Data Sheet: Shifting Security Left with the ActiveState Platform
Cyberattacks on Dev and Test environments are on the rise. Software developers can help, but only if they change how they approach open source security. It is time to shift security left! Developers that work with open source code while connected to the internet, NEED new measures to ensure security across the ENTIRE software development lifecycle. Learn how you can shift security left without disrupting your Dev, DevOps and SecOps personnel.
A solution for DevSecOps – the ActiveState Platform
The ActiveState Platform secures your open source supply chain, while providing a universal package management solution for Python, Perl and Tcl designed to let:
- Developers eliminate dependency hell and “works on my machine” issues.
- DevOps improve reproducibility and transparency of workloads.
- SecOps to reduce Mean Time to Remediation (MTTR) from weeks to hours.
ActiveState Platform for DevSecOps
Developers: Simplify Dev Environment Management
Individual developers primarily use the ActiveState Platform for:
- Environment Management – similar to Python’s pip or Perl’s CPAN, you can use the ActiveState Platform’s CLI, the State Tool, to install and manage your environments on Windows, Linux and macOS.
- Provides dependency resolution, flags conflicts and even provides workarounds, eliminating dependency hell.
Development teams primarily use the ActiveState Platform for:
- Shared Runtime Environments – the ActiveState Platform automatically builds from source code a single, central “source of truth” for your project’s runtime environment that can be used by all developers on a team.
- Eliminate “works on my machine” issues.
- Ensure secure Dev environments compared to installing pre-compiled binaries.
- Ensure developers work with an approved set of packages.
DevOps: Optimize CI/CD Pipelines
DevOps uses the ActiveState Platform’s pre-built runtime environment to build their CI/CD environments, gaining:
- Reproducibility – shared runtimes ensure reproducible environments between Dev and Test, resulting in fewer bugs arising due to inconsistent environments.
- Speed – pre-built runtimes decrease the time to build containers. Caching can help speed things up for repeated runs, but not when you’re doing rapid development and changing your dependencies.
- Security – all Python, Perl and Tcl environments are built from source, helping to solve open source supply chain issues by delivering transparency for all language artifacts in production workloads.
ActiveState’s approach to Shift Left Security empowers security teams to automate security testing processes, including Static Application Security Testing (SAST), enabling seamless integration of security practices into DevSecOps workflows for enhanced efficiency and proactive risk mitigation.
SecOps: Remediate Vulnerabilities Faster
SecOps can use the ActiveState Platform to shift security left, securing the Development and Test environments without disrupting the software development process:
- Monitor Python, Perl and Tcl open source components used by developers to ensure timely awareness of vulnerabilities.
- Upgrade or downgrade vulnerable components, and automatically rebuild a secure runtime environment ready to be pulled into your CICD pipeline.
| Features | Benefits |
| Universal Package Management for Python, Perl & Tcl on Windows, Linux and macOS | A single toolchain reduces maintenance and overhead costs |
| Native virtual environment support | Run multiple projects/versions of Python, Perl and Tcl on your machine without dependency conflicts. |
| Revision control provides an auditable history of changes to your environment | Never rebuild corrupted environments again – just revert to the latest working version. |
| Versatile CLI (State Tool) lets you manage your environment directly from the terminal. | Integrate with your existing CI/CD pipelines, and keep your team synchronized across platforms. |
| Build environments fast from source code with our distributed, parallel build system. | Automatically build packages (including linked C libraries) from source without the need for OS or language expertise. |
Our comprehensive Shift Left Security strategy encompasses Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), offering robust solutions to proactively detect and address security issues within dynamic applications, ensuring greater resilience against evolving threats in DevSecOps environments.
In today’s cybersecurity landscape, maintaining a robust security posture is paramount for DevOps teams. ActiveState empowers organizations to fortify their security coding practices through Shift Left Security methodologies, integrating Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools and adhering to stringent security policies. By proactively addressing security vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle, ActiveState enables DevOps teams to adopt best practices and bolster their overall security posture, ensuring the resilience of their software applications against potential threats.
DevSecOps teams prioritize cloud security and adhere to rigorous security best practices throughout the development cycle, ensuring the robustness of software applications against evolving cyber threats.
Implementing Shift Left Security not only future-proofs codebases but also enhances the development pipeline by preemptively addressing vulnerabilities, ensuring robustness, and ultimately streamlining the software development lifecycle for DevOps teams. Utilizing a comprehensive array of security tools and conducting thorough security checks are vital components of implementing robust security processes and measures. By actively identifying and addressing known vulnerabilities, organizations can significantly mitigate risks and fortify their defenses against potential security threats.
About ActiveState
ActiveState is a trusted leader in securely integrating open source technologies, serving as the cornerstone of the secure software supply chain for over 97% of the Fortune 1000 companies. With our proven expertise and innovative solutions, we empower organizations to seamlessly adopt and manage open source components while ensuring the highest standards of security and reliability throughout their software development processes.
How to try the ActiveState Platform for your Python, Perl and Tcl projects?
Developers can sign up for our Platform and use it to build a runtime environment for their Python projects right away. Or they can install it via the command line using the snippet provided here.
Upto 5 Active Runtimes per organization (or per individual, if for personal use) are free. For information on team tier or enterprise pricing, refer to our Platform Pricing or else contact Sales.
Your software supply chain is only as secure as its weakest link. Book a demo and let us show you how the ActiveState Platform can secure it from end-to-end
