End-to-End Secure Cloud Native CI/CD Pipeline

A security-centric CI/CD pipeline which integrates cutting-edge tools and practices to ensure robust code quality, vulnerability scanning, artifact publishing, secure Kubernetes deployment, and continuous monitoring.

The pipeline is used to deploy the BoardgameListingWebApp, a full-stack web application that displays lists of board games and their reviews. While anyone can view the board game lists and reviews, they are required to log in to add/ edit the board games and their reviews. The 'users' have the authority to add board games to the list and add reviews, and the 'managers' have the authority to edit/ delete the reviews on top of the authorities of users.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Technologies Used
• Project Structure
• Workflow
• Project Snippets
• Getting Started
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

This project implements a comprehensive security-centric CI/CD pipeline designed for modern cloud-native applications. Built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), it demonstrates enterprise-grade security practices and automation throughout the software development lifecycle.

Key Features

• Security by Design:

  • Multi-layer security scanning with Aqua Trivy and SonarQube
  • Kubernetes security auditing using Kubeaudit
  • Secure artifact storage with Nexus Repository
  • Automated vulnerability assessments at code and container levels

• Automation First:

  • Fully automated pipeline using Jenkins
  • Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
  • Containerized deployments with Docker and Kubernetes
  • Automated quality gates and security checks

• Comprehensive Monitoring:

  • Real-time system metrics with Prometheus
  • Visual dashboards through Grafana
  • Automated alerts via Gmail
  • Blackbox monitoring for external endpoint health

Business Benefits

• Reduced security risks through automated scanning and continuous monitoring
• Faster time to market with automated deployment pipeline
• Improved code quality through automated testing and analysis
• Enhanced reliability with continuous monitoring and alerting

For a detailed walkthrough of the implementation, check out my comprehensive blog post.

Technologies Used

• Kubernetes: Container orchestration platform.
• Jenkins: CI/CD automation server.
• SonarQube: Code quality and static analysis.
• Aqua Trivy: Vulnerability scanning for code and container images.
• Nexus Repository: Artifact repository for secure storage.
• Docker: Containerization technology.
• Docker Hub: Docker image registry.
• Kubeaudit: Tool to audit Kubernetes clusters for various different security concerns.
• Grafana: For system and application-level monitoring and alerting.
• Prometheus: For collecting and querying metrics from services and endpoints.
• Gmail: For status notifications and alerts.

Project Structure

• config/: Configuration files for Kubernetes, Jenkins, SonarQube, etc.
• scripts/: Deployment and automation scripts.
• src/: Contains the source code of the demonstration application, Gcloud Infra and installation scripts, Kubernetes configuration files, etc.
• terraform/ : Terraform configuration files.
• Jenkinsfile: Declarative Jenkins pipeline definition.

Workflow

1. Development:
   • Developers create feature branches and push code to GitHub.
2. CI/CD Pipeline Trigger:
   • Code changes trigger the Jenkins CI/CD pipeline.
3. Build and Unit Testing:
   • [Build tool] compiles the code and executes unit tests.
4. Code Quality and Security:
   • SonarQube performs code quality analysis.
   • Aqua Trivy scans for vulnerabilities in code dependencies.
5. Artifact Creation:
   • A build artifact (e.g., JAR, WAR) is generated.
6. Artifact Publishing:
   • The artifact is pushed to Nexus Repository.
7. Container Image Build:
   • Docker creates a container image using the artifact.
8. Image Vulnerability Scan:
   • Aqua Trivy scans the image for vulnerabilities.
9. Deployment:
   • If all checks pass, the image is deployed to Kubernetes.
10. Monitoring and Notifications:
    • Monitoring solutions track system and website health.
    • Emails are sent for deployment status and critical alerts.

Proect Snippets

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Jenkins
• Terraform

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   https://github.com/ChetanThapliyal/Secure-cloudNative-CI-CD-pipeline.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd Secure-cloudNative-CI-CD-pipeline

3. Follow the setup instructions for each component in the config/ directory.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the contributing guidelines first.

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature).
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature').
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature).
5. Open a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.