But what is ASPM exactly?

Application Security Posture refers to an organization’s security state concerning its applications, specifically how well-protected they are against vulnerabilities and threats throughout their lifecycle. This includes identifying risks during development, ongoing monitoring, and mitigation during deployment. A strong application security posture helps prevent breaches, reduces risk exposure, and ensures rapid response to threats.

Managing application security posture requires continuous assessment, prioritization, and remediation of vulnerabilities. It involves integrating security practices into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and prioritizing fixes based on risk impact. However, many ASPM solutions face challenges such as excessive alerts, fragmented tools, and difficulty managing risks across diverse environments.

But what makes Checkmarx the leader, and how does it compare to other top players? More importantly, why should an application security manager like you care? Let’s break it down.

The Checkmarx Advantage: A Comprehensive Approach to ASPM

Checkmarx’ dominance is built on our comprehensive Checkmarx One platform, which integrates ASPM as a core component. This unified platform offers code-to-cloud security, allowing organizations to see and manage vulnerabilities and risk across the entire SDLC.  

Integrations – Checkmarx ASPM integrates both native Checkmarx AST tools and third-party tools to provide advanced risk correlation and prioritization across the SDLC. While it supports an open approach with third-party tool integration, the key advantage lies in its ability to leverage the rich context from Checkmarx’ own AST tools, which are designed to work together. This leads to deeper insights, better prioritization, and more effective noise reduction, which in turn provides faster remediation, giving organizations confidence in their ability to manage application security risks. 

Risk-Based Prioritization: Checkmarx ASPM enhances risk prioritization through built-in integration with its native tools, designed to function on a unified platform. This integration connects to our Application Risk Management capabilities, enabling organizations to prioritize their riskiest applications. Security teams can then focus on addressing critical issues at the application level instead of being overwhelmed by individual vulnerabilities. This advanced correlation improves prioritization of business-critical applications and their potential impact, effectively reducing noise compared to other solutions. These innovations have fueled tremendous growth, with Checkmarx capturing 21.3% of the market share in 2024, outpacing its competitors. Challenging the Value of Different ASPM Approaches: The Standalone, Part of a CNAPP, and the AppSec Platform Approach 

While Checkmarx leads the charge, the competing approaches from other vendors are worth noting. However, these approaches fall short in key areas that security managers must consider. 

The Standalone Approach: A Strong Contender, But Lacks Flexibility 

This approach, while offering AppSec Data Fabric for code visibility and dependency management, relies heavily on third-party SAST solutions that support limited languages and APIs, making it dependent on external systems for core functionality. Although it features a no-code workflow for automated remediation, it lacks the flexibility and native integration that Checkmarx offers. Without owning the tools, it can only achieve basic correlation, limiting its ability to provide rich context and insights. As a result, it struggles to cut through the noise and accurately prioritize vulnerabilities. When multiple systems are involved, organizations cannot fully trust that their vulnerabilities are being prioritized effectively, leading to potential gaps in their security posture. 

The Part of a CNAPP Approach: Leading in Cloud, Lacking in Developer-First Tools 

Taking the ASPM to be part of their CNAPP approach, this vendor is known for its dominance in endpoint and cloud security and has recently expanded into ASPM, offering agentless visibility into microservices and databases—important for cloud-native security. However, their ASPM struggles with developer adoption due to limited integration with CI/CD tools. Without deep integration, it’s harder for developers to remediate vulnerabilities directly within their workflows. Additionally, their shift-left approach lacks SAST, making correlation difficult since they can’t see the code, and their focus on infrastructure doesn’t easily translate into developer workflows. Can your security program afford a gap between developers and security when addressing vulnerabilities? 

The AppSec Platform Approach: Developer-Centric, But Narrow in Scope 

This vendor excels with its developer-first approach, achieving high adoption rates within developer communities. However, its recent venture into ASPM reveals key limitations, such as minimal third-party integrations and code visibility in only 12 programming languages. While their tools work well together, organizations relying on a variety of security tools may find the solution restrictive. Despite having access to runtime integrations for richer context and insights, the effectiveness of their correlation depends heavily on the strength of the individual tools, which may limit their ability to accurately map exploitable paths (see the Tolly report for data on exploitable paths). Its scope is narrow, focusing on developer needs but potentially leaving gaps in full SDLC coverage. Is this limited scope enough to handle the complex and evolving risks in today’s application environments? 

Why Checkmarx is the Clear Leader 

Checkmarx addresses ASPM as part of the Checkmarx One AppSec platform challenges through a comprehensive, integrated solution that reduces alert noise, correlates risks from multiple sources, and seamlessly integrates into the developer pipeline. This approach embeds security at every stage of development and provides actionable insights that empower developers to resolve vulnerabilities quickly. With expansive integration capabilities, developer-first features, and risk-based vulnerability prioritization, Checkmarx distinguishes itself as a leader in the ASPM space. 

Here’s why in more detail: 

All-in-One Platform: Unlike competitors that require multiple tools, Checkmarx consolidates all AST tools under a single platform, making it easier for organizations to manage and secure their applications. 

Superior Innovation: From real-time in-IDE scanning to AI-driven remediation, Checkmarx continually pushes the envelope on ASPM innovation. A focus on AI and ML in the security pipeline positions us ahead of competitors. 

Unmatched Growth: Checkmarx’ existing customer base and strategic channel partnerships are helping drive adoption across North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM, making us a global leader. 

What Should You Consider? 

As an Application Security Manager, you need a solution that delivers comprehensive visibility and streamlined remediation while seamlessly integrating with your existing tools and workflows. Is a standalone approach with patchwork of integrations sufficient for your needs? Can a CNAPP approach with cloud-first approach cover the full SDLC? And while a competitor’s AppSec platform approach excels with developers, is it enough for a complete security posture? 

Checkmarx answers these questions by redefining what ASPM should be—natively correlated, fully integrated, developer-friendly, and equipped with the advanced capabilities needed to handle today’s application risks. 

The Future of ASPM  

The future of ASPM is clear: it must be part of an AppSec platform, comprehensive, correlated and integrated solutions will continue to outpace fragmented approaches. With Checkmarx leading the charge, the question becomes, how long can other vendors keep up? 

Ready to see the power of Checkmarx in action? Don’t wait. Try Checkmarx today and experience a future-proof ASPM solution that puts you back in control of your application security posture. 

Visit our ASPM solution page – Here 

Read the full Frost & Sullivan report and start your journey with Checkmarx now. Your security posture depends on it. 

By 2029, more than 95% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production, according to Gartner.  This is a significant increase from less than 50% in 2023. To address these challenges, Checkmarx has developed an innovative container security solution designed to secure your applications from development to deployment.

Let’s explore the real-world impact of our solution and highlight how it helped a leading cloud-based service provider enhance their own container security.

But first…What are containers

Containers are a type of virtualization technology that packages an application and its dependencies together. This allows the application to run consistently across different computing environments, regardless of the underlying operating system.  In simpler terms, imagine a container as a shipping container – it carries everything an application needs to run (code, libraries, settings), but remains isolated from the system it runs on (like the operating system on a server). This isolation ensures portability and security for the application.

While containers provide many benefits, they also introduce unique security challenges. For example, pulling container images from public registries can expose systems to malware and vulnerabilities. Using large base images is like carrying unnecessary baggage—they slow down operations and introduce extra vulnerabilities and limited visibility in managing containerized environments can hide security threats.

Containerization is popular when developing, deploying, and running microservices-based applications.  Microservices are small, independent applications that work together to form a larger application.    Containers are ideal for this because they isolate each service and make them easy to deploy and scale. Because containers offer efficient resource utilization and faster deployment times, it is easier for developers to build, test, and deploy applications rapidly.

Why securing containers is crucial

We know that it’s convenient to pull container images from public registries. Although it saves time, this practice can expose your systems to malware and vulnerabilities, since hackers often upload malicious images to exploit unsuspecting developers. Similarly, sensitive information like passwords or API keys can inadvertently find their way into container registries, leading to data breaches. Managing these secrets is crucial.

Another pitfall is relying solely on static image scanning tools. These tools are great for detecting known vulnerabilities, but often miss emerging threats or misconfigurations. This oversight can leave your containers exposed. The inherent nature of containers increases the attack surface compared to traditional applications. Developers must secure multiple layers, including container runtimes, orchestrators, and plugins, to mitigate these risks effectively.

Adopting minimal base images, updated regularly, can significantly reduce these risks. Limited visibility makes it challenging to detect and respond to issues in real time. Robust visibility and observability tools are essential in gaining deep insights into container workloads and implementing effective threat detection and response strategies.

While containers offer immense benefits, they also require security frameworks. Addressing issues like insecure image sources, exposed secrets, incomplete static scanning, an increased attack surface, bloated base images, and limited visibility can help secure your containerized environments. Staying ahead of threats ensures that you can harness the full potential of containerization without compromising on security.

Introducing our new Container Security solution

Checkmarx provides a new powerful container security solution that enhances team efficiency across the software development lifecycle. It empowers developers and security teams with the following benefits:

Comprehensiveness:  Checkmarx goes beyond static scanning, offering a rich set of features including image scanning, package inspection, vulnerability assessment, triage, remediation, results view, scan risk report, image breakdown, and Sysdig integration for runtime coverage.

Proactive Security: Early vulnerability identification and mitigation within the development process minimizes security risks in production.

Actionable Insights: Checkmarx provides detailed information about vulnerabilities, enabling developers to prioritize remediation efforts and act.

Ease of Use: The solution integrates seamlessly with existing workflows, minimizing disruption to development processes.

Diving into key container security capabilities

Let’s dive into some of our key container security capabilities:

Checkmarx’ container security approach starts with comprehensive image scanning. It examines every layer of an image—base image, software dependencies, and application code—to uncover vulnerabilities and threats. Constant updates to vulnerability databases ensure it identifies the latest threats.

Next, the solution inspects packages within container images. It performs checks like version control to confirm the use of latest secure versions and verifies licenses to avoid potential legal issues.

Finally, it offers detailed image breakdowns. Users can drill down into each layer of a container image to view vulnerabilities and package details. This granular view enables developers to pinpoint andaddress specific security issueseffectively. 

Vulnerability Assessment:  Checkmarx prioritizes vulnerabilities based on severity and provides detailed information about each one. This includes the CVE details, potential impact, and remediation guidance.

Triage:  This allows users to manage the severity, and status, of vulnerabilities for each project or application. They can update severity levels, change status (e.g., Verify, Not Exploitable), and maintain detailed audit trails for all actions taken.

Remediation: Checkmarx identifies vulnerabilities within container images and recommends alternative base images with a lower security risk profile. This approach helps developers choose more secure foundations for their applications.

Results View: This intuitive interface provides a detailed view of container image scan results. Users can see the distribution of vulnerabilities across different severities and analyze them based on runtime status.

Scan Risk Report:  Checkmarx generates comprehensive reports summarizing scan results, including the number of vulnerabilities and their severity. These reports can be downloaded in various formats (JSON, CSV, PDF) for further analysis and compliance purposes.

Final Thoughts

Checkmarx offers a comprehensive container security solution that empowers developers and security teams throughout the development lifecycle. By identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities early, Checkmarx helps organizations build secure and compliant containerized applications. The case study demonstrated how a cloud service provider achieved a significant reduction in vulnerabilities and improved security posture with Checkmarx.

As containerization continues to reshape software development, prioritizing container security is no longer optional. By leveraging solutions like the Checkmarx One Platform, organizations can unlock the full potential of this technology while ensuring the long-term security of their applications and data.

Ready to take the next step?

Visit our website to learn more about Checkmarx’s container security solution and download our free container security Enhancement guide. You can also request a demo to experience the solution firsthand and see how it integrates seamlessly into your development workflow.

Wondering what you should consider when picking a container security solution? These are six things important things you should keep in mind. 

Glossary of terms – Container Security

Attack Surface: The sum of all potential entry points that an attacker can use to gain access to a system. A larger attack surface means more vulnerabilities attackers can exploit.

Base Image: The foundation image upon which a container is built. It typically contains the operating system and essential libraries needed for your application to run. Choosing a minimal base image reduces the attack surface.

Container: A lightweight, self-contained unit of software that packages code and all its dependencies (libraries, configuration files) for deployment and execution. Imagine a shipping container for code, allowing it to run consistently across different environments.

Container Image: A template that defines the contents and configuration of a container. It’s like a blueprint for building a container with specific functionalities.

Container Registry: A repository that stores and manages container images. Developers can pull (download) images to create containers and push (upload) new images they’ve built. Think of it as a library for container images.

Container Security: The practice of protecting containerized applications and the infrastructure they run on from vulnerabilities, malware, and unauthorized access. It’s crucial to ensure the integrity and security of your containerized environment.

DevSecOps: An approach to software development that integrates security considerations throughout the entire development lifecycle (Dev), security operations (Sec), and IT operations (Ops). Container security is a key aspect of DevSecOps.

Exploit: A piece of code or script that takes advantage of a vulnerability to gain unauthorized access or cause harm. Exploiting vulnerabilities in containers can compromise your applications and data.

Runtime: The environment where containers are executed. Container security needs to consider both the security of the image and the runtime environment.

Static Image Scanning: A security analysis technique that examines container images for known vulnerabilities without running the container. It’s like checking the ingredients list of a meal for potential allergens before cooking.

Vulnerability: A weakness or flaw in software that can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access or cause harm. Vulnerabilities in container images or underlying infrastructure pose a risk to container security.

In this blog, I’ll discuss the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and its security implications. We’ll explore the common security challenges faced by organizations implementing IaC and discuss strategies for securing their infrastructure through IaC security measures.

What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security

IaC manages the configuration of cloud infrastructure through automated code, ensuring consistency when deploying applications. Tools like Terraform and CloudFormation automate tasks, simplifying configuration and deployment. IaC security focuses on addressing vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in code-based provisioning (with IaC templates) to prevent security breaches from compromising data integrity.

Types of IaC: Declarative vs. Imperative Approaches

Two main approaches govern IaC implementation: declarative and imperative. Declarative IaC defines the desired system state, without detailing the steps to achieve it, while the system handles the process of achieving and maintaining the desired state. An example of a declarative tool is Terraform. Imperative IaC specifies the commands required to achieve the desired configuration. For example, AWS SDK. Each approach presents its unique security challenges, underscoring the need for security measures throughout the development and deployment process.

Example of Declarative IaC using terraform

terraform {version = “0.11.13”}

provider “aws” {

  region = “eu-central-1”

}

resource “aws_s3_bucket” “your_new_bucket” {

  bucket = “my-first-website-cloud-native-website”

  acl    = “public-read”

  website {

    index_document = “index.html”

  }

}

Example of imperative IaC

Simple line of code to create an S3 bucket with the AWS CLI tool
aws s3api create-bucket –bucket my-first-website-cloud-native-website –region eu-central-1

IaC: Challenges

1. The declarative approach: The declarative approach must know whether the infrastructure already exists, to know whether to create it or not. One of the biggest challenges is the loss of control over individual provisioning steps, this approach is less suitable for small fixes, potentially complicating and slowing down processes.

2. The imperative approach: The imperative approach has no idea if the infrastructure exists. The imperative example also cannot be easily re-run and doesn’t include the ability to update or delete.The most significant challenge introduced by this approach is the need for advanced programming skills, specifically for teams new to DevOps. Due to the explicitness of the imperative approach, scripts are less editable and that results in less flexibility due to a varied outcome across environments. Errors in one step can disrupt the entire process.

3. Credential/Secret Disclosure: Sensitive information, like access keys, may be mistakenly hardcoded and wind up in version control systems, risking exposure. This occurs when sensitive information such as passwords, API keys, or other types of credentials are inadvertently exposed in plain text within code repositories or configuration files. Such exposure could result in data loss, financial liabilities, or even reputational damage to the organization.

4. Misconfiguration: Misconfigurations in IaC templates pose a serious security threat. Misconfigurations that can lead to exploitable vulnerabilities include improper access controls, overly permissive networks, and insecure storage settings. These challenges are compounded by the imperative approach, which demands advanced programming skills and lacks flexibility which can lead to unauthorized data access, service interruptions, or data breaches.

5. Elevated Privileges: IaC automation often relies on high-privilege identities, making them lucrative targets for attackers for example granting overly permissive permissions to a service account or user role, allowing it to access sensitive resources or perform actions beyond its intended scope, which can lead to security breaches or data leaks.

6. CI/CD Infrastructure: CI/CD systems, vital for deploying IaC changes, face security risks such as weak authentication and authorization. Without proper access controls, unauthorized users may access sensitive resources or execute malicious actions, causing security breaches or deployment disruptions.

Securing IaC: Best Practices

1. Declarative programming is the favored method in IaC, it defines the desired end-state, ensuring repeatable execution and adaptability to configuration drift, unlike the imperative programming method that requires scripting expertise, as it needs commands for each provisioning step, offering precise control for fine-tuning, optimization, and addressing software specific needs.
2. IaC template Analysis: IaC template analysis tooling involves leveraging application security testing tools specifically designed to scan IaC source code for potential security vulnerabilities – including sensitive values such as passwords, API keys, or other credentials. These tools utilize static analysis techniques to parse through the codebase, identifying patterns or syntax that indicate the presence of sensitive information. For example, they may look for strings that match known patterns of API keys or AWS access keys within Terraform or CloudFormation templates. By flagging these instances during the scanning process, developers and security teams can promptly address and remediate such exposures before they lead to security incidents.
3. Policy Engine: A policy engine within the context of IaCin volves implementing a robust set of granular policies that dictate the configuration and behavior of cloud resources provisioned through code. These policies are typically defined based on security best practices, compliance requirements, and organizational standards. The policy engine acts as a centralized control mechanism, allowing administrators to enforce rules and constraints on various aspects of cloud infrastructure provisioning, such as network configurations, access controls, encryption settings, and resource tagging. For example, policies may specify that all storage buckets must be encrypted at rest. By implementing policy-based controls, organizations can reduce the risk of misconfigurations and unauthorized access.
4. Securing CI/CD Pipeline: Securing the Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline involves implementing a multi-faceted approach to protect the entire workflow from potential security threats. Role-based access controls (RBAC) are essential for ensuring that only authorized individuals have permission to view, modify, or execute pipeline tasks. Additionally, isolating the CI/CD infrastructure from other systems and environments helps mitigate the risk of unauthorized access or tampering. Securing the CI/CD pipeline requires a combination of proactive measures, including RBAC, infrastructure isolation, and continuous monitoring, to safeguard the integrity and reliability of the software delivery process.
5. Credential and Secret Management: Securing credentials and secrets is critical when implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Organizations must implement processes and tools to prevent exposure of sensitive information in version control systems and other repositories. This means using secure storage methods like encrypted key vaults or reliable credential management systems to protect this information from unauthorized access. Using environment-specific config files can also help reduce the chance of accidental exposure by keeping sensitive data separate from the IaC templates. Regular audits and automated scans are essential for promptly spotting and fixing any instances of exposed credentials.
6. Misconfigurations: To address this challenge, organizations must implement rigorous validation processes and automated checks to ensure that IaC templates adhere to security best practices. Additionally, leveraging infrastructure security scanning tools can help identify and remediate misconfigurations before they are deployed into production environments. Embracing the declarative programming approach has its advantages as well, by defining the desired end-state and automated provisioning, it inherently reduces the likelihood of misconfigurations by minimizing manual intervention and human errors, providing a proactive solution to the misconfiguration challenge.

Our Approach to IaC Security

Checkmarx provides a comprehensive IaC security solution that is integrated into the Checkmarx One platform correlating data from the entire software development life cycle (SDLC). This enables the platform to prioritize risks based on context from the different security engines, providing developers with actionable insights and allowing them to focus on addressing critical vulnerabilities efficiently.

1. IaC template code Analysis: Checkmarx’s IaC Template analysis tool integrates with the developers’ environment to automatically scan IaC templates for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, providing actionable insights to developers and security teams. By identifying security issues early in the coding stage of the development lifecycle, organizations can proactively mitigate risks and ensure the integrity of their infrastructure.
2. Policy Enforcement: Checkmarx enables organizations to enforce preventive security policies and stop the build process at the coding stage preventing vulnerable or misconfigured code from making it into production ensuring compliance with industry regulations and internal security standards. Customizable policies allow organizations to tailor their security controls to meet their specific requirements and mitigate potential threats effectively.
3. Seamless Integration: Checkmarx seamlessly integrates into existing workflows, ensuring minimal disruption to development processes. Its compatibility with popular IDEs enables developers to manually scan templates during development, while CI/CD integrations automate scans later in the process. This streamlined approach ensures security checks occur at every stage of the development lifecycle, enhancing overall security posture.
4. Education and Training: Education and Training: Checkmarx provides educational resources and training programs to help organizations build and maintain a strong security culture. By educating developers and security professionals on best practices for IaC security, Checkmarx empowers organizations to proactively address security challenges and protect their cloud environments effectively.

Final Thoughts

As organizations embrace Infrastructure as Code, prioritizing security becomes imperative to prevent potential vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. With Checkmarx, organizations can embark on their IaC journey with confidence, knowing that their infrastructure remains protected against potential threats. Infrastructure as Code security is not a choice; it’s a strategic imperative. By embracing a proactive approach to security and leveraging cutting-edge solutions like Checkmarx, organizations can unlock the full potential of IaC while protecting their assets against threats.

CNAPPs are often presented as the go-to tool for cloud security, promising comprehensive protection for cloud-native applications. However, these platforms have built-in limitations that may leave organizations exposed to security risks and breaches – a fact that is not always emphasized. 

1. Designed for the cloud…only 

CNAPPs are tailored for cloud-native environments, often overlooking security needs in traditional on-premises environments. A cloud-only approach presents hurdles for organizations operating in both cloud and on-premises environments, due to lack of comprehensive coverage across diverse development landscapes. Without security measures for hybrid environments, organizations must either contend with heightened security risks and compliance issues or manage separate tools lacking integrated and correlated security insights. 

2. The focus is on runtime 

CNAPPs prioritize addressing threats and risks during the runtime phase. While they excel at identifying runtime threats, vulnerabilities introduced during the coding and testing phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) may go unnoticed. This delayed increases the likelihood of security issues going unaddressed until they become critical problems in production, putting the business at risk for security breaches and data compromises. 

3. Infrastructure vs. Application Security 

By prioritizing the protection of cloud infrastructure, CNAPPs fall short by offering limited capabilities for identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities within the application code itself, making them an incomplete solution. Securing infrastructure is essential, but it must be complemented by robust application code security for comprehensive protection. 

4. Limited code-level visibility 

CNAPPs face a significant challenge detecting vulnerabilities at the code level due to their limited visibility into application code. Unlike more comprehensive AppSec solutions that can cover hybrid environments, CNAPPs often rely on third-party tools for code analysis. These tools are often not in-depth and can result in challenges when identifying and managing vulnerabilities. As a result, security teams have a tough time spotting risks in the application code or tying vulnerabilities in production to their location in code for developers to remediate. 

5. Incomplete API security coverage 

CNAPPs lack comprehensive coverage for API vulnerabilities. API security is vital for securing modern applications relying on APIs for communication. CNAPPs often develop their own API security features in-house, but these are seen as ad hoc at best. Due to their focus on runtime, they frequently miss crucial aspects of securing APIs.  

6. No developer focus 

Developers were never part of the CNAPP plan. Their emphasis on infrastructure security has little developer involvement, which means CNAPP vendors are not focused on developers – their needs or integrating with their workflows and tooling.  CNAPPs often fail to provide developer-friendly capabilities, impacting the developer experience and collaboration in software development.  

7. Inadequate IDE integration 

Developers rely on IDEs for coding. However, if these IDEs are not integrated with, and able to, bring insights directly into the developer working environment, developers will not receive real-time feedback on security concerns, making it difficult to fix them quickly. Since CNAPPS integrate in at the runtime stage, there is a major delay in vulnerability discovery. This increases the chance of undiscovered vulnerabilities until runtime, potentially exposing applications to malicious actors. 

8. Limited remediation guidance 

Without clear guidance, prioritizing and resolving security risks becomes difficult. CNAPPs offer insufficient guidance for remedying identified vulnerabilities in code. Any remediation advice provided tends to lack specificity from a developer’s perspective, making it hard for them to enact effective fixes.  

9. Detection vs Prevention 

CNAPPs primarily focus on monitoring and responding to security risks, rather than proactively preventing. This limitation hampers organization’s ability to effectively prevent application-specific vulnerabilities and security challenges from going live. Without the ability to enforce preventive security policies and stop the build process at the coding stage, CNAPPs struggle to provide comprehensive protection against vulnerabilities in code making it to production.   

By integrating Checkmarx with a CNAPP solution, organizations can overcome the built-in limitations of CNAPPs. We offer advanced security tools to support the entire development life cycle for hybrid cloud environment. This integration enhances developer workflows by delivering real-time security feedback during coding, enabling early detection and remediation of vulnerabilities. With our proactive security approach, vulnerabilities are addressed throughout the software development lifecycle, correlating runtime insights from CNAPPs for better risk prioritization and reducing alert noise by up to 90%. By enforcing customizable security policies and mitigating API-related threats, we bridge the gap between cloud infrastructure security and application security, providing a comprehensive solution for securing cloud-native applications. 

Embracing code to cloud is now much easier

There are three pillars leading this approach:

• Streamlined security posture management – Integrate security into every stage of the development lifecycle, offering unified view, automated risk analysis, and remediation guidance.
• Enhanced efficiency for teams – Achieve clear communication through integrated workflows, streamlined processes, and meeting development teams right where they work with the information they need.
• Actionable insights & prioritized remediation– Identify Kubernetes clusters, container images, code repositories and map them to Checkmarx One applications and projects with runtime data, for better risk management and to prioritize critical vulnerabilities effectively.

Understanding the Integration

The integration between Checkmarx and Wiz helps deliver actionable insights and prioritizes vulnerability remediation to our mutual customers. Checkmarx One correlates Wiz’s cloud asset inventory and network exposure with vulnerabilities and application security results, such as code repositories. This gives organizations the context needed to prioritize vulnerability remediation based on what is exploitable in the running application. This approach reduces the noise generated by non-critical vulnerability alerts by up to 90% and enables customers to focus their resources on addressing high-impact security issues.

This integration brings to life the “Shift Left, Shield Right” strategy, extending our Checkmarx One offering by adding runtime information to secure every stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This helps encourage collaboration between different teams and stakeholders throughout the entire process. Developers then gain access to actionable security insights directly within their IDE, which allows them to address vulnerabilities early in the development process. Then security teams can leverage runtime context and cloud asset inventory in order to provide developers with the most relevant security information and guidance. Ultimately, it accelerates the delivery of secure applications in a cloud-native environment.

As part of this partnership, we have also integrated our SAST scan results with the Wiz platform to correlate them with cloud security insights. This supports our combined vision of code to cloud and back – enabling greater security posture across an organization’s SDLC. With this new capability, our mutual customers can prioritize and address the most significant risks on the most business-critical assets. This partnership aims to streamline vulnerability detection and mitigation, transforming how enterprises secure their applications and cloud environments.

How Checkmarx enriches AppSec findings with Wiz runtime insights

Let’s see this in action.

In the Risk Management tab, we correlate all the Checkmarx scanner information and runtime data. We tie them back to their project, and their associated user. Adding the runtime context, and internet-facing information from the Wiz integration enables us to add another piece of the puzzle and modify the risk level to reflect what we know and prioritize them more effectively.

Runtime context allows us to understand whether vulnerabilities are exposed to the internet, which increases the risk of exploitation. Vulnerabilities that are exposed to the internet are prioritized due to their increased risk level

Let’s now look at the project level, where Checkmarx One connects all the dots. We can see all the building blocks of the project, code repos, and packages used within the project, including when they were scanned, how many vulnerabilities they have, the risk level and the runtime context.  This allows us to better prioritize the risk and escalate it as needed.

How Wiz enriches CNAPP with Checkmarx SAST findings

The integration of Checkmarx SAST scan results with the Wiz platform enhances application security directly on Wiz’s platform. Combining application security findings with Wiz’s own cloud security scan data, helps organizations identify, prioritize, and address the most significant risks to critical assets, at the development stage. This correlation provides a unified and actionable security visibility, improving the detection and mitigation of vulnerabilities across the entire software lifecycle.

Organizations then can navigate the complexities of modern cloud environments securely, with streamlined security posture management, actionable insights, and enhanced collaboration, can effectively mitigate risks and accelerate their cloud journey with confidence.

If you wish to start gathering runtime insights and see the magic happen Request a Demo, to get started.

The nature of cloud-native applications requires solutions that can quickly adapt, mitigate risks effectively and secure critical assets. Traditional vulnerability and risk management solutions frequently fail in the cloud. Traditional solutions are designed for static environments and lack the ability to add relevant context to alerts and rely on outdated risk-scoring methods. Today, organizations need a simple way to address this complex issue.

Checkmarx Cloud Insights offers actionable insights to solve these challenges, because it correlates data across your entire software development lifecycle and runtime environments. Through smart prioritization mechanisms and Attack Path Analysis, Cloud Insights empowers organizations to streamline their security operations, mitigate risks effectively, and safeguard critical assets in the cloud.

Why integrating with runtime is critical

Traditionally, by the time a vulnerability is discovered, AppSec teams struggle to pinpoint the developer responsible for the code that needs to be fixed. This can be even more daunting with large codebases that have frequent contributions.  The delay hinders timely fixes. Additionally, developers often lack visibility into the application’s real-world behavior, making it hard to gauge the true impact of vulnerabilities and prioritize fixes. For today’s enterprises, integrating with runtime is crucial for effective vulnerability and risk management.

Integrating with runtime

Checkmarx is revolutionizing cloud-native application security, by integrating with AWS, Sysdig, Wiz and other leading CNAPP vendors. These integrations provide organizations with actionable insights by correlating data across the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC) and runtime environments.

Correlating context from runtime with pre-deployment data has several benefits:

• Reduces noise and alert fatigue by prioritizing internet-facing vulnerabilities and filtering out non-runtime vulnerabilities. This ensures critical issues are addressed promptly to protect applications from external threats.
• When a vulnerability is found in runtime, it pinpoints the vulnerability’s location in the source code and identifies the relevant developer. This is valuable for incident response and general vulnerability management, since it allows for faster remediation and accountability.
• Verifies that code fixes make their way through every step of the SDLC, including in the container image, any running containers, and clusters.

Cloud Insights offers a holistic view of vulnerabilities and risks across the software lifecycle, enhancing risk mitigation practices. This integration ensures that security insights are seamlessly gathered and analyzed, regardless of the existing environment.

How do we do it?

When integrating with Sysdig, queries the Sysdig API for a list of open source packages per container image in use. We then scan the images and extract the static packages and their vulnerabilities.  Then we cross match the list of static packages with the ones identified in the containers in runtime and associate them with current Checkmarx One projects.

When integrating with Wiz, we establish a secure connection with Wiz’s API endpoints. Through this connection, we send API requests to Wiz’s GraphQL endpoints, specifically inventory, runtime-related data such as clusters, pods, containers, and network exposures. Wiz’s API processes these queries, executing them against its data sources, and returns the results to us in JSON format.

With the AWS integration, the customer provides their IAM role that can read clusters, and other metadata, from AWS EKS. We then authenticate and execute the AWS APIs and connects to the cluster. Using the K8S API, we receive a list of images under each connected cluster. Then we leverage the AWS Network Analyzer to add a public exposure flag to all relevant mapped container images. This way we know which resources are publicly exposed and determine the risk level for better prioritization.

After getting the information from Wiz or AWS, we use a heuristic algorithm to match container image names with the Checkmarx One project name and corresponding source code repo. We then correlate runtime data to the risk calculation based on detected vulnerabilities and misconfigurations from earlier in the SDLC. This process helps reduce alert noise by prioritizing critical internet-facing vulnerabilities and focusing the user on projects that are already deployed.

Prioritizing Risk with Runtime Insights

Cloud Insights empowers your security teams to make informed decisions by prioritizing exploitable risks within running applications – whether it’s a cross-site scripting vulnerability or a potential SQL injection. It eliminates the “noise” of alerts triggered by vulnerabilities present in unused code or non-deployed configurations, which allows your teams to focus on the most business-critical issues. This data is integrated into the ASPM Risk Management dashboard, offering a new input that provides an at-a-glance view of application risk. This targeted approach streamlines the remediation process, reduces wasted effort, and ultimately enhances the organization’s overall application security posture.

Attack Path

Attack Path analysis identifies and visualizes the exposure path of vulnerabilities, showing the sequence of attack steps that attackers could use to harm cloud applications.

• Visibility: Integrates data across various stages, spanning from code to runtime, including vulnerability analysis in the codebase, examination of misconfigurations during build and deployment, and identification of vulnerabilities in running applications and environments. This integration ensures a unified understanding of security risks across the development lifecycle, providing crucial insights for risk prioritization
• Path to Vulnerability Exploitation: Shows the path to exploit container images from the internet through the cluster and pod. This improves security by identifying potential exploit paths, revealing security gaps, and helping prioritize remediation
• Efficiency and Accuracy: Simplifies identifying container images needing updates, improving efficiency and accuracy in addressing security vulnerabilities, implementing new features, and maintaining application stability and performance.

Enhancing Cloud Security with Checkmarx Cloud Insights

Checkmarx Cloud Insights combines and correlates information about vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, code repositories, and matched projects across the SDLC and runtime, providing businesses with a comprehensive view of potential risk. Attack Path analysis improves security operations by helping teams proactively address risks and strengthen cloud application defenses against cyber-attacks.

By combining our industry-leading scanners with runtime information provided by Cloud Insights, organizations can achieve unparalleled visibility and control over their cloud-native applications. This integrated approach enables security and development teams to identify vulnerabilities within Checkmarx One projects and prioritize them based on their exposure in runtime, ensuring that critical issues are addressed promptly and effectively.

To learn how Cloud Insights can help you identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities and misconfigurations effectively, and strengthen your security posture request a demo today.

Cloud-native applications have gained popularity over traditional monolithic applications in recent years due to their scalability, flexibility, and efficiency. In contrast to monolithic applications, cloud-native applications use microservices architecture and containers and are specifically designed to be modular, lightweight, and highly adaptable. Cloud-native applications enable organizations to adapt seamlessly to evolving business needs, facilitating faster time-to-market.

While this offers unparalleled opportunities for business growth and innovation, it also poses a major security challenge. The dynamic nature of the cloud-native paradigm widens the attack surface, leaving organizations vulnerable. Traditional application security tools can’t properly secure the borderless landscape of cloud-native architecture. 

So, what is the most effective way to secure cloud-native development?

Shift From Monolithic to Cloud-Native 

Originally considered the technological cornerstone for enterprises, monolithic applications feature tightly integrated components that operate on dedicated servers, with their entire codebase residing in one place. Since monolithic applications are so contained, their attack surface is much smaller and straightforward to secure.

While initially fostering business success, the technological inflexibility and complicated scalability of monolithic applications began stifling business development and growth. Each feature change or update required extensive architectural overhauls, demanding coordination across all teams. A single point of failure could lead to a system-wide crash.

Organizations became increasingly frustrated with these limitations, and the need for a better alternative became evident. 

Enter cloud-native applications.

Cloud-Native Applications

Triggered by these shortcomings, organizations began shifting to cloud-native environments. 

When we talk about “cloud-native” we are referring to applications, or services, that run on cloud environments from the ground up. These applications take full advantage of cloud computing frameworks.

The shift to cloud-native development revolutionized how applications are created. These new capabilities help facilitate more agile software that could adapt to shifting demands, enabling faster innovation, smoother deployments, and better communication.

However, this model has its drawbacks, including shared responsibility model, openness of default settings, lack of visibility, and availability over security focused.

The dynamic nature of cloud-native environments demands a more comprehensive security solution. 

Protecting Cloud-Native Applications

The traditional security methods simply cannot keep up with the dynamic nature of cloud-native development, leading to gaping holes in their application protection. 

The flexibility of cloud-native development fosters innovation but can make it difficult for traditional AppSec solutions to provide a comprehensive view of vulnerabilities. As a result, organizations are faced with either prioritizing infrastructure security or maintaining a balanced security approach, potentially leaving vulnerabilities unaddressed. In addition, there is very little communication between AppSec and developers, leading to solution silos.

Protecting cloud-native applications demands a holistic security approach that fosters communication between all stakeholders to ensure that every part of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) is protected, from code to cloud. 

How can this be achieved?

What About The “Shift Left” Approach?

Let’s first take a step back.

To combat the speed and agility of cloud-native development, many initially called for “shifting left” in application security. This approach emphasized integrating security testing earlier in the development cycle, literally moving security testing from the right (deployment) to the left (development) of the SDLC. The idea here was to proactively catch vulnerabilities and misconfigurations at the beginning of the development process to prevent them from persisting into later stages. 

This aimed to shorten feedback loops and foster a proactive security mindset. 

And it helped – in the beginning. While effective in catching issues earlier in the pipeline, the overemphasis on early-stage protection may have given a false sense of security leaving crucial applications vulnerable. 

This gap highlighted the need for a balanced and holistic AppSec approach: code to cloud.

Code to Cloud Protection

Shifting left isn’t enough anymore. Prioritizing security measures at every phase of the SLDC – and not just the beginning – has become crucial. According to Aqua Nautilus research, in the past year alone there was a 300% surge in attacks targeting the code, infrastructure, and development tools. This emphasizes the need for balanced and comprehensive security measures across the SDLC. To protect from code to cloud, instead of just shifting.

What Does “Securing From Code” to Cloud Actually Mean?

Securing applications from code to cloud means applying security controls in every stage of the SLDC, including during: 

• Training: Initiate security with developer education on secure coding best practices. 
• Coding: Adopt tools like Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and API security during code creation to help pinpoint potential risks within the codebase before deployment.  
• Building: Utilize testing tools such as Continuous Integration (CI), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS) for seamless development workflows, third-party vulnerability detection, and visibility into the application components.
• Testing: Use Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) to simulate real-world cyber threats, ensuring a comprehensive security assessment. 
• Deploying: Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security to narrow down potential attack points and ensure a safe application rollout. 
• Go-live: Implement real-time monitoring and dynamic threat detection during the runtime phase. 

Only a comprehensive code to cloud AppSec approach can secure the entire SDLC, create a resilient business environment, and reduce costs in the face of evolving cyber threats.

Checkmarx’ Code to Cloud Approach

So, does such a comprehensive code to cloud solution exist? It does!

Checkmarx takes a unique approach to securing applications from code to cloud. While most solutions approach cloud security from an infrastructure, network, or workload perspective and then shift left, Checkmarx starts securing from the very first line of code. Our industry leading Checkmarx One platform offers a full breadth of security capabilities to protect every stage of the SDLC, correlate security findings, and prioritize remediations so you can make the biggest impact on reducing risk.

Here are some of the Checkmarx One benefits: 

Unified AppSec platform 

Correlates all security data to prioritize remediation and identify risk across your entire footprint – including cloud-native and traditional non-cloud applications. 

Comprehensive AppSec capabilities 

Provides the full suite of capabilities required to secure cloud-native applications all on a unified, consolidated application security platform. 

Seamless integration across the SDLC  

Offers the broadest set of SDLC integrations, including IDEs, SCM tools, CI/CD tools, and feedback tools. This enables automatic security scans as applications progress from code to build to deploy in the cloud.

Visibility from code to cloud 

Correlates security data across every stage in the SDLC – including runtime insights – to provide true visibility into the vulnerability lifecycle from code to cloud.

If you’re interested in how Checkmarx One can secure your organization from code to cloud, feel free to schedule a personal demo here.

Conclusion:

The evolution from monolithic to cloud-native applications presents opportunities and challenges. While cloud-native applications offer more scalability and flexibility, they also bring new security complexities. The need for a comprehensive AppSec solution that protects from code to cloud is imperative, especially considering the gaps in the shift left security.

Checkmarx One was created to protect your applications from code to cloud, so that they are secured throughout the entire SDLC. 

Don’t leave even one line of code exposed – make sure your applications are secured from code to cloud today!

It is no longer possible to protect code solely with perimeter security and firewalls. Attack surfaces have grown and the once protected is now vulnerable. Open source has proved an invaluable resource to developers but can also be a backdoor for hackers. Enterprises are now releasing new versions of their code two or three times a day, making stringent security even more difficult. 

The constantly changing nature of development means organizations ranging from hospitals to the world’s largest tech providers are under threat. We need to rebuild our virtual city walls to keep pace with the modern threat landscape. 

Expanded armories 

Oak shields have been replaced by SAST scans in this new world of security. The armory of enterprises has expanded rapidly with a myriad set of tools available to tackle vulnerabilities. However, this has led to the issue of how best to manage all these tools. And how to consolidate the data and results of each to provide complete visibility across the SDLC. 

Each of these tools will produce alerts. Already overworked devs need to prioritize and focus on the ones that really matter. It’s no wonder so many vulnerabilities are ignored when bug reports are flying in from all sides. 

From code to cloud 

The rapid pace of innovation has resulted in the concept of “code to cloud” security. This centers around the proactive philosophy that security needs to be integrated from the very beginning of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), all the way to deployment and runtime.  

The drawbridge has been replaced by dev experience. This means a culture of secure coding practices, static code analysis, and threat modeling to help identify and address vulnerabilities early on and at every stage of the SDLC. From the start it is crucial to guide developers with actionable remediation guidance. As the code progresses through the SDLC), cloud adoption introduces complexities, especially in deployment and the integration with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD).  

A successful code to cloud program requires buy-in and integration with developers, AppSec, and leadership teams. That means:   

• Continuous security monitoring in the cloud to detect and respond to threats in real-time. 
• The need for incident response planning and procedures to effectively mitigate security breaches. 
• Understanding the challenges of managing diverse security tools. 

Environmental awareness 

Castle building has been replaced by coding. Another factor that needs to be considered in secure development is the move towards Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – the process of provisioning and configuring an environment through code instead of devices and systems.    

IaC is both a security opportunity and potential liability. Templates can enforce security best practices and ensure consistent security across cloud environments. But they can also introduce vulnerabilities. Errors in Code or misconfigurations of cloud resources may leave you open to serious compliance and security risks.   

Protect your enterprise   

It’s fair to say that your code will be a target for malicious actors for the foreseeable future. The invaders will continue to find new ways to breach the walls. You and your enterprise can’t afford to stand still.  

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will play a role in automating security tasks and improving threat detection. It’s also crucial to stay informed about new security threats and vulnerabilities and adopt a proactive approach to cloud security.    

Don’t let innovation overtake your security. Embrace a security culture centered on code to cloud with the help of Checkmarx.    

Secure your apps from code to cloud