From Code to Compliance - Mastering Security in GitLab

[lekhasri]

In today’s world, security can’t wait until production. Every commit, every merge, every pipeline needs to be safe from start to deploy. That’s where GitLab Security steps in.

Instead of juggling third-party scanners and external dashboards, GitLab bakes DevSecOps right into your CI/CD pipeline.

Introduction

As software security becomes increasingly important, many companies want to introduce standard code scanning processes into development workflows to find and remediate security vulnerabilities before they get to production. GitLab's DevSecOps Platform allows users to perform security scans in CI/CD pipelines, which can easily be enabled to check applications for security vulnerabilities such as unauthorized access, data leaks, and denial of service (DoS) attacks.

GitLab automatically scans your applications for potential security threats such as:

• Unauthorized access.

• Data leaks.
• Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

Gitlab Provides Variety of Security scans and Reporting Features  Which are Listed Below,

Security Scanning:

Reporting Features:

• Security Reports
• Vulnerability Management
• Policies

Security Policies:

GitLab Security Policies are rule-based configurations that allow you to define security behaviour across your projects. Think of them as a security automation layer that controls:

• When to run scans (like SAST, DAST, Secret Detection)
• What happens when vulnerabilities are found
• Who must approve risky changes
• How license violations are handled

Security policies are stored as YAML files inside your GitLab repository (typically under .gitlab/security-policies/), making them version-controlled, auditable, and portable.

Security policies are part of GitLab’s Ultimate tier, which unlocks advanced security and compliance features, including:

• Group-wide policy enforcement
• Security Dashboards
• Compliance Pipelines
• Audit Logs

Example use case:

Let’s also investigate a real-time example, a FinTech company called PayWave that wants to enforce strict security in its development process. Using GitLab Security Policies, PayWave defines YAML-based rules that automatically run SAST and Secret Detection scans on every merge request, block merges if critical vulnerabilities are found, and require approval from the security team before proceeding.

Additionally, a license compliance policy prevents merging any code that introduces dependencies with disallowed licenses, such as GPL-3.0. This setup ensures that all code changes are scanned, reviewed, and compliant with the company’s security and legal standards—automating governance and reducing human error.

Types of Security Policies Offered by Gitlab:

1. Scan Execution Policies

         These define when security scans should run and under what conditions. For example, you can run SAST and Secret Detection only on protected branches, or during merge requests.

Example use cases:

• Always run SAST on main and dev
• Run container scanning only on Docker file changes

Let’s also investigate a real-time example, Imagine you’re working on a school management app ,You can set a policy to run Secret Detection whenever someone updates the login module, to make sure no passwords or tokens are accidentally exposed.
And you can run Dependency Scanning only when the requirements.txt (for Python) or pom.xml (for Java) file changes since that’s where new libraries are added. This way, scans run only when it truly matters keeping your pipelines faster, smarter, and secure. 

1. Scan Result Policies

         These enforce rules based on scan results — such as blocking a merge request if critical vulnerabilities are found or requiring approval from a security team before merging.

Example use cases:

• Block MR if SAST finds critical severity issues
• Require approval if any high-severity DAST finding is present.

Let’s also investigate a real-time example, a healthcare startup can use a Scan Result Policy to automatically block a merge request if Dependency Scanning detects libraries with known high-severity vulnerabilities. It can also require security team approval if DAST finds any issues that could expose patient data. This ensures no risky code is merged without proper review and maintains compliance with data protection standards.

Running SAST Scan on .py Code and Accessing/Analysing Vulnerability Reports:

1. Navigate to your GitLab project, create a CI/CD configuration file .gitlab-ci.yml and include a SAST scan template at the end of your CI/CD configuration yaml and add some .py code files with intended vulnerable code for testing and validation vulnerability reports and commit the files.

      2. Now on left side menu go to build -> pipelines and click on the running pipeline and wait for to finish as shown in below image. ( figure 1.1 )

Figure 1.1

 Figure 1.2

Once the pipeline completes execution go to Vulnerability reports on the left side menu and you will find the list of vulnerabilities found and click on each to view the details. ( Figure 1.3)

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.4

Conclusion

GitLab Security empowers teams to build trust into their software from the very first commit.
By embedding DevSecOps directly into the CI/CD pipeline, it ensures vulnerabilities are caught early not after release. From SAST, DAST, and dependency scanning to container and secret detection, GitLab provides a unified approach to securing your entire software lifecycle.
Security is no longer a separate stage it’s a continuous, automated process built right into your workflow.

Final Verdict

In an era where every second counts and every breach matters, GitLab Security delivers proactive protection without slowing down development. It transforms your pipelines into smart, self-defending systems that find and fix issues before they ever reach production. For teams embracing true DevSecOps, GitLab isn’t just a tool it’s your all-in-one security partner that keeps innovation fast and fearless.

“Code with confidence. Deploy without fear. GitLab’s got your security covered”

Lekhasri Venugopal

Hewlette Packard(PSD-GCC)