Automating IaC Security with Trivy, GitHub Actions, and AWS CodeBuild

In today’s fast-paced DevOps world, ensuring the security of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is just as critical as application security. Misconfigured infrastructure can expose entire systems to vulnerabilities. Fortunately, tools like Trivy, GitHub Actions, and AWS CodeBuild allow development teams to automate and embed security checks directly into the CI/CD pipeline.

 Why IaC Security Matters

IaC defines and manages cloud infrastructure through code—whether in Terraform, CloudFormation, or Kubernetes manifests. Without security scanning, these definitions might contain:

• Publicly exposed services
  
  

• Insecure IAM roles and permissions
  
  

• Hardcoded secrets
  
  

• Outdated or vulnerable dependencies
  
  

Automating security helps detect these issues early in the development lifecycle, reducing risks and remediation costs.

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What is Trivy?

Trivy by Aqua Security is a versatile and fast vulnerability scanner for containers, OS packages, and IaC formats like Terraform and CloudFormation. It can detect:

• Misconfigurations
  
  

• Vulnerabilities (CVEs)
  
  

• Secrets (passwords, API keys)
  
  

• License compliance issues
  
  

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Integrating Trivy into GitHub Actions

You can embed Trivy scans in GitHub Actions to catch issues before merging code.

Sample Workflow: .github/workflows/iac-security.yml

name: IaC Security Scan

on:

  pull_request:

    branches:

      - main

jobs:

  trivy-scan:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

      - name: Checkout Code

        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Run Trivy for IaC scanning

        uses: aquasecurity/trivy-action@master

        with:

          scan-type: config

          scan-ref: .

This workflow runs Trivy on every pull request targeting the main branch, scanning the repository for misconfigured IaC files.

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Running Trivy in AWS CodeBuild

For teams leveraging AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild provides a powerful way to integrate Trivy scans.

Example buildspec.yml for Trivy Scan

version: 0.2

phases:

  install:

    commands:

      - curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aquasecurity/trivy/main/contrib/install.sh | sh

  build:

    commands:

      - ./trivy config . --exit-code 1 --severity HIGH,CRITICAL

This setup ensures the build fails if high or critical misconfigurations are found.

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Combining GitHub Actions and CodeBuild

While GitHub Actions is ideal for development-time checks, AWS CodeBuild brings additional enforcement to your deployment pipelines in AWS. Here’s how they complement each other:

GitHub Actions is used to provide fast feedback during pull requests.

AWS CodeBuild serves as the gatekeeper for deployment pipelines.

By using both, you build a multi-layered IaC security posture.

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Reporting and Observability

Both GitHub and AWS provide ways to view logs and scan results. You can enhance this further by:

• Uploading Trivy JSON reports to Amazon S3
  
  

• Integrating with AWS Security Hub
  
  

• Creating CloudWatch Alarms on pipeline failures
  
  

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Benefits of Automating IaC Security

• Shift-Left Security: Identify and fix issues early
  
  

• Policy as Code: Enforce organizational best practices
  
  

• Compliance Ready: Simplify audit and governance
  
  

• Developer Empowerment: Make security everyone’s responsibility
  
  

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Conclusion

By integrating Trivy into GitHub Actions and AWS CodeBuild, you automate the detection of IaC security issues, reduce human error, and accelerate secure deployments. Start small—scan your Terraform scripts—and expand to full-stack security scanning for containers, secrets, and packages.