Senior SecOps Engineer

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

Table of Contents

• Trigger Terms
• Core Capabilities
• Workflows
• Tool Reference
• Security Standards
• Compliance Frameworks
• Best Practices

Trigger Terms

Use this skill when you encounter:

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

Workflows

Workflow 1: Security Audit

Complete security assessment of a codebase.

# Step 1: Scan for code vulnerabilities
python scripts/security_scanner.py . --severity medium

# Step 2: Check dependency vulnerabilities
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py . --severity high

# Step 3: Verify compliance controls
python scripts/compliance_checker.py . --framework all

# Step 4: Generate combined report
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

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

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
   - 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)
- 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

Tool Reference

security_scanner.py

Exit Codes:

• 0: No critical/high findings
• 1: High severity findings
• 2: Critical severity findings

vulnerability_assessor.py

Exit Codes:

• 0: No critical/high vulnerabilities
• 1: High severity vulnerabilities
• 2: Critical severity vulnerabilities

compliance_checker.py

Exit Codes:

• 0: Compliant (90%+ score)
• 1: Non-compliant (50-69% score)
• 2: Critical gaps (<50% score)

Security Standards

OWASP Top 10 Prevention

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

Compliance Frameworks

SOC 2 Type II Controls

PCI-DSS v4.0 Requirements

HIPAA Security Rule

GDPR Requirements

Best Practices

Secrets Management

# BAD: Hardcoded secret
API_KEY = "sk-1234567890abcdef"

# GOOD: Environment variable
import os
API_KEY = os.environ.get("API_KEY")

# BETTER: Secrets manager
from your_vault_client import get_secret
API_KEY = get_secret("api/key")

SQL Injection Prevention

# BAD: String concatenation
query = f"SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = {user_id}"

# GOOD: Parameterized query
cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = %s", (user_id,))

XSS Prevention

// BAD: Direct innerHTML assignment is vulnerable
// GOOD: Use textContent (auto-escaped)
element.textContent = userInput;

// GOOD: Use sanitization library for HTML
import DOMPurify from 'dompurify';
const safeHTML = DOMPurify.sanitize(userInput);

Authentication

// Password hashing
const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
const SALT_ROUNDS = 12;

// Hash password
const hash = await bcrypt.hash(password, SALT_ROUNDS);

// Verify password
const match = await bcrypt.compare(password, hash);

Security Headers

// Express.js security headers
const helmet = require('helmet');
app.use(helmet());

// Or manually set headers:
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  res.setHeader('X-Content-Type-Options', 'nosniff');
  res.setHeader('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY');
  res.setHeader('X-XSS-Protection', '1; mode=block');
  res.setHeader('Strict-Transport-Security', 'max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains');
  res.setHeader('Content-Security-Policy', "default-src 'self'");
  next();
});

Reference Documentation

Tech Stack

Security Scanning:

• Snyk (dependency scanning)
• Semgrep (SAST)
• CodeQL (code analysis)
• Trivy (container scanning)
• OWASP ZAP (DAST)

Secrets Management:

• HashiCorp Vault
• AWS Secrets Manager
• Azure Key Vault
• 1Password Secrets Automation

Authentication:

• bcrypt, argon2 (password hashing)
• jsonwebtoken (JWT)
• passport.js (authentication middleware)
• speakeasy (TOTP/MFA)

Logging & Monitoring:

• Winston, Pino (Node.js logging)
• Datadog, Splunk (SIEM)
• PagerDuty (alerting)

Compliance:

• Vanta (SOC 2 automation)
• Drata (compliance management)
• AWS Config (configuration compliance)

Troubleshooting

Success Criteria

• Zero critical CVEs in production -- all critical-severity vulnerabilities are patched or mitigated before deployment.
• Mean time to patch under 48 hours -- critical and high-severity findings are remediated within two business days of detection.
• Compliance score at or above 90% -- the compliance checker returns COMPLIANT status for every applicable framework before each release.
• 100% of secrets externalized -- the security scanner reports zero hardcoded secrets (API keys, passwords, private keys) across the entire codebase.
• CI/CD security gate pass rate above 95% -- fewer than 5% of pull requests are blocked by security scans, indicating proactive secure coding practices.
• Incident response time under 15 minutes -- security incidents are acknowledged and an incident commander assigned within the Phase 1 detection window.
• Quarterly dependency audit cadence -- the vulnerability assessor is executed against all ecosystems (npm, Python, Go) at least once per quarter with results documented.

Scope & Limitations

This skill covers:

• Static analysis of source code for common vulnerability classes (secrets, injection, XSS, command injection, path traversal).
• Dependency vulnerability assessment against a built-in CVE database for npm, Python, and Go ecosystems.
• Compliance verification for SOC 2 Type II, PCI-DSS v4.0, HIPAA Security Rule, and GDPR.
• Security workflow orchestration including CI/CD gating, CVE triage, and incident response procedures.

This skill does NOT cover:

• Dynamic application security testing (DAST) or runtime analysis -- use OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite for live scanning.
• Infrastructure-as-code security (Terraform, CloudFormation misconfigurations) -- see the senior-devops skill for IaC hardening.
• Container image scanning or Kubernetes admission control -- see the senior-devops skill or use Trivy directly.
• Penetration testing execution or red-team operations -- these require specialized tooling and authorized human operators.

Integration Points

Tool Reference

security_scanner.py

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

Usage:

python scripts/security_scanner.py <target> [options]

Flags:

Example:

# Scan current directory for high and critical findings, export JSON
python scripts/security_scanner.py . --severity high --json --output security-report.json

Output Formats:

• Human-readable (default): Prints a summary table with severity counts and the top 5 findings including file path, line number, and description.
• JSON (--json): Full structured report with status, files_scanned, scan_duration_seconds, total_findings, severity_counts, and a findings array. Each finding includes rule_id, severity, category, title, description, file_path, line_number, code_snippet, and recommendation.

Exit Codes: 0 = no critical/high findings, 1 = high-severity findings present, 2 = critical-severity findings present.

vulnerability_assessor.py

Purpose: Scan project dependency manifests (package.json, requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, package-lock.json, go.mod) for known CVEs and calculate an overall risk score.

Usage:

python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py <target> [options]

Flags:

Example:

# Assess dependencies, show only critical vulnerabilities
python scripts/vulnerability_assessor.py /path/to/project --severity critical --verbose

Output Formats:

• Human-readable (default): Prints a summary with files scanned, packages scanned, risk score (0-100), risk level (NONE/LOW/MEDIUM/HIGH/CRITICAL), severity counts, and the top 5 vulnerabilities sorted by CVSS score.
• JSON (--json): Full structured report with status, target, files_scanned, packages_scanned, scan_duration_seconds, total_vulnerabilities, risk_score, risk_level, severity_counts, and a vulnerabilities array. Each vulnerability includes cve_id, package, installed_version, fixed_version, severity, cvss_score, description, ecosystem, and recommendation.

Exit Codes: 0 = no critical/high vulnerabilities, 1 = high-severity vulnerabilities present, 2 = critical-severity vulnerabilities present.

compliance_checker.py

Purpose: Verify security compliance against SOC 2 Type II, PCI-DSS v4.0, HIPAA Security Rule, and GDPR by scanning project files for evidence of required controls.

Usage:

python scripts/compliance_checker.py <target> [options]

Flags:

Example:

# Check SOC 2 compliance and export report
python scripts/compliance_checker.py . --framework soc2 --json --output soc2-report.json

Output Formats:

• Human-readable (default): Prints compliance score as a percentage with level (COMPLIANT/PARTIALLY_COMPLIANT/NON_COMPLIANT/CRITICAL_GAPS), a passed/failed/warning/N/A breakdown, and the top 5 failed controls with severity and remediation recommendations.
• JSON (--json): Full structured report with status, target, framework, scan_duration_seconds, compliance_score, compliance_level, summary (passed/failed/warnings/not_applicable/total), and a controls array. Each control includes control_id, framework, category, title, description, status, evidence, recommendation, and severity.

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