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What Is Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)?
Application Security Posture Management or ASPM gives security teams a clear view of the full software factory, its assets, its owners, its security controls, its vulnerabilities, and how all are related. With this view, security teams can ensure the integrity, governance, and compliance of every software release.
Visibility
An ASPM solution should offer centralized visibility across all phases of the software factory. This gives everyone an end-to-end understanding of all SDLC assets and allows them to answer the key questions about applications, products, build tools, and controls:
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Who’s developing the code?
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What’s in your code? (i.e., secrets, AI/LLM, vulnerabilities, sensitive data)
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Do we know when new build assets or artifacts are created (preventing shadow IT)?
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Do we have a complete SDLC asset inventory?
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Can we verify correct configurations across all tools throughout the code factory?
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Where and how does code go through pipelines?
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Where does code end up in production environments?
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How is code protected in pipelines and production environments?
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Can we triage and prioritize issues based on business risk?
As these questions are answered, security teams can see where security gaps exist and more easily comply with regulations.
Prioritization
ASPM platforms allow teams to see how code, development pipelines, and software development lifecycle (SDLC) systems align with critical applications and production systems so that they can quickly and accurately understand and prioritize security issues.
Teams can then make the right security decisions by:
- Determining the risks in each stage of the SDLC.
- Identifying how those risks correlate across the software factory.
- Selecting which vulnerabilities to fix first based on the impact on the business.
Alignment
ASPM syncs the knowledge and the efforts of developers, security teams, and executives to:
- Explain where the risks are and why.
- Identify the required resources to fix risks.
- Inform why it’s important to fix certain vulnerabilities and put others on the back burner.
- Strengthen internal relationships by providing dashboards showing vulnerability status.
How Does ASPM Compare with Other Security Categories
ASPM vs. Code Scanners
Static analysis (SAST), dynamic analysis (DAST), and software composition analysis (SCA) scan source code for vulnerabilities in different phases of code development.
Solely scanning source code for application security falls short because its focus is too narrow, it lacks context, and it produces a variety of results without correlation.
In addition, source code scanners only look at application risk and largely ignore the risk found in the software factory, like weaknesses in the CI/CD pipeline. This focus leads to blind spots in the area that’s currently causing and producing the most devastating attacks seen in the wild.
ASPM vs. ASOC
Application Security Orchestration and Correlation or ASOC is a solution that helps facilitate vulnerability testing and remediation. These solutions correlate scan data from various sources, including SAST, DAST, IAST and SCA tools, helping with prioritization and de-duplication of results.
ASPM is a more comprehensive security solution. While ASOC is focused on vulnerabilities in pre-production code, ASPM encompasses the entire software factory, from code to pipelines, pathways, and assets.
ASPM vs. CNAPP
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform or CNAPP is a security solution focused on the security of cloud environments. These solutions aim to monitor, detect, and remediate cloud security threats and vulnerabilities. CNAPP is solely focused on runtime protection, while ASPM is centered on application security across the SDLC.
What Should You Consider When Evaluating an ASPM Solution?
Types of Visibility Offered
Enterprises today have large, dynamic development teams, and securing the SDLC requires views into the environment that allow prioritization and comparison.
Look for ASPM solutions that offer a real-time, continuous view of both the dev environment and security – and the context across both of these areas that makes it possible to prioritize based on business risk.
In addition, the ability to see product- and team-level views vs. a single, aggregated view of all data is important, especially for complex dev teams with varying tools and processes. With this view, teams can, for example, see data related to a specific dev team and compare it to others.
Scalability
Development organizations today can be huge, with thousands of developers, and grow exponentially almost overnight due to M&A activity — leading to dev environments that are more fast-moving and fluid than anything we’ve ever seen before.
Look for enterprise-class ASPM solutions with the ability to support very large, distributed development organizations.
AI Discovery
Generative AI gives developers an easier way to produce code at scale. However, it also generates code with vulnerabilities, just like code created by developers, and could include code licensed by another organization.
Look for an ASPM solution that has the ability to understand when and where developers are using AI code assistants, plus identify GenAI code within their business, and risky AI models.
Deployment Flexibility
Deployment options are an important consideration when evaluating ASPM solutions. Look for the ability to deploy as a SaaS solution, in a private cloud, on prem, or hybrid.
Secrets Detection
Secrets exposure has become a significant and growing software security issue. Modern apps require hundreds of secrets to function (API keys, third parties, cloud credentials, etc.). At the same time, developers are pushed to innovate and develop code as fast as possible, frequently leading to shortcuts intended to drive efficiency and speed. One of those shortcuts is using secrets in development to accelerate testing and QA.
Look for best-in-class secrets detection in an ASPM solution, with remediation, prevention, and low false positives.
Compliance Attestation and Reporting
Streamlining compliance with cybersecurity regulations is a key capability of an ASPM solution. From SBOMs to attestation, ASPM solutions should take the manual work out of demonstrating the security controls in place across the SDLC.
Look for an ASPM solution that will evaluate your security posture in the context of a wide range of regulations and security frameworks, such as SLSA, NIST SSDF, PCI DSS, FedRAMP, and CISA Attestation. The solution should also deliver verification and evidence to support compliance audit requirements, and attestation mandates.
What are Some Common ASPM Use Cases?
The rise in software supply chain attacks, increase in complexity of software development, and inability of traditional application security tools to address how attackers now work, or how developers do, is leading many enterprises to pursue ASPM solutions. The primary use cases include:
- Enterprise-wide software security visibility and governance to develop the foundation for a consistent application security program
- Software supply chain security that goes beyond source code to secure all supply chain assets
- Detection, remediation, and prevention of secrets exposure across the development lifecycle
- Compliance testing, validation, and attestation to ease the burden of complying with complex and ever-changing cybersecurity regulations
- Application vulnerability management to prioritize and streamline remediation processes
Gain Visibility and Manage Your Application Risk with a Dedicated ASPM Solution From Legit Security
With the Legit ASPM platform, enterprises get a cleaner, easier way to manage and scale application security and address risks from code to cloud. Built for the modern SDLC, Legit tackles the toughest problems facing security teams, including GenAI usage, proliferation of secrets, and an uncontrolled dev environment. Fast to implement and easy to use, Legit lets security teams protect their software factory from end to end, gives developers guardrails that let them do their best work safely, and proves the success of the security program. This new approach means teams can control risk across the business – and prove it.
