implementing-infrastructure-as-code-security-scanning

name	implementing-infrastructure-as-code-security-scanning
description	Use when this skill covers implementing automated security scanning for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates using tools like Checkov, tfsec, and KICS. It addresses detecting misconfigurations in Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes manifests, and Helm charts before deployment, establishing policy-based governance, and integrating IaC scanning into CI/CD pipelines to prevent insecure cloud resource provisioning.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["devsecops","cicd","iac-security","checkov","tfsec","terraform","secure-sdlc"]
subdomain	devsecops
version	1.0.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.PS-01","GV.SC-07","ID.IM-04","PR.PS-04"]

Implementing Infrastructure As Code Security Scanning

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for implementing infrastructure as code security scanning. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "implementing infrastructure as code security scanning"

• "This skill covers implementing automated security scanning for Infrastructure as"

• When provisioning cloud infrastructure with Terraform, CloudFormation, or Pulumi and needing automated security validation

• When compliance frameworks require evidence of infrastructure configuration review before deployment

• When preventing common cloud misconfigurations like public S3 buckets, open security groups, or unencrypted storage

• When establishing guardrails that block insecure infrastructure changes in pull requests

• When managing multi-cloud environments requiring consistent security policies across AWS, Azure, and GCP

Do not use for scanning application source code (use SAST), for monitoring already-deployed infrastructure drift (use cloud security posture management tools), or for container image vulnerability scanning (use Trivy).

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Checkov v3.x installed (pip install checkov) or tfsec installed
• Terraform, CloudFormation, or Kubernetes IaC files in the repository
• CI/CD pipeline with access to IaC directories
• Bridgecrew API key (optional, for Checkov platform integration)

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs() -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}