Threat Model Report: Security Considerations for Hardening Declarative GitOps on K8s with Argo CD - Torin van den Bulk & James Callaghan, ControlPlane

Cloud native technologies bring a great unification to the skillsets, operational theory, and systems complexity that makes securing them a more easily rationalized problem. Argo CD's declarative GitOps approach empowers developers with automated, auditable and efficient application deployment workflows. There are many eyes on the developmental and supply chain security of cloud native software, but far fewer on the greatest cause of cloud breach: misconfiguration, which can lead to security weaknesses and introduce risk within the organization. ControlPlane was engaged by the CNCF to produce an Argo CD threat model with a view of open sourcing it to the community. In this talk we’ll present our report and findings, articulating key elements to consider to harden a deployment and avoid pitfalls, focusing at the same time best practices that safeguard against states of insecurity. Our endgame is to foster a collaborative, security-conscious risk-aware end user community around Argo CD.