IT infrastructure management is a complex task. Over the years, various methods have been used to better manage corporate environments. Whether it is network monitoring, asset control, application monitoring, or any of the other infrastructure management obligations, different solutions have been attempted to make the job easier. These undertakings became even more challenging as infrastructure moved from the deceptively tidy on-premises data centers out to the cloud. One of the newest and most promising solutions is Infrastructure as Code.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has revolutionized how organizations manage their IT infrastructure by enabling reliable and automated provisioning and development. However, this shift has also introduced new security risks that must be addressed.

According to the Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report, security remains one of the top cloud challenges for both enterprises and Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). This is similar to the findings of Gartner’s survey of 2023.

In the same year as the Gartner survey, data belonging to hundreds of thousands of Toyota customers was breached due to a misconfigured cloud environment. When it comes to IaC, an especially important aspect of the security process is state management – tracking and controlling the changes made to infrastructure configurations over time. A mismanaged state can lead to security vulnerabilities and full-blown breaches.

Such risks underscore the magnitude of the problem. To mitigate these risks, organizations must adopt robust state management practices as part of their IaC security strategy.

Understanding IaC State Management

In IaC, the state file is critical because it allows DevOps managers to track exactly what their code produced in the cloud environment configuration, provisioning, and de-provisioning – reconciling what they meant to do with what has actually happened once the code has run. As such, state management is pivotal for ensuring consistency, enhancing visibility, enabling automation, and facilitating app development lifecycles.

Mismanagement of the state can lead to discrepancies between actual and desired states, resulting in deployment errors or infrastructure drift. That’s why following best practices and the appropriate standards is mandatory for any IaC system.

According to one source, IaC will grow to a $2.3 billion market by 2027, driven primarily by greater adoption of IaC practices by Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This underscores the importance of IaC and state-oriented cybersecurity for small businesses right now and in the coming years.

Some best practices for IaC state management include:

Immutable Infrastructure

When deploying IaC, the exact specifications must be defined to ensure that state configurations are documented. This immutable infrastructure approach to IaC treats infrastructure as disposable, provisioning entirely new resources for changes rather than modifying existing ones. This offers several benefits.

By not manually modifying existing configurations, you minimize the potential attack surface for vulnerabilities present in those configurations. This simplifies vulnerability management and patching processes. More so, each infrastructure version represents a discrete state, which makes it easier to track changes and identify potential security incidents.

In any case, implementing immutable infrastructure requires careful consideration of factors like resource lifecycle management and possible cost implications associated with frequent provisioning. Given the increasing complexity is arguably the biggest challenge in IaC deployment, methods to simplify the process should be embraced.

Remote State Storage Solutions

Remote Terraform state file storage provides several advantages, particularly for teams working collaboratively and ensuring the security and reliability of the state files. For one, they allow centralized management of state files, making it easier to enforce access control, security policies, and uniform versioning.

Cloud storage solutions also offer high availability and durability so that the needed files are always accessible yet protected against data loss. All these facilitate efficient collaboration among team members. Dedicated IaC state management tools like Terraform Cloud and Pulumi offer robust security features specifically tailored for IaC state file management.

Indeed, using features like state locking to prevent concurrent modifications, versioning with rollback capabilities, and integrations with popular Git platforms for version control are among the best practices recommended for Terraform-based IaC.

Encrypting State Files

Encryption is a critical component of securing IaC state files since they often contain sensitive information like passwords, API keys, and resource IDs. This security measure ensures that sensitive information within the state files is protected from unauthorized access.

There are different tools to achieve this, particularly via key management. The AWS Key Management Service (KMS) allows state file encryption in S3, and it integrates with IAM for access control. Google Cloud KMS and the Azure Key Vault are alternatives that offer similar services.

For in-transit encryption, enforce TLS 1.3 or higher for all state file transfers, and use mTLS where possible to ensure both client and server authentication.

Access Control and Authentication

Robust access control and authentication mechanisms are essential to protect IaC state files from unauthorized access and modification. Several strategies can be employed to enhance security in this area:

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) assigns permissions based on user roles and the principle of least privilege, minimizing the risk of accidental or malicious changes to the state files.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a must-have for any security endeavor. Even if credentials are compromised, it minimizes the likelihood of unauthorized access.
• In IaC, Secrets Management involves using dedicated tools such as AWS Secrets Manager or HashiCorp Vault to manage and distribute access credentials securely.

Also, consider leveraging existing IAM roles or service accounts within your cloud environment for authentication when using remote storage solutions. This offers seamless integration and reduces the need for additional credentials.

Versioning and Backup

Effective versioning and backup strategies are critical for maintaining the integrity and availability of IaC state files. Particularly, automatic versioning mechanisms provided by remote storage solutions help track changes to state files and enable easy rollback to previous versions.

This is essential for troubleshooting and recovering from misconfigurations or security incidents. Also, backups should be regular as well as immutable. These practices enable organizations to recover from data loss, corruption, ransomware, and unauthorized modifications.

In addition, be sure to define and enforce state file retention policies based on compliance requirements and implement secure deletion practices for expired state versions. Regularly test state recovery procedures and document and automate the process of reconstructing the state from backups to ensure robust disaster recovery capabilities.

Monitoring and Auditing

Continuous monitoring and auditing of state management processes are essential for identifying and mitigating potential security risks. These practices help maintain compliance with security policies and regulations and provide visibility into the state management lifecycle.

According to Firefly’s IaC report, visibility is as much a challenge to managing cloud infrastructure as security. Hence, you need to implement mechanisms that make it as easy as possible to monitor changes made to your IaC state. This could involve tools that track modifications, identify suspicious activity, and trigger alerts for potential security incidents. Tools like AWS CloudTrail or Azure Monitor can provide detailed logs of who accessed or modified state files and when these actions occurred. This ensures that there are proper audit trails to conduct reviews and investigations if unauthorized activities are observed. 

In particular, integrating your IaC tool with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems can further enhance monitoring capabilities, allowing you to correlate IaC state changes with other security events for a more comprehensive view of your security posture.

Conclusion

Effective state management is a fundamental requirement for securing Infrastructure-as-Code. As IaC continues to gain traction, the risks associated with mismanaged states become increasingly significant. Organizations must act at the earliest phase of IaC implementation to mitigate these risks.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this guest author article are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire.