What is DevSecOps?
- Aug 5, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 26
Introduction to DevSecOps
Application security is no longer optional. As codebases grow, so do attack surfaces, misconfigurations, vulnerable dependencies, and design flaws show up earlier and scale with every release. DevSecOps is the bridge many organizations need between security and DevOps: it bakes security into how teams plan, build, test, and run software instead of bolting it on at the end.
DevSecOps aims to ship secure software by combining manual and automated security work inside the same pipelines developers already use. It follows security-by-design principles, policies, standards, and repeatable checks, so secure development, testing, and release are part of the default workflow, not a separate project.
Making DevSecOps stick depends on IT and product security policies that give teams a clear mandate: what “good” looks like, what must be proven before a release, and how risk is tracked. Without that alignment, people and process drift, and security deliverables stall.
A mature DevSecOps setup runs as phases inside a CI/CD pipeline. At each stage, the product team meets agreed security deliverables before moving forward; the risk assessment document ties those decisions together across the lifecycle.
DevOps to DevSecOps
DevSecOps does not replace DevOps, it extends it. You still work through plan, design, develop, test, release, and maintain; you add security policies, compliance obligations, and security engineering practices at each step so that “done” includes verified security outcomes, not only features and uptime.
Stages of Implementing of DevSecOps
Plan
Organizational security and privacy policies (and applicable compliance frameworks) are the main drivers for DevSecOps work. In planning, you set scope, strategy, roadmaps, requirements, a shared definition of done for security, risk-assessment templates, collaboration tooling (for example Jira and Confluence), and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) choices.
Map finalized security and privacy requirements into the risk assessment. Close gaps on must-have controls where you can, and record residual risk where you explicitly accept or defer work, so leadership sees the trade-offs in one place.
Typical deliverables
Security requirements specification (SRS) aligned to policy and compliance
Security definition of done (what must be true to exit each phase)
Risk assessment report (baseline risks and requirements traceability)
Design
Review architecture and produce a security architecture / design review. Use that view to build a threat model and security design so issues surface before code is everywhere. That review is often the first concrete DevSecOps milestone: you are reasoning about trust boundaries, data flows, and abuse cases early.
Threat modeling (tools such as Microsoft Threat Modeling or IriusRisk are common) identifies threats, attack surfaces, and countermeasures while design is still cheap to change. Feed real findings back into the risk assessment; treat validated issues as security risks and drive design changes or compensating controls until residual risk is acceptable.
Typical deliverables
Security architecture and design review report
Threat model (assets, threats, mitigations)
Updated risk assessment report
Develop
Engineering should follow secure coding standards, secure configuration baselines, and IaC / configuration-as-code (CaC) so environments match policy. Monitoring-as-code (MaC) or equivalent observability practices help track application and dependency changes across releases.
IaC (for example Terraform, Chef, Puppet, AWS CloudFormation) provisions and versions infrastructure.
CaC keeps application and OS configuration under reviewable, repeatable control.
MaC (or strong observability practices) helps detect drift and incidents tied to releases.
Third-party and open-source components must follow vendor management, license rules, and security policy (approved versions, scanning, escalation paths).
Use static application security testing (SAST) on the codebase. Where tools flood you with false positives or miss real issues, supplement with manual secure code review to tune findings and catch logic flaws automation misses.
Refresh the risk assessment with vulnerabilities found and mitigated during development; treat open issues as tracked risk until closed or accepted.
Typical deliverables
Third-party / dependency analysis report
SAST report (and manual review notes where used)
Updated risk assessment report
Test
Offensive and dynamic testing catches classes of issues that static analysis and design reviews miss. Run dynamic application security testing (DAST) against web apps and APIs. Infrastructure and container scanning finds weaknesses in cloud configuration, workloads, Kubernetes, hosts, networks, and third-party components.
Penetration testing helps validate real-world exploitability and severity; coordinate with a qualified team so findings are reproducible and prioritized for fix. Fuzzing (black-box tools such as Intruder, ffuf; grey-box like Peach or WinAFL; coverage-guided like AFL) can surface crashes, memory-safety bugs, and parser flaws that other layers overlook.
Again, update the risk assessment with test-phase findings and mitigations until residual risk matches policy.
Typical deliverables
DAST report
Vulnerability / configuration scanning reports (infra, containers, cloud)
Penetration testing report
Fuzzing or targeted dynamic testing report (where applicable)
Updated risk assessment report
Release
Before production, a security architect (or delegated owner) should confirm the security definition of done is met and evidence is available for audit. Revisit the risk assessment: high-severity items should be closed, mitigated, or formally accepted with sign-off.
Typical deliverables
Sign-off against the security definition of done
Final risk assessment snapshot for the release
Maintain
After go-live, security is continuous: monitor for incidents and abuse, patch dependencies and platforms, and run periodic vulnerability assessments. Feed new findings into the risk assessment so operational risk stays visible and tied to remediation.
Typical deliverables
Security patches and change records
Security monitoring and incident response hooks (as defined by policy)
Periodic vulnerability assessment reports
Living risk assessment updates
Conclusion
Across this framework, the risk assessment is the living thread: it records requirements, design-time threats, implementation findings, test results, and operational issues in one narrative. Use open risks to drive new requirements for the next release or architecture increment.
Risk-aware DevSecOps helps teams cut redundant security theater, align dev and security on measurable outcomes, and refresh practices as threats and tooling evolve, without treating security as a one-time gate at the end of the line.
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