Streamlined DevSecOps: Automated Vulnerability Exception Management for Secure Cloud Deployments

DevSecOps (Development, Security and Operations) is a critical methodology to integrate the best security practices, maintain the integrity and compliance of modern cloud-native applications. Administering and controlling the vulnerabilities for containerized applications particularly in cloud environments poses numerous challenges. These challenges include management of exceptions for the known vulnerabilities, unauthorized exception approvals, inefficient manual processes and a lack of auditability. Poorly managed vulnerability exceptions can expose applications to major security breaches and operational inefficiencies, which in turn could lead to reputational damage. In today's world, where cloud-native technologies with containerized workloads are being widely adopted, it is critical to effectively manage the vulnerabilities in containers to safeguard the application from security breaches. This paper proposes a scalable and automated DevSecOps framework to streamline vulnerability exception management, specifically targeting Docker images stored in Google Cloud's Artifact Registry. This framework helps create and maintain dynamic exception policies, automated CI/CD workflows and provides advanced auditing capabilities to enhance security without disrupting the delivery pipeline while minimizing operational overhead.