It is Time to Secure Git

At this point, we’ve got a ton of experience with the bits of Git that we use. And locking down Git is well-documented. Okay, it is documented; we can say that, at least. Interestingly, much of the ‘how to secure Git’ information out there is actually ‘how to keep critical information out of Git,’ and that is the problem. ‘Critical information’ always includes warnings to “not put configuration information into Git. Ever.” And that has been the default way to lock down Git for nearly its entire existence.

Then along comes GitOps. What is its purpose, in a nutshell? To put that critical information into Git. So we have been waltzing along; only a fraction of us actually locking down our implementation because we were making sure the data in Git, while valuable, was not full of bits of information that would be useful in compromising systems. But now it will be. In fact, in GitOps, nearly everything is one of those bits of information useful to attackers.

All of which means that it is time to get serious about Git security. Not content, but actual Git security. I won’t go crazy with links to lockdown documents here—it is a vastly different process to lock down a local Git repository versus a remote one and it is drastically different when you’re locking down a service like GitHub or GitLab (actually, some of the work is done for you with a SaaS vendor) … so, you’ll have to look it up yourself, based on your Git implementation. But there are documents out there that walk you through it; you’ll just have to make sure you find the ones that say, “How to lock down Git repositories” and not “How to keep privileged data out of Git repositories.”

But whatever you do, stop putting it off. Now, if a neer-do-well gets into your repository, it won’t just be source code for various apps that are leaked—and that is certainly bad enough, even if your organization is not a software organization—it will be infrastructure information that can be used and abused. So make certain that information is protected in every possible way. Point security at Git and tell them, “We know you are insanely busy, but this is the most important thing to protect if we are going to implement GitOps.” Because it quite literally is. If database configuration, network configs and possibly even login info are to be stored in Git, locking it down (both local and remote copies) is imperative. You wouldn’t leave that info in plain text on a centralized data store and count on existing protections. So don’t do the equivalent with Git.

If GitOps isn’t in your immediate future, that’s still your source code full of vulnerability advertisements out there, so at least ask your security team to give your Git install/policies/config a review. Even as a developer, I am less worked up about source code repositories than configuration repositories. There are several reasons for that, but the big one is you all. The bulk of organizations just don’t seem that worked up about source code repository security, but that changes when operations is asked about the list of holes in the firewall being moved into Git—and being configurable from Git (as just one example).

So, keep kicking it! You all are making, delivering and securing a metric ton of software, and the complexity of our environments did not decrease after the remote work wave hit. Yet, you are still rocking it. May you have enough staff to do the job and applicants that come looking to work with you over competitors. And keep showing the world that software is manageable. But secure your Git.