Compliance as Code (CaC) in DevOps: Ensuring Compliance Made Easy

Abdulrahman Ahmad's photo
Abdulrahman Ahmad
·

3 min read

Compliance as Code (CaC) in DevOps: Ensuring Compliance Made Easy

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developers! Today we're going to talk about a topic that's as exciting as it is important - Compliance as Code (CaC) in DevOps. Wait, don't run away just yet! I promise to make this as fun and entertaining as possible. After all, who said compliance has to be boring?

What is CaC?

So, what is CaC? Essentially, it means integrating compliance requirements, such as security and regulatory standards, into the code development process. This approach enables teams to ensure compliance throughout the development lifecycle, and minimize the risks of non-compliance. And the best part? It can be as easy as writing a few lines of code.

A Real Example:

Let's take a look at a real-life example of CaC in action. Imagine you're developing an application that handles sensitive data. Compliance requirements dictate that the data must be encrypted at rest and in transit. To ensure compliance, you can use infrastructure as code (IaC) to define the infrastructure components, such as the database and server, and include code that sets up encryption. Here's an example of Terraform code that sets up encryption for an Amazon Web Services (AWS) RDS database:

resource "aws_db_instance" "example" {
  engine           = "mysql"
  instance_class   = "db.t2.micro"
  allocated_storage = 10

  db_subnet_group_name = "${aws_db_subnet_group.example.name}"
  vpc_security_group_ids = [ "${aws_security_group.example.id}" ]

  # Enable encryption
  storage_encrypted = true
  kms_key_id        = "${aws_kms_key.example.arn}"
}

In this code, the storage_encrypted parameter enables encryption, and the kms_key_id parameter specifies the AWS Key Management Service (KMS) key to use for encryption. By defining these parameters in code, you can ensure that encryption is consistently applied across all environments, and that any changes are tracked and auditable.

But wait, there's more! Why stop at just defining infrastructure as code when you can also test compliance as code? That's right, by including compliance checks in automated tests, you can ensure that compliance requirements are met before code is deployed. And who doesn't love a good automated test?

Enter InSpec, an open-source tool that provides a framework for defining compliance requirements as code. Here's an example of an InSpec test that checks if a password policy meets certain requirements:

describe password_policy do
  its('minimum_password_length') { should eq 12 }
  its('require_lowercase') { should eq true }
  its('require_uppercase') { should eq true }
  its('require_numbers') { should eq true }
  its('require_symbols') { should eq true }
end

In this test, the password_policy object represents the password policy for an environment, and the various its statements check if the policy meets the specified requirements. And just like that, you can ensure that your passwords are strong and secure, without even breaking a sweat.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Compliance as Code (CaC) in DevOps doesn't have to be a boring and tedious task. With a little bit of code and some automated tests, you can ensure compliance, minimize risk, and have some fun along the way. So, next time someone tells you that compliance is no laughing matter, just show them your CaC code and tell them to lighten up.

compliance cacDevops