senior-secops · diff

v1.0.0 to v1.0.0

3 added, 5 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: senior-secops

description: >

- Comprehensive SecOps skill for application security, vulnerability management,

- compliance, and secure development practices. Includes security scanning,

- vulnerability assessment, compliance checking, and security automation. Use

- when implementing security controls, conducting security audits, responding to

- vulnerabilities, or ensuring compliance requirements.

+ SecOps for application security, vulnerability management, compliance, and secure

+ development. Use when implementing security controls, conducting security audits, responding

+ to vulnerabilities, or meeting compliance requirements.

license: MIT + Commons Clause

metadata:

version: 1.0.0

author: borghei

category: engineering

domain: security-operations

updated: 2026-03-31

tags:

- security-operations

- vulnerability-management

- incident-response

- siem

---

# Senior SecOps Engineer

The agent scans source code for security vulnerabilities (hardcoded secrets, SQL injection, XSS, command injection), assesses dependency CVEs across npm/Python/Go ecosystems, and verifies compliance against SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR frameworks.

---

## Core Capabilities

### 1. Security Scanner

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

```bash

# 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.

```bash

# 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.

```bash

# 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.

```bash

# 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.

```yaml

# .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

| 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)

---

## Security Standards

### OWASP Top 10 Prevention

| Vulnerability | Prevention |

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

| **A01: Broken Access Control** | Implement RBAC, deny by default, validate permissions server-side |

| **A02: Cryptographic Failures** | Use TLS 1.2+, AES-256 encryption, secure key management |

| **A03: Injection** | Parameterized queries, input validation, escape output |

| **A04: Insecure Design** | Threat modeling, secure design patterns, defense in depth |

| **A05: Security Misconfiguration** | Hardening guides, remove defaults, disable unused features |

| **A06: Vulnerable Components** | Dependency scanning, automated updates, SBOM |

| **A07: Authentication Failures** | MFA, rate limiting, secure password storage |

| **A08: Data Integrity Failures** | Code signing, integrity checks, secure CI/CD |

| **A09: Security Logging Failures** | Comprehensive audit logs, SIEM integration, alerting |

| **A10: SSRF** | URL validation, allowlist destinations, network segmentation |

### Secure Coding Checklist

```markdown

## 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

| Control | Category | Description |

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

| CC1 | Control Environment | Security policies, org structure |

| CC2 | Communication | Security awareness, documentation |

| CC3 | Risk Assessment | Vulnerability scanning, threat modeling |

| CC6 | Logical Access | Authentication, authorization, MFA |

| CC7 | System Operations | Monitoring, logging, incident response |

| CC8 | Change Management | CI/CD, code review, deployment controls |

### PCI-DSS v4.0 Requirements

| Requirement | Description |

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

| Req 3 | Protect stored cardholder data (encryption at rest) |

| Req 4 | Encrypt transmission (TLS 1.2+) |

| Req 6 | Secure development (input validation, secure coding) |

| Req 8 | Strong authentication (MFA, password policy) |

| Req 10 | Audit logging (all access to cardholder data) |

| Req 11 | Security testing (SAST, DAST, penetration testing) |

### HIPAA Security Rule

| Safeguard | Requirement |

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

| 164.312(a)(1) | Unique user identification for PHI access |

| 164.312(b) | Audit trails for PHI access |

| 164.312(c)(1) | Data integrity controls |

| 164.312(d) | Person/entity authentication (MFA) |

| 164.312(e)(1) | Transmission encryption (TLS) |

### GDPR Requirements

| Article | Requirement |

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

| Art 25 | Privacy by design, data minimization |

| Art 32 | Security measures, encryption, pseudonymization |

| Art 33 | Breach notification (72 hours) |

| Art 17 | Right to erasure (data deletion) |

| Art 20 | Data portability (export capability) |

---

## Best Practices

### Secrets Management

```python

# 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

```python

# 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

```javascript

// 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

```javascript

// 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

```javascript

// 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

| Document | Description |

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

| `references/security_standards.md` | OWASP Top 10, secure coding, authentication, API security |

| `references/vulnerability_management_guide.md` | CVE triage, CVSS scoring, remediation workflows |

| `references/compliance_requirements.md` | SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, GDPR requirements |

---

## 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)

---

## Anti-Patterns

- **Relying solely on automated scanning** -- SAST tools miss business logic flaws and authorization issues; combine with manual code review for auth-sensitive code

- **Ignoring medium-severity findings** -- exit code 0 on medium findings does not mean safe; parse JSON output for comprehensive CI gating

- **Hardcoding secrets in test fixtures** -- test files with example tokens trigger false positives; use environment variables or mock values even in tests

- **Compliance score as a goal** -- a 90% compliance score with failed encryption controls is worse than 80% with all critical controls passing; prioritize by severity

- **One-time security audits** -- running the scanner once per quarter misses regressions; integrate into every PR via CI/CD

- **Treating warnings as passed** -- compliance checker scores warnings at 0.5 (partial credit); any control below `passed` needs remediation

---

## Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause | Solution |

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

| Security scanner reports zero findings on a known-vulnerable project | Test and spec files are excluded by the false-positive filter | Rename the file to remove `test`/`spec` from the path, or review the `_is_false_positive` method |

| Vulnerability assessor misses a CVE for a listed dependency | The package or CVE is not in the built-in `KNOWN_CVES` database | Supplement with an external feed (Snyk, OSV, `npm audit`) and use the assessor for triage prioritization |

| Compliance checker shows `CRITICAL_GAPS` despite controls being present | Pattern-based file search did not match the specific naming convention used in your codebase | Run with `--verbose` to see which checks fail, then verify the matching code patterns or filenames |

| `--json` output is printed to stdout even when `--output` is specified | Both flags are set correctly; this is expected behavior (summary prints to stderr-style console, JSON to file) | Redirect stdout if you need a clean pipe: `python script.py . --json --output report.json > /dev/null` |

| Exit code is 0 despite medium-severity findings | Exit codes only trigger on critical (exit 2) or high (exit 1) severity findings | Use `--severity medium` to surface medium findings in the report, and parse the JSON output for CI/CD gating |

| Scanner is slow on large monorepos | All files matching `SCAN_EXTENSIONS` are read in full | Narrow the target to a subdirectory, or exclude heavy vendor directories by placing them in `SKIP_DIRS` |

| Compliance score appears inflated because many controls show `warning` | Warnings score 0.5 (partial credit) in the weighted calculation | Treat any control below `passed` as requiring remediation; filter the JSON output for `status != "passed"` |

---

## 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

| Skill | Integration | Data Flow |

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

| `senior-devops` | Infrastructure hardening and CI/CD pipeline configuration | Security scan results feed into deployment gates; DevOps provides container and IaC scanning |

| `senior-backend` | Secure coding patterns and input validation in server-side code | SecOps scanner findings drive backend remediation; backend applies parameterized queries and output encoding |

| `senior-qa` | Security test cases and regression verification after patches | Vulnerability reports generate QA test cases; QA confirms fixes do not introduce regressions |

| `senior-architect` | Threat modeling, defense-in-depth design, and zero-trust architecture | Compliance gaps inform architecture decisions; architect provides security design patterns |

| `code-reviewer` | Security-focused code review and pre-merge analysis | Scanner findings prioritize review focus areas; reviewer enforces secure coding standards |

| `senior-fullstack` | End-to-end security across frontend and API layers (XSS, CSRF, auth) | SecOps identifies frontend and API vulnerabilities; fullstack applies framework-level mitigations |

---

## 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:**

```bash

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

```

**Flags:**

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

**Example:**

```bash

# 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:**

```bash

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

```

**Flags:**

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

**Example:**

```bash

# 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:**

```bash

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

```

**Flags:**

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

**Example:**

```bash

# 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).