Survey Surfaces Cloud-Native Application Security Challenges

A global survey of 600 DevOps, engineering and security professionals finds more than two-thirds (67%) reporting their organization has delayed or slowed application development as a result of security concerns.

Conducted by Red Hat, the survey also found 89% reported at least one related security incident during the last 12 months, with 45% reporting their organization experienced runtime incidents in the last 12 months, with an almost equal percentage encountering issues in build and deployment phases, such as a need to remediate a major vulnerability. A total of 40% said their organization detected misconfigurations in their container or Kubernetes environments, with more than a quarter (26%) noting their organization failed an audit.

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Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

Don’t know

How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

Not valuable

How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

Don’t know

Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

Don’t know

How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

Don’t know

Other

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Nealy half (46%) said their organization lost revenue or customers because of cloud-native application deployment issues, the survey found. Just under a third (30%) said their organization was fined as a result of the incident, with just over a quarter (26%) noting a security incident led to employee termination.

Despite these issues, however, only 42% of respondents identified container and Kubernetes security as a top concern, even though an equal percentage said their organization does not have sufficient capabilities in place to help address container security and related threats.

A total of 42% also said their organization is in an advanced stage of best DevSecOps practices adoption, compared to nearly half (48%) that said their organization values DevSecOps but is still in the early adoption stage. However, 33% of respondents believe that their existing container and Kubernetes security solutions slow down development.

Alex Handy, principal product marketing manager focused on OpenShift security at Red Hat, said it’s clear software development lifecycles (SDLCs) are continuing to evolve as organizations build and deploy cloud-native applications. The challenge is those applications tend to be made up of microservices that introduce dependencies that make addressing application security requirements more challenging, he added. Right now, only a third (33%) said security teams are responsible for Kubernetes security. As a result, responsibility for cloud-native application security either defaults to a DevSecOps team or developers that are not prepared to assume that responsibility, noted Handy.

In fact, just under a quarter (23%) said they believe that their organization’s strategy does not sufficiently address container security threats, with 19% admitting their organization’s investment in container security is inadequate. A total of 30% said identifying vulnerabilities in the container and Kubernetes environments is their biggest worry, with 60% being concerned about vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and exposures in their cloud-native environments. More than a quarter (27%) are specifically concerned about incorrectly configured components involving base images, libraries and dependencies.

A full 44% said software vulnerabilities represent the highest risk to their software supply chains, followed by open source software (33%), and untrusted content (33%). Well over half (57%) detected vulnerable application components in their software supply chain in the last 12 months and 40% noted misconfigurations have been detected in their container or Kubernetes environment.

Other concerns include coding errors (36%), exposed sensitive data (34%), poor network security (32%) and undetected malware (32%) that might lead to unauthorized process execution (45%) and ransomware attacks (41%). More than half (52%) of respondents reported their organization experienced some type of unauthorized process during the last 12 months.
In all, vulnerable application components, lack of automation, and lack of software bills of materials (SBOMs) impact nearly 60% of companies.

On the plus side, organizations are using security attestation (47%), vulnerability scanning (45%), and access and authentication mechanisms (41%). On average, organizations are using 2.1 security-related open source tools within their Kubernetes environments, with 35 employing Open Policy Agent (OPA) tools, Kubelinter (31%), a static analysis tool for Kubernetes YAML files and Helm charts and Kuber-hunter (28%), a security testing and scanning tool.

There’s little doubt that there is plenty of opportunity to improve the security of cloud-native applications. The challenge is making those improvements before the pace at which these applications are being developed and deployed starts to occur faster than it already is.