Q&A

Hardening CI/CD: Essential Strategies to Mitigate Security Risks

• By David Ramel
• 10/06/2025

As DevOps practices mature and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines become more deeply embedded in the software delivery lifecycle, the attack surface for potential threats is expanding just as rapidly. What was once viewed as a productivity boost--automated builds, faster deployments, and seamless delivery--is now also a prime target for supply chain attacks, credential theft, and configuration exploits.

CI/CD systems are no longer just tools--they are trusted actors in the development ecosystem. They build the application, run tests, fetch third-party dependencies, and often hold privileged access to infrastructure. A single misstep in securing these pipelines can open the door to serious breaches, production downtime, and long-term reputational harm.

In his upcoming November session at the Live! 360 Tech Con dev/tech event in Orlando titled Hardening CI/CD: Essential Strategies to Mitigate Security Risks, GitHub Staff DevOps Architect Ken Muse will walk attendees through the most common vulnerabilities lurking in today's pipeline configurations. Drawing from real-world breaches and hands-on experience helping enterprises secure their DevOps workflows, Muse will offer practical guidance on hardening your CI/CD process--without sacrificing speed or developer productivity.

Ken, a four-time Microsoft Azure MVP and a Microsoft Certified Trainer, will present his 75-minute session on Nov. 19 as part of the Visual Studio Live! part of the sprawling umbrella event, which also features shows on Data Platforms, AI, Clouds & Containers, Cybersecurity & Ransomware and more.

Whether you're new to DevSecOps or looking to refine your team's existing practices, Ken said this session offers foundational insights into secrets management, dependency security, automation, and pipeline hygiene. Attendees will walk away with a solid understanding of the security gaps most teams miss--and the tools and strategies available to close them.

We caught up with Ken to learn more about CI/CD security and how attendees can prepare for his session. In this Q&A, he shares what inspired his session, common weak points in modern pipelines, and how teams can harden their delivery systems with minimal disruption.

VisualStudioMagazine: What inspired you to present a session on this topic?
Muse: Working with numerous companies each year, I have seen the impact of insecure CI/CD processes far too often. From data breaches to production outages, the consequences can be severe. Despite that, it's still one of the most commonly overlooked areas in security. It's an area that even experienced security teams struggle to understand, and I want to help change that. By sharing real-world examples and practical strategies, I hope to empower teams to secure their processes with the least possible friction.

What's one of the most common weak points in today's CI/CD pipelines?
The supply chain is frequently the weakest link in CI/CD pipelines. Most code today relies on third-party dependencies. From the code that executes the build (such as GitHub Actions) to the packages that our code relies on, we often have numerous dependencies that can directly contribute to the build process. With the pressure to deliver faster, teams often lack the time to vet or update these dependencies. This creates an entry point for attackers and can lead to vulnerabilities in production, data exposure, or compromised build environments.

The average time to develop an exploit for a new CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is just 5 days. At the same time, code dependencies average 215 days behind the latest release. It's no wonder that malicious actors are so focused on the supply chain!

How can teams improve security without slowing down delivery speed?
One of the easiest ways is to integrate automated security practices into the CI/CD pipeline. By making this a transparent part of the process, teams can ensure that security is always being analyzed. By making this part of the development workflow, issues can be caught early and require less time to remediate. In fact, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has documented that it requires up to 14X more effort to fix a vulnerability in production than it does during the development phase.

In addition, many tools now automate the process of fixing the vulnerabilities they find. That lets developers focus on writing code while the security tools identify and fix their vulnerabilities. Combined with the use of generative AI at development time, this can significantly reduce the friction of security practices while still maintaining a high level of protection.

Why is secret management such a critical part of CI/CD hardening?
Developers committed code with more than 23.7 million secrets last year, an increase of 25% since 2023. In that year, 86% of all security breaches relied on stolen credentials for their initial access. Without proper secret management, your repositories may be sharing sensitive information with everyone that ever worked on the codebase. That's right -- the disgruntled contractor who left the company last year may still have access to your production environments. And that insecure package on your build server? It could be helping to find and publish your secrets to the dark web.

All of this is easily avoidable with modern secret management practices. With tools to protect secrets and automate their rotation, you can create a zero-trust deployment more easily than ever. In addition, secret scanners can analyze your codebase, identifying secrets committed in the past. These tools can even catch secrets before they are pushed to the repository, preventing them from ever being exposed.

What's your take on how much security should be automated vs. manual?
Automate as much as possible. There will always be some manual processes that require human judgment or analysis, such as threat modeling, code reviews, and compliance checks. However, the more you can automate security practices, the less friction there is for developers and the more time security teams have for other work. You want security to be a consistent, natural part of the development process rather than an afterthought or "final check." The more you can automate, the easier it is to catch vulnerabilities before they reach production.

What's a quick strategy for auditing your pipeline for potential risks?
Pipelines should be treated like code. Use version control to track changes, and regularly review the configuration and access controls. Look for common misconfigurations, such as hard-coded secrets, excessive permissions, or insecure/outdated dependencies. Whenever possible, take advantage of tools like GitHub CodeQL to automate checking for vulnerabilities and issues.

A healthy, secure pipeline begins with the code that it supports. Use secret scanners, dependency checkers, and static analysis tools to identify potential issues before they become problems. Simply turning on security tools can catch many issues without requiring significant effort from the team.

How can attendees learn more about this topic and prepare for your session?
The session will cover the topics from the ground up, so no prior knowledge is required.

If you want to start learning right away, review the OWASP Top 10 CI/CD Security Risks to familiarize yourself with some of the common vulnerabilities. Each vulnerability also includes links to examples of high-provide exploits that have taken advantage of these risks. This can help you start to understand the risks, potential impact, and how to avoid them.

You can also review the security features you already have available through your development tools. For example, Azure DevOps and GitHub provide GitHub Advanced Security. Visual Studio and .NET provides NuGet Audit support. Knowing what tools are available can help you start closing some of your security gaps right away!

Note: Those wishing to attend the session can save money by registering early, according to the event's pricing page. "Save $300 when you register by the Oct. 24 Early Bird savings deadline," said the organizer of the event, which is presented by the parent company of Visual Studio Magazine.