senior-secops – Security skill for AI agents

Senior SecOps Engineer

Complete toolkit for Security Operations including vulnerability management, compliance verification, secure coding practices, and security automation.

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Table of Contents

• [Core Capabilities](#core-capabilities)
• [Workflows](#workflows)
• [Tool Reference](#tool-reference)
• [Security Standards](#security-standards)
• [Compliance Frameworks](#compliance-frameworks)
• [Best Practices](#best-practices)

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Core Capabilities

1. Security Scanner

Scan source code for security vulnerabilities including hardcoded secrets, SQL injection, XSS, command injection, and path traversal.

# Scan project for security issues
python scripts/security_scanner.py /path/to/project

# Filter by severity
python scripts/security_scanner.py /path/to/project --severity high

# JSON output for CI/CD
python scripts/security_scanner.py /path/to/project --json --output report.json

Detects:

• Hardcoded secrets (API keys, passwords, AWS credentials, GitHub tokens, private keys)
• SQL injection patterns (string concatenation, f-strings, template literals)
• XSS vulnerabilities (innerHTML assignment, unsafe DOM manipulation, React unsafe patterns)
• Command injection (shell=True, exec, eval with user input)
• Path traversal (file operations with user input)

2. Vulnerability Assessor

Scan dependencies for known CVEs across npm, Python, and Go ecosystems.

# Assess project dependencies
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py /path/to/project

# Critical/high only
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py /path/to/project --severity high

# Export vulnerability report
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py /path/to/project --json --output vulns.json

Scans:

• package.json and package-lock.json (npm)
• requirements.txt and pyproject.toml (Python)
• go.mod (Go)

Output:

• CVE IDs with CVSS scores
• Affected package versions
• Fixed versions for remediation
• Overall risk score (0-100)

3. Compliance Checker

Verify security compliance against SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR frameworks.

# Check all frameworks
python scripts/compliance_checker.py /path/to/project

# Specific framework
python scripts/compliance_checker.py /path/to/project --framework soc2
python scripts/compliance_checker.py /path/to/project --framework pci-dss
python scripts/compliance_checker.py /path/to/project --framework hipaa
python scripts/compliance_checker.py /path/to/project --framework gdpr

# Export compliance report
python scripts/compliance_checker.py /path/to/project --json --output compliance.json

Verifies:

• Access control implementation
• Encryption at rest and in transit
• Audit logging
• Authentication strength (MFA, password hashing)
• Security documentation
• CI/CD security controls

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Workflows

Workflow 1: Security Audit

Complete security assessment of a codebase.

# Step 1: Scan for code vulnerabilities
python scripts/security_scanner.py . --severity medium
# STOP if exit code 2 — resolve critical findings before continuing

# Step 2: Check dependency vulnerabilities
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py . --severity high
# STOP if exit code 2 — patch critical CVEs before continuing

# Step 3: Verify compliance controls
python scripts/compliance_checker.py . --framework all
# STOP if exit code 2 — address critical gaps before proceeding

# Step 4: Generate combined reports
python scripts/security_scanner.py . --json --output security.json
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py . --json --output vulns.json
python scripts/compliance_checker.py . --json --output compliance.json

Workflow 2: CI/CD Security Gate

Integrate security checks into deployment pipeline.

# .github/workflows/security.yml
name: "security-scan"

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main, develop]

jobs:
  security-scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: "set-up-python"
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'

      - name: "security-scanner"
        run: python scripts/security_scanner.py . --severity high

      - name: "vulnerability-assessment"
        run: python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py . --severity critical

      - name: "compliance-check"
        run: python scripts/compliance_checker.py . --framework soc2

Each step fails the pipeline on its respective exit code — no deployment proceeds past a critical finding.

Workflow 3: CVE Triage

Respond to a new CVE affecting your application.

1. ASSESS (0-2 hours)
   - Identify affected systems using vulnerability_assessor.py
   - Check if CVE is being actively exploited
   - Determine CVSS environmental score for your context
   - STOP if CVSS 9.0+ on internet-facing system — escalate immediately

2. PRIORITIZE
   - Critical (CVSS 9.0+, internet-facing): 24 hours
   - High (CVSS 7.0-8.9): 7 days
   - Medium (CVSS 4.0-6.9): 30 days
   - Low (CVSS < 4.0): 90 days

3. REMEDIATE
   - Update affected dependency to fixed version
   - Run security_scanner.py to verify fix (must return exit code 0)
   - STOP if scanner still flags the CVE — do not deploy
   - Test for regressions
   - Deploy with enhanced monitoring

4. VERIFY
   - Re-run vulnerability_assessor.py
   - Confirm CVE no longer reported
   - Document remediation actions

Workflow 4: Incident Response

Security incident handling procedure.

PHASE 1: DETECT & IDENTIFY (0-15 min)
- Alert received and acknowledged
- Initial severity assessment (SEV-1 to SEV-4)
- Incident commander assigned
- Communication channel established

PHASE 2: CONTAIN (15-60 min)
- Affected systems identified
- Network isolation if needed
- Credentials rotated if compromised
- Preserve evidence (logs, memory dumps)

PHASE 3: ERADICATE (1-4 hours)
- Root cause identified
- Malware/backdoors removed
- Vulnerabilities patched (run security_scanner.py; must return exit code 0)
- Systems hardened

PHASE 4: RECOVER (4-24 hours)
- Systems restored from clean backup
- Services brought back online
- Enhanced monitoring enabled
- User access restored

PHASE 5: POST-INCIDENT (24-72 hours)
- Incident timeline documented
- Root cause analysis complete
- Lessons learned documented
- Preventive measures implemented
- Stakeholder report delivered

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Tool Reference

security_scanner.py

| Option | Description |

|--------|-------------|

| target | Directory or file to scan |

| --severity, -s | Minimum severity: critical, high, medium, low |

| --verbose, -v | Show files as they're scanned |

| --json | Output results as JSON |

| --output, -o | Write results to file |

Exit Codes: 0 = no critical/high findings · 1 = high severity findings · 2 = critical severity findings

vulnerability_assessor.py

| Option | Description |

|--------|-------------|

| target | Directory containing dependency files |

| --severity, -s | Minimum severity: critical, high, medium, low |

| --verbose, -v | Show files as they're scanned |

| --json | Output results as JSON |

| --output, -o | Write results to file |

Exit Codes: 0 = no critical/high vulnerabilities · 1 = high severity vulnerabilities · 2 = critical severity vulnerabilities

compliance_checker.py

| Option | Description |

|--------|-------------|

| target | Directory to check |

| --framework, -f | Framework: soc2, pci-dss, hipaa, gdpr, all |

| --verbose, -v | Show checks as they run |

| --json | Output results as JSON |

| --output, -o | Write results to file |

Exit Codes: 0 = compliant (90%+ score) · 1 = non-compliant (50-69% score) · 2 = critical gaps (<50% score)

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Security Standards

See references/security_standards.md for OWASP Top 10 full guidance, secure coding standards, authentication requirements, and API security controls.

Secure Coding Checklist

## Input Validation
- [ ] Validate all input on server side
- [ ] Use allowlists over denylists
- [ ] Sanitize for specific context (HTML, SQL, shell)

## Output Encoding
- [ ] HTML encode for browser output
- [ ] URL encode for URLs
- [ ] JavaScript encode for script contexts

## Authentication
- [ ] Use bcrypt/argon2 for passwords
- [ ] Implement MFA for sensitive operations
- [ ] Enforce strong password policy

## Session Management
- [ ] Generate secure random session IDs
- [ ] Set HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite flags
- [ ] Implement session timeout (15 min idle)

## Error Handling
- [ ] Log errors with context (no secrets)
- [ ] Return generic messages to users
- [ ] Never expose stack traces in production

## Secrets Management
- [ ] Use environment variables or secrets manager
- [ ] Never commit secrets to version control
- [ ] Rotate credentials regularly

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Compliance Frameworks

See references/compliance_requirements.md for full control mappings. Run compliance_checker.py to verify the controls below:

SOC 2

… (full content is in the download package)