This presentation explores the hidden security risks in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and how misconfigurations can expose entire cloud environments. Learn how Captrit Cybersecurity identifies, audits, and secures IaC to prevent vulnerabilities before deployment. Perfect for businesses scaling with DevOps tools like Terraform or Ansible.

1. What If Your Infrastructure
Code Is Building
Vulnerabilities Too?
The Hidden Risks Behind IaC and How to Secure It Before
Deployment
Presented by Captrit Cybersecurity | https://captrit.ae

2. What Is Infrastructure as
Code OIaCP?
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)revolutionizes IT by
allowing you to manage and provision
computing infrastructure through machine-
readable definition files, rather than manual
configuration or interactive hardware
configuration tools. It's about treating your
infrastructure like software.
Automates infrastructure
provisioning, ensuring consistency.
Key tools include Terraform,
CloudFormation, and Ansible.
Offers immense speed and scale,
but introduces hidden risks.

3. The Problem: Security Risks in IaC
Misconfigurations in Code Vulnerabilities Repeat at
Scale
Exposed Ports &
Overprivileged Roles
Subtleerrors or omissionswithin
IaC scripts can lead to critical
security gaps, such as overly
permissive access policies or
unencrypted data stores.
Oncea vulnerability is codedinto an
IaC template, it can be replicated
across hundreds or thousands of
instances, multiplying the potential
attack surface exponentially.
Commonmistakes include leaving
unnecessary ports open to the
public internet or assigning roles
with excessive permissions,
creating easy entry points for
attackers.

4. Common IaC Vulnerabilities
Hardcoded Secrets/API Keys: Embedding sensitive credentials directly into code, making them easily discoverable.
Insecure Default Settings: Deploying resources with default, often insecure, configurations rather than hardening them.
Open Access to Cloud Storage: Granting public read/write access to cloud storage buckets (e.g., S3), exposing sensitive data.
Lack of Tagging/Logging: Absence of proper resource tagging or comprehensive logging, hindering incident response and
compliance.

5. Real-World Impact of IaC Misuse
The Terraform S3 Exposure Incident
A prominent example involved a company that used a Terraform script
to provision an Amazon S3 bucket. Due to a small oversight in the
configuration, the bucket was inadvertently set to public read access.
This misconfiguration led to a significant data breach, exposing
sensitive customer information and proprietary business data. The
fallout included not only immediate financial losses from the breach
itself but also substantial penalties for compliance violations (e.g.,
GDPR, HIPAA) and severe reputational damage
.
One seemingly minor mistake in IaC can translate into a major
security incident with far-reaching consequences.

6. How Captrit Helps Secure Your IaC
IaC Audits Static + Manual Code
Review
Combining automatedstatic analysis
tools with expert manual code reviews
ensures all security loopholes are
caught before deployment, covering
both common
patterns and complex logic errors.
DevSecOps Integration
Comprehensive security audits of
your Infrastructure as Code
templates for platforms like
Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible,
and Kubernetes manifests,
identifying potential vulnerabilities
and misconfigurations.
Embedding security practices
directly into your DevOps pipeline,
automating checks and ensuring
security is a continuous part of your
development and deployment
lifecycle, shifting left security.

7. Captrit's IaC Testing Approach
1
3 4
2
Scan IaC Repositories
Suggest Secure Templates
Providing actionable recommendations and pre-built,
secure IaC templates to remediate identified issues and
establish a baseline for secure infrastructure provisioning.
Ongoing Monitoring
Identify Risky Configurations
to pinpoint insecure configurations, hardcoded credentials,
and policy violations within your IaC templates.
Automatedscanning ofyour Git repositories (e.g., GitHub,
GitLab, Bitbucket) to detect IaC files and initiate security
analysis early in the development cycle.
Continuousmonitoring ofyour IaC changes and deployed
infrastructure for drift detection and new vulnerabilities,
ensuring long-term security posture and compliance.
Leveraging advanced securitytools andthreat intelligence

8. Best Practices for Secure
IaC
Use Git for Version Control:
Track all IaC changes,
enabling rollbacks and clear
audit trails for
accountability.
Static Analysis Tools:
Integrate tools like Checkov
or Terrascan into your
CI/CD pipeline to catch
errors pre-deployment.
Enforce Policy-as-Code:
Define and automate
security policies as code to
ensure consistent
compliance across all
deployments.
Peer Reviews: Implement
mandatory peer reviews for
all IaC changes to catch
human errors and enforce
security standards.
Secure Secrets
Management: Utilize
dedicated tools like
HashiCorp Vault or AWS
Secrets Manager to store
and retrieve sensitive data
securely, avoiding
hardcoding.

9. Why Choose Captrit?
UAEIBased Cloud
Security Experts
DevOps Toolchain
Exp erienc e
Trusted Partner
Deepunderstandingofregional
compliance and regulatory
requirements, combined with
global best practices in cloud
security.
Proficientinintegrating
security seamlessly into your
existing CI/CD pipelines and a
wide range of DevOps tools.
Visit: https://captrit.ae
Aproven trackrecord of
securing infrastructure for
leading startups and
established enterprises across
various industries.

10. Contact Captrit Cybersecurity
q
0
Website:www.captrit.ae
Email: info@captrit.ae
Location: UAE
Secure your infrastructure before it's too late. Protect your future with Captrit.