Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CD) are practices in software development that focus on automation to improve code quality, accelerate deployments, and generally ease collaboration among development and operations teams.
The 2024 State of CI/CD report has it that a staggering 83% of developers adopt CI/CD practices for automating building, testing, and deployment in their workflows highlighting its popularity and importance in software development today.
With CI processes, developers integrate code changes into a shared repository, allowing automated builds and tests to identify issues early. CD, on the other hand, automates the delivery of applications to specified infrastructure environments, ensuring that every code change can be safely deployed to production at any time.
As the automation of testing, integration, and deployment have become important parts of organizations' software delivery process, automating these processes opens up new security challenges and potential vulnerabilities such as insecure secrets storage, unauthorized access to resources, and exposure of deployment keys that can compromise the entire application infrastructure.
The Codecov breach in 2021 is a notable example of the impacts of inadequate handling of vulnerabilities in CI/CD pipelines. Attackers exploited a flaw in Codecov's CI process allowing them access to sensitive user data affecting the company’s reputation and finances.
In this article, we will look into the security aspects of CI/CD pipelines, focusing on comparing GitHub Actions and Jenkins—two popular CI/CD tools today and how they handle the task of security.
The Attack Surface
Before deep-diving into both tools, we must understand how CI/CD works and what securing pipelines should entail.
Continuous Integration (CI): Developers frequently push code changes to a shared repository. CI tools build and test the code automatically, detecting integration issues early.
Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CD): Builds that pass CI tests move to the staging or production environment. This process involves automated deployment scripts that reduce human error.
Each point in a CI/CD pipeline, such as access to the code, version control systems, build servers, and deployment scripts, represents a potential attack vector. If not properly secured, attacks can be targeted at any of these points.
Securing CI/CD pipelines requires a proactive approach at every stage. Key security practices for CI/CD pipelines include:
Secrets Management: Ensuring sensitive data like API keys and credentials are securely stored and accessed only by authorized processes.
Access Control: Applying strict permissions for who can trigger, modify, or view CI/CD workflows.
Vulnerability Scanning: Regularly scanning dependencies and container images for known vulnerabilities.
Logging and Auditing: Maintaining logs of all CI/CD activities to detect suspicious activities and ensure compliance.
Overview of GitHub Actions and Jenkins
GitHub Actions is a cloud-based CI/CD solution built into GitHub’s ecosystem that enables developers to automate workflows directly within their repositories. It supports workflows triggered by events known as actions such as code pushes, pull requests, and issue events, making it a great solution for teams already using GitHub for version control.
GitHub Actions provides built-in integrations with tools like Dependabot for dependency updates, CodeQL for security analysis, and a marketplace of third-party actions for extended functionality. Its ease of setup and scalability make it appealing, though it may lack the depth of customization offered by some other self-hosted alternatives.
Jenkins, a widely popular open-source CI/CD tool, provides extensive flexibility and customization for teams willing to configure and manage their CI/CD infrastructure. Unlike GitHub Actions, Jenkins is self-hosted, meaning that teams are responsible for setting up, maintaining, and securing their instances. It offers thousands of plugins that support a wide range of development, testing, and deployment needs.
Jenkins offers flexibility and customization, making it a strong choice for environments where tailored solutions are preferred. While its self-hosted nature requires greater effort in setup and management, this also allows teams full control over their CI/CD infrastructure.
Implementing Security in GitHub Actions vs. Jenkins
In this section, we will understand how these tools handle security under our focus criteria
- Secrets Management
GitHub Actions: Uses GitHub Secrets, which provides secure storage for sensitive information like API keys and passwords. Secrets can be defined at the organization, repository, or environment level, and are encrypted to prevent unauthorized access.
Jenkins: Offers secrets management through the Credentials Plugin, which allows for the secure storage of sensitive data. However, since Jenkins is self-hosted, securing secrets may require additional configuration to ensure they’re only accessible to authorized users and jobs.
- Access Control and Permissions
GitHub Actions: Implements fine-grained permissions and supports branch protections, which allow teams to specify which users can trigger workflows. It also supports role-based access, enforcing restricted access based on user roles.
Jenkins: Supports access control using plugins, enabling organizations to define custom roles and permissions. This can be highly customizable but requires careful configuration to prevent accidental exposures.
- Security Scanning and Vulnerability Detection
GitHub Actions: leverages GitHub’s ecosystem for security, integrating tools like Dependabot and CodeQL for automated scanning.
Jenkins: While dependent on third-party plugins like the OWASP Dependency-Check plugin, Jenkins offers flexibility in integrating a wide range of security tools, though this may involve more manual effort during setup.
- Logging and Auditing
GitHub Actions: Provides built-in logging for all workflows, accessible from within the GitHub interface. Organizations can also utilize GitHub’s audit logs to monitor user actions and access attempts.
Jenkins: Supports logging through plugins like Audit Trail and Log Parser. While Jenkins provides customizable logging options, setting up and monitoring logs requires more oversight compared to GitHub Actions.
- Dependency Management and Updates
GitHub Actions: includes Dependabot, for automating dependency updates and flagging vulnerabilities, offering built-in convenience for teams using GitHub.
Jenkins: provides flexibility through third-party plugins and external tools, which can address a wider range of use cases but may require additional setup.
Tabular Comparison of GitHub Actions vs Jenkins for CI/CD Security
We can look at both tools side by side in this table
Conclusion
Both GitHub Actions and Jenkins offer strong security features for CI/CD pipelines, but they cater to different needs. GitHub Actions provides an integrated and user-friendly solution within GitHub’s ecosystem, while Jenkins offers extensive customization, ideal for teams that require control over their CI/CD pipeline and are prepared to invest in setup and maintenance.
GitHub Actions is well-suited for teams leveraging GitHub’s ecosystem and seeking straightforward security integrations, while Jenkins is ideal for organizations requiring customizable, self-hosted solutions to meet specific CI/CD needs.
Your choice of a tool may vary depending on your workflow. What is certain, however, is the importance of security in the CI/CD process. Teams should evaluate their specific security needs and workflow complexity. For organizations aiming to secure their CI/CD pipeline, understanding and implementing best security practices is essential. Choose a CI/CD solution that aligns with your workflow and security requirements, ensuring that your automated processes are protected at every step.
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