues early. Automated SAST tools relieve developers of arduous, manual SAST testing.

• Software composition analysis (SCA): Scans and identifies open-source components and libraries for known vulnerabilities in CVE databases. 

• Infrastructure as code (IaC) scanning: Tracks IaC templates and code for security misconfigurations or rule violations to prevent security breaches and compliance issues.

• Container image scanning: Ensures container images are free of vulnerabilities before deployment. Container images start with a base image that often contains many dependencies.

• Software supply chain security: Verifies the integrity and security of third-party components and dependencies used in the application, preventing the accidental introduction of vulnerabilities.

These proactive security practices should be integrated into the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline for the automated identification and prevention of security issues before they can reach a production environment.

Benefits

With a shift left approach to security, organizations gain substantial benefits. First, proactive security measures reduce costs. A production vulnerability that is successfully exploited by a malicious actor can be incredibly costly, and an organization will lose time, resources, and money to issue remediation, data breach recovery, compliance violations, and damaged business reputation. Meanwhile, the comparative cost of implementing shift left security measures to identify and resolve vulnerabilities during the early stages of the SDLC is tiny. This alone underscores the profound advantage of the shift left paradigm.

Second, shift left security improves collaboration. The shift left approach led to the birth of DevSecOps, allowing DevOps and security teams to collaborate closely to achieve better security posture overall.

Shield right in Kubernetes

Ensuring security best practices in the pre-deployment phase is only half of the work — arguably, it’s the easier half. Once an application is deployed to a production environment, it enters an entirely new realm where malicious actors may attempt to attack at any moment. 

The shield right methodology focuses on real-time monitoring and continuous scanning of production runtimes and configurations. Similar to shift left, it also relies on several core practices to achieve key objectives. The first objective is runtime protection. Ensuring security during runtime can be overwhelming, especially as systems grow in scale. Even a small misconfiguration can propagate widely, leading to a serious breach. Runtime protection requires tools that automatically perform threat and anomaly detection while also handling incident response.

The second objective of the shield right approach is continuous monitoring. Kubernetes environments comprise many sophisticated components, each requiring continuous, real-time monitoring to ensure unexpected behavior is recognized and remediated immediately.

Key practices

The shield right approach involves several key practices, with each practice typically tied to purpose-built tools.

• Cloud detection and response (CDR): The cloud is an ever-evolving landscape, with new threats emerging every minute. Your Kubernetes deployments need real-time cloud threat detection and response capabilities so that you can identify and mitigate threats as soon as they occur.

• Cloud workload protection (CWP): Cloud-native workloads come in many shapes and sizes. CWP ensures that all cloud workloads are always protected while running.

• Log analysis and monitoring: Log analysis and monitoring involves continuously ingesting, processing, and analyzing logs and events from various sources to identify anomalies as they happen. Large systems easily generate terabytes of log data each day, requiring enterprise-level logging tools that can seamlessly handle such massive loads.

• Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM): KSPM is a comprehensive framework crafted specifically for Kubernetes, providing insight into the security state of your Kubernetes clusters. It is designed to implement best practices, enforce security standards, and continuously monitor the security posture of a given set of clusters.

Benefits

Organizations that take a shield right security approach to their Kubernetes environments gain the benefit of real-time threat detection. This approach is centered around the idea that production security issues must be addressed promptly. Swift and comprehensive threat detection and mitigation make this approach attractive.

In addition, organizations implementing shield right enjoy operational visibility. Achieving optimal observability is a critical prerequisite for robust Kubernetes security. Shield right emphasizes comprehensive monitoring that extends broadly and deeply — every layer of the Kubernetes ecosystem is thoroughly monitored. This approach provides a detailed view of all activities, enabling proactive threat detection and maintaining a secure environment.

Integrating shift left and shield right

Maintaining the role distinctions between shift left and shield right within the SDLC ensures a smooth integration of both paradigms. This allows each approach to complement the other without unnecessary and potentially damaging overlap.

Integrating both paradigms yields a holistic security approach. Combining proactive (shift left) and responsive (shield right) measures guarantees a comprehensive security strategy. By integrating these approaches, you can make sure your Kubernetes-based application enjoys full life cycle protection. Emphasizing the importance of security from the earliest stages of development through production ensures that security best practices are implemented in all phases of the application life cycle.

Securing Kubernetes from all sides with CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Although Kubernetes environments are a prime target for malicious actors, the shift left and shield right methodologies work well together to establish a reliable and comprehensive security solution. Blending both approaches can transform your Kubernetes environment into a well-fortified stronghold. 

However, blending shift left and shield right often requires multiple tools that may not work well together. Adopting a piecemeal approach without creating needless redundancies or dangerous gaps is a challenge. CrowdStrike Falcon® Cloud Security merges shift left and shield right principles into a single, unified platform. It integrates directly into your CI/CD pipelines to address early-stage vulnerabilities while simultaneously providing continuous monitoring and real-time threat detection and response in your production environment.

To learn more about Falcon Cloud Security, try an interactive demo or contact our team of security experts today.