Discover the best security practice to prevent developers from directly deploying artifacts into production environments. Learn about separation of duties and its importance in securing the development process.
Table of Contents
Question
An organization is working to secure its development process to ensure developers cannot deploy artifacts directly into the production environment. Which of the following security practice recommendations would be the best to accomplish this objective?
A. Implement least privilege access to all systems.
B. Roll out security awareness training for all users.
C. Set up policies and systems with separation of duties.
D. Enforce job rotations for all developers and administrators.
E. Utilize mandatory vacations for all developers.
F. Review all access to production systems on a quarterly basis.
Answer
The best answer to accomplish the objective of securing the development process and ensuring developers cannot deploy artifacts directly into the production environment is:
C. Set up policies and systems with separation of duties.
Explanation
Separation of duties (SoD) is a crucial security principle that involves dividing tasks and associated privileges among multiple people or roles. In the context of software development and deployment, this practice is particularly important to maintain the integrity of the production environment and prevent unauthorized or accidental changes.
By implementing separation of duties:
- Development and production roles are clearly defined: Developers are responsible for writing and testing code, while a separate team (often operations or DevOps) handles deployment to production.
- Access controls are enforced: Developers are given access to development and testing environments but are restricted from having direct access to production systems.
- Multi-step approval processes are established: Code changes typically go through various stages (development, testing, staging) before reaching production, with different individuals or teams responsible for each step.
- Reduced risk of errors or malicious actions: By preventing developers from directly deploying to production, the organization reduces the risk of untested or potentially harmful code being introduced into the live environment.
- Compliance with regulatory requirements: Many industries require separation of duties as part of their compliance frameworks (e.g., SOX, PCI DSS).
While the other options have merits, they do not directly address the specific objective of preventing developers from deploying artifacts to production:
A. Implementing least privilege access is important but doesn’t necessarily separate development and deployment duties.
B. Security awareness training is valuable but doesn’t enforce the separation between development and production deployments.
D. Job rotations can improve overall security but don’t specifically prevent developers from accessing production.
E. Mandatory vacations can help detect fraud but don’t address the deployment issue.
F. Quarterly access reviews are important but reactive rather than proactive in preventing unauthorized deployments.
In conclusion, setting up policies and systems with separation of duties is the most effective approach to ensure developers cannot deploy artifacts directly into the production environment, thus securing the development process.
CompTIA CAS-004 certification exam practice question and answer (Q&A) dump with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the CompTIA CAS-004 exam and earn CompTIA CAS-004 certification.