IaC SecurityMarch 202511 min read
IaC Misconfiguration: What Checkov Catches and Why It Matters Before Deployment
Infrastructure-as-code has moved security risk upstream — a single Terraform misconfig can expose entire cloud environments before a single line of application code is deployed. This paper examines the most common IaC misconfiguration patterns across Terraform, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes YAML, how Checkov-powered analysis detects them, and why catching them pre-deploy is an order of magnitude cheaper than remediating a live exposure.
What’s covered
- The most exploited IaC anti-patterns: IAM wildcards, public S3, insecure security groups
- How Checkov maps misconfigurations to CIS and compliance benchmarks
- Terraform vs. CloudFormation vs. K8s YAML: what differs in risk and detection
- IaC scanning in CI/CD: gate on fail vs. advisory mode trade-offs
- Drift detection: when live cloud state diverges from your IaC definitions
- Starter vs. Pro framework coverage — what Lite mode includes
SAST / Static AnalysisFebruary 202510 min read
SAST and the OWASP Top 10: How Semgrep Maps Static Findings to Real Risk
Static application security testing has a reputation for noise — thousands of findings, low signal. This paper explains how a well-tuned SAST pipeline using Semgrep's OWASP pack surfaces actionable code-level vulnerabilities in JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and Go, how each finding maps to CWE categories and the OWASP Top 10, and how developer-facing fix guidance changes remediation velocity.
What’s covered
- Why SAST needs OWASP/CWE alignment to be developer-actionable
- Semgrep rule packs: how OWASP Top 10 patterns are encoded
- Language coverage: JS/TS injection patterns, Python deserialization, Go secrets
- Reducing false positives: triage workflow and accepted-risk tagging
- SAST + DAST: complementary coverage across source and runtime
- Integrating SAST into pull request reviews and CI pipelines
Cloud SecurityJanuary 202513 min read
AWS IAM Misconfiguration Patterns: What Prowler and IaC Scanning Surface
IAM misconfiguration remains one of the top causes of cloud data breaches. This paper documents the most dangerous AWS IAM anti-patterns — wildcard actions, missing condition keys, overly permissive trust policies — and how combining Prowler-based cloud auditing with IaC scanning gives security teams both pre-deploy prevention and live environment validation.
What’s covered
- The IAM misconfiguration taxonomy: wildcards, missing conditions, cross-account trust
- How Prowler evaluates live AWS environments against IAM best practices
- S3 bucket policies, VPC network rules, and CloudTrail logging gaps
- Azure and GCP equivalents: service principals, storage accounts, NSGs
- IaC vs. cloud audit: why you need both for complete coverage
- Drift detection: reconciling Terraform definitions against live IAM state
MethodologyDecember 202412 min read
OWASP Top 10 2025: What Changed and How to Test For It
The OWASP Top 10 remains the most widely referenced application security risk framework. This paper maps the updated 2025 ranking to concrete DAST testing coverage, explains where the risk categories shifted from prior editions, and documents which Vuln Pro Scan checks correspond to each risk category.
What’s covered
- How the Top 10 ranking methodology has evolved
- New categories: Software & Data Integrity Failures, Insecure Design
- Mapping dynamic scan checks to each OWASP risk
- Coverage gaps that require authenticated or manual testing
- Practical scan configuration for OWASP-aligned assessments
Coverage StrategyNovember 20248 min read
The Case for Authenticated DAST: Coverage You Can't Get Without Logging In
Anonymous web application scanners test only the publicly reachable surface. This paper quantifies the coverage difference between unauthenticated and authenticated scans, identifies the vulnerability classes that are invisible without valid credentials, and makes the technical and business case for including authenticated scanning in any serious security program.
What’s covered
- What public scans find vs. what they miss
- Vulnerability classes requiring authentication: IDOR, session weaknesses, broken access control
- How authenticated DAST complements penetration testing
- Credential handling, session management, and scope control during authenticated scans
- Practical coverage comparison: same app, two scan modes
Defense in DepthOctober 202410 min read
HTTP security headers are one of the highest-return-on-investment controls available to web application teams. This paper covers the headers that materially reduce risk, explains the common misconfigurations that render them ineffective, and provides implementation templates for Content-Security-Policy, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
What’s covered
- Why security headers are undervalued and underimplemented
- Content-Security-Policy: from reporting to enforcement
- HTTP Strict Transport Security and preload considerations
- Clickjacking protection: X-Frame-Options vs. CSP frame-ancestors
- Permissions-Policy, Referrer-Policy, and what they protect
- Common scanner findings and what they mean for your risk posture