Passwords, keys, and secrets are often embedded as plain text credentials in source codes, scripts, and configuration files. These credentials make the program a lot simpler, but at the same time expose the entire IT infrastructure to potentially devastating threats.
There are many ways in which hard-coded credentials can cause problems to an organization’s infrastructure. This was evident in the UBER breach in which a programmer had hard-coded credentials onto a script and accidentally published the code in the public repository on GitHub. The code along with the plaintext credentials was available to everyone having certain scanning tools.
Developers often unknowingly disclose sensitive information through source code, which opens the door for various attacks. With the use of hundreds of tools in the DevOps and CI/CD pipeline, hard-coding of credentials has become a cause for concern. The practice of hard-coding credentials is dangerous and should be avoided.
Nowadays, the activities of users in the supply chain drastically affect the security posture of organizations upstream. It is essential that the practice of hard-coding is eliminated at all levels - not just internally, but also at the third parties as well.
However, when embarking on the process of eliminating hard-coded credentials, organizations need to strike a balance between security and productivity. While a very smooth workflow should be ensured for developers, all security best practices such as creating and renewing strong and unique passwords should be automated. Securden precisely helps strike this fine balance.
Bringing all application passwords under a central repository and allowing programmatic access to the repository through APIs is the best possible approach to eliminate all plain-text credentials from the code.
To ensure security, all passwords and other credentials are stored in Securden and are not available in the code as plaintext. The passwords can be made unique and strong with the inbuilt password generator and can be renewed automatically periodically.
To ensure smooth workflow, the passwords are supplied at runtime with the help of a very powerful set of APIs. Securden offers RESTful APIs that can automate every task in password management. You can programmatically retrieve credentials, create accounts, add users, modify attributes, and much more.
Whenever an application communicates with the API, a time-limited, machine-specific authentication token is used. The APIs can be accessed by the application if the request originates from a device whose IP address has been specified.
While all the activities are automated through the use of RESTful APIs, their usage is thoroughly audited. All actions performed by the APIs are available in the form of comprehensive audit trails which include the state of execution of each action.
The Application passwords are not just centrally stored and accessed in Securden. It can be made strong, unique and in compliance with the password policies of the organization. It can also be renewed periodically. Securden connects with the target system (operating systems, network devices, databases among others) and renews the passwords remotely in accordance with the policies laid out by your organization.
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