CI/CD Security Skill

Purpose

Secure the CIA platform's CI/CD pipelines against supply chain attacks, ensure artifact integrity, and maintain compliance with SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) requirements. Covers GitHub Actions hardening, dependency scanning, and build provenance.

When to Use

• ✅ Creating or modifying GitHub Actions workflows
• ✅ Adding new dependencies to the project
• ✅ Configuring build artifact signing or attestation
• ✅ Reviewing pipeline security posture
• ✅ Implementing dependency update policies

Do NOT use for:

• ❌ Application-level security (use secure-code-review skill)
• ❌ Infrastructure security (use threat-modeling skill)

GitHub Actions Security Hardening

Workflow Permissions

# Always use minimum required permissions
permissions:
  contents: read
  actions: read
  security-events: write  # Only if needed for CodeQL

# Pin actions to full SHA, not tags
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@b4ffde65f46336ab88eb53be808477a3936bae11 # v4.1.1
      - uses: actions/setup-java@99b8673ff64fbf99d8d325f52d9a5bdedb8483e9 # v4.2.1
        with:
          distribution: 'temurin'
          java-version: '25'

Key Security Rules

1. Pin all action versions to commit SHAs — tags can be moved
2. Use permissions at job level — minimize token scope
3. Never echo secrets — use ::add-mask:: for dynamic values
4. Audit third-party actions — review source before adopting
5. Use CODEOWNERS for workflow files — require review for changes

Secret Management

# Good: Use GitHub Secrets
env:
  SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}

# Bad: Never hardcode or log secrets
# run: echo ${{ secrets.TOKEN }}  # NEVER DO THIS

Supply Chain Security

SLSA Compliance Levels

Level	Requirement	CIA Status
SLSA 1	Build process documented	✅ GitHub Actions
SLSA 2	Hosted build, signed provenance	✅ GitHub-hosted runners
SLSA 3	Hardened build, non-falsifiable provenance	🔄 In progress

Dependency Scanning Stack

# Multi-layer dependency scanning
- name: OWASP Dependency Check
  run: mvn dependency-check:check -DfailBuildOnCVSS=7

- name: GitHub Dependency Review
  uses: actions/dependency-review-action@v4
  with:
    fail-on-severity: high

- name: Dependabot Auto-merge (patch only)
  # Configured in .github/dependabot.yml

SBOM Generation

- name: Generate SBOM
  run: |
    mvn org.cyclonedx:cyclonedx-maven-plugin:makeBom
    # Output: target/bom.json (CycloneDX format)

- name: Attest SBOM
  uses: actions/attest-sbom@v1
  with:
    subject-path: 'target/*.jar'
    sbom-path: 'target/bom.json'

Build Integrity

Reproducible Builds

<!-- Maven settings for reproducible builds -->
<properties>
    <project.build.outputTimestamp>2024-01-01T00:00:00Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>
</properties>

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <archive>
            <manifest>
                <addDefaultImplementationEntries>true</addDefaultImplementationEntries>
            </manifest>
        </archive>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Artifact Attestation

- name: Generate artifact attestation
  uses: actions/attest-build-provenance@v1
  with:
    subject-path: 'target/citizen-intelligence-agency-*.war'

Dependency Management Rules

Adding New Dependencies

1. Check license compatibility — must be Apache 2.0 compatible
2. Run security scan — mvn dependency-check:check
3. Check GitHub Advisory Database — use gh-advisory-database tool
4. Verify publisher — check Maven Central publisher identity
5. Pin version — use exact versions, not ranges
6. Document justification — explain why the dependency is needed in PR

Dependency Update Policy

Update Type	Auto-merge	Review Required
Patch (x.x.PATCH)	✅ If tests pass	No
Minor (x.MINOR.x)	❌	Yes
Major (MAJOR.x.x)	❌	Yes + security review

Runner Security

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest  # Use GitHub-hosted runners
    # Never use self-hosted runners for public repos without hardening
    steps:
      - name: Harden Runner
        uses: step-security/harden-runner@v2
        with:
          egress-policy: audit  # Monitor outbound connections

Monitoring and Alerts

• Enable Dependabot alerts for all ecosystems
• Enable secret scanning with push protection
• Enable code scanning with CodeQL
• Review Security tab weekly for new alerts
• Monitor OSSF Scorecard results for security posture

ISMS Alignment

Control	Requirement
ISO 27001 A.8.25	Secure development lifecycle
ISO 27001 A.8.31	Separation of dev/test/prod
NIST CSF PR.IP-1	Configuration management
CIS Control 16	Application software security
SLSA L2	Signed provenance, hosted build