Integrate Security Audit with CI/CD using a Docker image

You can integrate API Security Audit with your CI/CD system through a Docker image for REST API Static Security Testing.

You must have an account in 42Crunch Platform that REST API Static Security Testing can use to access Security Audit. If you do not yet have an account, click here to sign up.

Create an API token for the Docker image

You must add an API token that REST API Static Security Testing uses to authenticate to Security Audit.

1. Log in to 42Crunch Platform, and click next to your username.
2. Select Tokens, and click Create new token.
3. Enter a unique and descriptive name for the token, such as Security Audit token.
4. Make sure the token type is API token, and in token access rights, select API Security Audit, List resources, and Delete resources.

   

5. Click Generate token.
6. Copy the token value, you will need it when you configure REST API Static Security Testing.

   

Always store all your tokens securely, for example, in Kubernetes Secrets, like other secrets you use! Treat tokens as you would other sensitive information, like your passwords.

Add the Docker image to your CI/CD pipeline

If your CI/CD system supports Docker, you can create scripts to pull and run the Docker image for REST API Static Security Testing as part of the workflow of your CI/CD pipeline.

Before you start, make sure you have Docker installed and configured so that your CI/CD system can use it. For more details on Docker, see Docker documentation.

1. Identify the spot in your CI/CD workflow where you want to include the audit, and make sure that your CI/CD specifies a directory containing all the OpenAPI definitions that you want to include in the audit. You need to mount this directory as a volume to the Docker container so that REST API Static Security Testing can access the files.
2. Create the Docker command for running the Docker image for REST API Static Security Testing. The following is the minimum that is required to audit all OpenAPI files located in a directory that mounted as a volume to the container:

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

   REST API Static Security Testing uses the X42C_ environment variables for the name of the API collection it creates in 42Crunch Platform for the OpenAPI definitions it discovered. On subsequent runs, it synchronizes the contents of that API collection with the APIs in the mounted directory.

   The container assumes that the OpenAPI files come from a source control repository, so the variables X42C_REPOSITORY_URL and either X42C_BRANCH_NAME, X42C_TAG_NAME, or X42C_PR_ID are required. If you use X42C_PR_ID, you must also include the variable X42C_PR_TARGET_BRANCH.

3. If you want, you can include the following optional environment variables in your command.

   Variable	Description
   X42C_MIN_SCORE	The minimum audit score that the OpenAPI definitions must get from the audit for this CI/CD step to pass successfully. If any API definitions score lower than the minimum score you set, the CI/CD step fails. If not defined in the Docker command, the default value is 75. The fail-on criteria you set in the CI/CD plugin, such as the minimum score, are independent from the acceptance criteria defined in security quality gates (SQGs). This means that your CI/CD build can fail either because the criteria of the plugin are not met, the criteria of a SQG are not met, or both.
   X42C_PLATFORM_URL	If you are an enterprise customer not accessing 42Crunch Platform at https://platform.42crunch.com, include this variable with your platform URL as its value. Most users do not need to specify this variable in the Docker command, because it defaults to https://platform.42crunch.com. If you are not sure what your platform URL is, contact our support.
   X42C_LOG_LEVEL	The level of detail (FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG) in the logs that the image produces. If not defined in the Docker command, the default value is INFO.
   X42C_SHARE_EVERYONE	Are the API collections created in 42Crunch Platform automatically shared with other users in your organization. If the variable is not included in the Docker command, the API collections are not shared but remain private to you. The variable has two possible values: READ_ONLY: Other users have read-only access READ_WRITE: Other users have also write access You cannot share API collections if your account belongs to the free community organization. In this case, make sure this setting is off.

4. When your Docker command is ready, include it as part of your CI/C pipeline in the spot you wan To test Docker command, run your workflow.

REST API Static Security Testing now runs in a Docker container as part of your CI/CD pipeline and will either succeed or fail depending on the minimum score. REST API Static Security Testing uploads all discovered OpenAPI definitions to the specified API collection in 42Crunch Platform:

The API definitions in the collection show the filepaths they have in the repository:

REST API Static Security Testing prints a report of the run to provide you further details on how the CI/CD job went, including a link to each discovered API. You can click on the link to view the detailed audit report of the corresponding API in 42Crunch Platform.

Write summary of the plugin run in a file

If you want, you can set the plugin to write and store a report on the plugin run as a JSON file, so that it is easy, for example, to see and communicate the API UUIDs of the uploaded APIs.

This is not the audit report that provides details on the issues that Security Audit found in your APIs and how to remediate them, but a separate, optional summary providing some basic details on the APIs that the plugin processed. The full audit reports are not included in this summary, but are available in 42Crunch Platform.

1. Open the Docker command on your CI/CD workflow for editing.
2. Add the variable X42C_JSON_REPORT to the Docker command, and enter the filename or path that you want to use for report file.

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     -e X42C_JSON_REPORT=<the filename or path for the report> \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

   The report is in JSON format, so ensure that you either specify .json as the file extension (as in test/myReport.json) or omit the extension completely (test/myReport).
   • If you specify only the filename, the plugin creates the file in the root directory that it is pointed to start from.
   • If you specify a path, the path must be under the root directory and all specified directories must exist. The plugin only generates the JSON file, not directories.

   The plugin does not delete or overwrite any summaries from previous runs, so if a file with the same name exists, you see an error. To avoid this, you can create a separate workspace for each pipeline pass, add a task to clear the workspace before starting, or include a variable to the filename (such as the build number or timestamp) to ensure that each filename is unique.

3. Save your changes.

Next time you run the pipeline, the integration writes a summary report as a JSON file in the location you specified. This report shows the details on discovered, such as:

• Filename
• API UUID assigned for the API when it was uploaded to 42Crunch Platform
• Audit score
• Did the pipeline task fail and if yes, why
• Any errors that occurred when processing the API

Fine-tune the plugin configuration

You can further fine-tune how the integration works by adding a configuration file called 42c-conf.yaml to the root directory of your source code repository where the CI/CD pipeline connects to. You can, for example:

• Map OpenAPI files in your repository to API UUIDs of APIs in the platform.
• Specify fail_on conditions to define what the plugin reports as failures.

  The fail-on criteria you set in the CI/CD plugin, such as the minimum score, are independent from the acceptance criteria defined in security quality gates (SQGs). This means that your CI/CD build can fail either because the criteria of the plugin are not met, the criteria of a SQG are not met, or both.

• Control what happens in the discovery phase.

You can specify different configurations for different branches, tags, or even pull requests. For more details, see the configuration examples in our Resources repository in GitHub.

Change the default collection name

You can specify a syntax for the new collections that the plugin uses by default, instead of simply naming the collection based on your source repository URL.

1. Open the Docker command on your CI/CD workflow for editing.
2. Add the environment variable X42C_DEFAULT_COLLECTION_NAME to the Docker command, and enter the syntax for the default collection name you want to use. You can use text (like foo), reference to variables (${repository}), or a combination of the two (foo ${repository}). You can use the following variables that are populated from your repository details:
   • repository: The full repository URL.
   • repo_short_path: A shortened path of the repository URL (the leading / and the trailing .git are omitted).
   • repo_hostname: The hostname from the repository URL.
   • branch_info:The syntax Branch:<branch name>, or an empty string if this information is not available.
   • tag_info: The syntax Tag:<tag name>, or an empty string if this information is not available.
   • pr_info: The syntax PR:<pr id>, or an empty string if this information is not available.

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     -e X42C_DEFAULT_COLLECTION_NAME='foo ${repository}' \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

3. When ready, save your changes.

Next time you run the CI/CD pipeline, REST API Static Security Testing uses the syntax you defined and creates new API collections in 42Crunch Platform (if collections with the same names do not yet exist) where it loads the discovered APIs.

You can also define collection names for specific branches, tags, and pull requests using the property collection_name in the configuration file 42c-conf.yaml.

Set the root directory

By default, REST API Static Security Testing uses the root of the mounted volume as its starting point. However, you can also set a subdirectory to be used as the root directory.

Makes sure that the directory you want to use is mounted as a volume in your command. If you have configured 42c-conf.yaml for your plugin, make sure it is located in the new root directory that you want REST API Static Security Testing to use. Otherwise, the configuration file is ignored.

1. Open the Docker command on your CI/CD workflow for editing.
2. Add the variable X42C_ROOT_DIRECTORY to the Docker command, and enter the path of the directory you want to use as the root directory.

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     -e X42C_ROOT_DIRECTORY=<the path to the new root directory> \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

3. Save your changes.

Next time you run the pipeline, REST API Static Security Testing will start the discovery phase from the specified directory path and check that directory and any subdirectories under it for OpenAPI files.

Use SQG criteria instead of plugin configuration

By default, the integration plugin configuration defines when the CI/CD task passes or fails, and there are some default values that the plugin uses if nothing else is specified. However, if you are using security quality gates (SQGs) in 42Crunch Platform for quality control, you might prefer SQGs to determine when the CI/CD task passes or fails. In this case, you can set the plugin to skip the locally defined fail-on conditions (such as minimum score, format validity, or forbidden issues) and only use those defined in the SQGs.

1. Open the Docker command on your CI/CD workflow for editing.
2. Add the variable X42C_SKIP_LOCAL_CHECKS=true to the Docker command.

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     -e X42C_SKIP_LOCAL_CHECKS=true \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

3. Save your changes.

Next time you run the pipeline, the plugin will only check the status of all SQGs applied to the APIs it found in the repository when deciding if the build passes or fails, and ignore any fail-on conditions defined in the plugin itself, including the default plugin configuration.

Stop the plugin from failing a pipeline

Sometimes you might want the CI/CD plugin just to report the found issues, not block the pipeline from continuing. For example, your repository might have plenty of APIs in early stages of their lifecycle, or you have just introduced the CI/CD plugin to the pipeline and need time to adjust to the set quality criteria. In this case, you can temporarily switch off all fail-on conditions that the CI/CD plugin would impose on a CI/CD job. The plugin keeps reporting on the discovered APIs but does not block the pipeline from proceeding to subsequent stages.

Switching off the fail-on conditions in the CI/CD plugin means that the plugin will cease to work as a quality control as it will never prevent potential problems in your APIs. We recommend that you use this option only after a careful consideration and only for a limited time. Remember to remove this setting from the plugin as soon as possible.

1. Open the Docker command on your CI/CD workflow for editing.
2. Add the variable X42C_IGNORE_FAILURES=true to the Docker command.

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     -e X42C_IGNORE_FAILURES=true \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

3. Save your changes.

Next time you run the pipeline, the integration plugin runs normally, uploading each discovered API definition and its audit report to 42Crunch Platform, but does not fail the CI/CD job because of the audit results or SQG status. However, the plugin still produces logs as per usual, so you can check them to see the status of the discovered APIs.

Ignore network errors

If you are worried that issues in connectivity — such as in the rare case of the CI/CD plugin not being able to communicate to 42Crunch Platform — could unduly hinder an important CI/CD pipeline by causing it to fail, you can set the plugin to ignore connectivity issues.

Setting the CI/CD plugin to ignore network errors lessens the plugin's effectivity as a quality control, because the task does not stop the CI/CD pipeline even though it could not complete successfully due to a connectivity issue. This means that APIs that have quality or security issues in their OpenAPI definitions could slip through upon a successful CI/CD job. We recommend that you use this option only after a careful consideration.

1. Open the Docker command on your CI/CD workflow for editing.
2. Add the variable X42C_IGNORE_NETWORK_ERRORS=true to the Docker command:

   docker run \
     -v <the path to the OpenAPI definitions>:/workspace \
     -e X42C_API_TOKEN=<reference to the token you created and stored securely> \
     -e X42C_REPOSITORY_URL=<your source control repository URL> \
     -e X42C_BRANCH_NAME=<your branch (for example, main)> \
     -e X42C_IGNORE_NETWORK_ERRORS=true \
     42crunch/docker-api-security-audit:v3

3. Save your changes.

Next time you run the pipeline, if the integration plugin encounters a connectivity issue, it does not fail the CI/CD job and the pipeline proceed to subsequent steps. Errors that cannot be definitively deemed to be connectivity issues will still cause the plugin to fail the job. You can check the logs that the plugin produces to see if any errors occurred.