Building DevSecOps Pipeline with GitLab CI

Overview

GitLab provides an integrated DevSecOps platform that embeds security testing directly into the CI/CD pipeline. By leveraging GitLab's built-in security scanners---SAST, DAST, container scanning, dependency scanning, secret detection, and license compliance---teams can shift security left, catching vulnerabilities during development rather than post-deployment. GitLab Duo AI assists with false positive detection for SAST vulnerabilities, helping security teams focus on genuine issues.

When to Use

• When deploying or configuring building devsecops pipeline with gitlab ci capabilities in your environment
• When establishing security controls aligned to compliance requirements
• When building or improving security architecture for this domain
• When conducting security assessments that require this implementation

Prerequisites

• GitLab Ultimate license (required for full security scanner suite)
• GitLab Runner configured (shared or self-hosted)
• .gitlab-ci.yml pipeline configuration familiarity
• Docker-in-Docker (DinD) or Kaniko for container builds
• Application deployed to a staging environment for DAST scanning

Core Security Scanning Stages

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

SAST analyzes source code for vulnerabilities before compilation. GitLab supports 14+ languages using analyzers such as Semgrep, SpotBugs, Gosec, Bandit, and NodeJsScan. The simplest inclusion uses GitLab's managed templates.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

DAST tests running applications by simulating attack payloads against HTTP endpoints. It detects XSS, SQLi, CSRF, and other runtime vulnerabilities that static analysis cannot find. DAST requires a deployed, accessible target URL.

Container Scanning

Uses Trivy to scan Docker images for known CVEs in OS packages and application dependencies. Runs after the Docker build stage to gate images before they reach a registry.

Dependency Scanning

Inspects dependency manifests (package.json, requirements.txt, pom.xml, Gemfile.lock) for known vulnerable versions. Operates at the source code level, complementing container scanning.

Secret Detection

Scans commits for accidentally committed credentials, API keys, tokens, and private keys using pattern matching and entropy analysis. Runs on every commit to prevent secrets from reaching the repository.

Implementation

Complete Pipeline Configuration

# .gitlab-ci.yml

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - security
  - deploy-staging
  - dast
  - deploy-production

variables:
  DOCKER_IMAGE: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
  SECURE_LOG_LEVEL: "info"

# Include GitLab managed security templates
include:
  - template: Security/SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Secret-Detection.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Container-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: DAST.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/License-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml

build:
  stage: build
  image: docker:24.0
  services:
    - docker:24.0-dind
  variables:
    DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: "/certs"
  script:
    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY
    - docker build -t $DOCKER_IMAGE .
    - docker push $DOCKER_IMAGE
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH

unit-tests:
  stage: test
  image: $DOCKER_IMAGE
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run test:coverage
  coverage: '/Lines\s*:\s*(\d+\.?\d*)%/'
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: junit-report.xml
      coverage_report:
        coverage_format: cobertura
        path: coverage/cobertura-coverage.xml

# Override SAST to run in security stage
sast:
  stage: security
  variables:
    SAST_EXCLUDED_PATHS: "spec,test,tests,tmp,node_modules"
    SEARCH_MAX_DEPTH: 10

# Override container scanning
container_scanning:
  stage: security
  variables:
    CS_IMAGE: $DOCKER_IMAGE
    CS_SEVERITY_THRESHOLD: "HIGH"

# Override dependency scanning
dependency_scanning:
  stage: security

# Override secret detection
secret_detection:
  stage: security

# License compliance scanning
license_scanning:
  stage: security

deploy-staging:
  stage: deploy-staging
  image: bitnami/kubectl:latest
  script:
    - kubectl set image deployment/app app=$DOCKER_IMAGE -n staging
    - kubectl rollout status deployment/app -n staging --timeout=300s
  environment:
    name: staging
    url: https://staging.example.com
  rules:

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