Enhancing Application Security with GitLab + HackerOne

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, security can no longer be an afterthought in the development process. Organizations need robust solutions that integrate security throughout the entire software development lifecycle. This is where the partnership between HackerOne and GitLab creates a compelling combination for modern development teams.

HackerOne, the leading crowd-sourced security platform, and GitLab, the complete DevOps platform delivered as a single application, have established a partnership that brings together the best of both worlds: GitLab's streamlined DevOps workflow and HackerOne's powerful vulnerability management capabilities.

In this blog, we will discuss how to enhance developer productivity by implementing the GitLab HackerOne integration, and show how each tool can be leveraged to enhance your security posture.

An Integration that Empowers Developers

The integration is remarkably straightforward yet powerful. When security researchers discover vulnerabilities through HackerOne's platform, these findings are automatically converted into GitLab issues. This creates a seamless workflow where:

Security researchers identify vulnerabilities via HackerOne's platform
Validated vulnerabilities are automatically converted into GitLab issues
Development teams can address these issues directly within their existing workflow
Resolution status is synchronized between both platforms

You can get started leveraging the benefits of both GitLab and HackerOne by using the GitLab Integration to track GitLab issues as references on HackerOne. This integration provides bi-directional and seamless data syncing between your HackerOne report and GitLab issues, improving alignment between development and security teams while streamlining security vulnerability processing.

To configure the GitLab integration to sync information between your HackerOne report and your Gitlab issue, follow the instructions provided in the documentation, which includes:

Setting up an OAuth 2.0 application for your GitLab instance with the provided HackerOne settings
Connecting HackerOne to the newly created OAuth 2.0 on GitLab
Authorizing HackerOne to access the GitLab API
Configuring which GitLab project you would like to escalate HackerOne reports to
Selecting the HackerOne fields to map to corresponding GitLab fields
GitLab to HackerOne and HackerOne to GitLab event configuration

Once the integration is in place, you’ll be able to seamlessly sync data bi-directionally between both GitLab and HackerOne. This helps simplify context-switching and allows vulnerabilities to be tracked with ease throughout both systems. The integration allows for the following features:

Creating a GitLab Issue from HackerOne: You can create new GitLab issues for reports you receive on HackerOne.
Linking HackerOne Reports to Existing GitLab Tasks:
Syncing Updates from HackerOne to GitLab: The following updates on a report are synced as a comment to GitLab.
- Report Comments
- State Changes
- Rewards
- Assignee changes
- Public disclosure
- Close GitLab Issue
Syncing Updates from GitLab to HackerOne: The following updates on GitLab will be reflected in HackerOne as an internal comment on the associated report.
- Comments
- State Changes
HackerOne Severity to GitLab Label Mapping: allows you to set a custom priority when escalating a report to GitLab.
Due Date Mapping: allows you to automatically set a custom due date based on the severity of a report.

GitLab to HackerOne comment activity sync

These features improve alignment between development and security teams and streamlining security vulnerability processing. To learn more on how the integration works, see the documentation.

A look into HackerOne Bug Bounty Programs

HackerOne provides bug bounty programs or cybersecurity initiatives where rewards are offered for discovering and reporting vulnerabilities in customers’ software systems, websites, or applications. Bug bounty programs provide many benefits to enhancing the security of an application such as:

Identify security flaws before malicious actors can exploit them
Leverage diverse expertise from a global community of security researchers
Provide a cost-effective way to enhance cybersecurity
Complement internal security efforts and traditional penetration testing

GitLab utilizes HackerOne’s bug bounty program, allowing security researchers to report vulnerabilities in GitLab applications or infrastructure. This crowdsourced approach helps GitLab identify and address potential security issues more effectively.

HackerOne GitLab Bug Bounty Page

By leveraging HackerOne's platform and the global hacker community, organizations can significantly enhance their security posture, identify vulnerabilities faster, and stay ahead of potential threats.

Securing Applications and Improving Efficiency with the GitLab DevSecOps Platform

GitLab provides a complete DevSecOps platform, which enables functionality for the complete software development lifecycle (SDLC), including security and compliance tools. GitLab supports the following security scanner types:

SAST (Static Application Security Testing)
DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing)
Container Scanning
Dependency Scanning
IaC (Infrastructure as Code) Scanning
Coverage-Guided Fuzzing
Web API Fuzzing

With GitLab you can add security scanning by simply applying a template to your CICD pipeline definition file. For example, enabling SAST just takes a few lines of code in the .gitlab-ci.yml:

This will run SAST on the test stage, and auto-detect the languages used in your application. Then whenever you create a merge request, SAST will detect the vulnerabilities in the diff between the feature branch and the target branch and provide relevant data on each vulnerability to assist with remediation.

NoSQL Injection Vulnerability Seen in MR

The results of the SAST scanner can block code from being merged if security policies are applied. Native GitLab users can be set as approvers, allowing required reviews before merging insecure code. This assures that all vulnerabilities have oversight from the appropriate parties.

Merge Request Approval Policy

HackerOne has integrated GitLab into its operations and development processes in several significant ways, which have led to development process improvements and enhanced scalability and collaboration. These improvements include faster deployments and cross-team planning.

Key Benefits of Using HackerOne and GitLab Together

The key benefits of using HackerOne and GitLab in unison include:

Enhanced Security Visibility: Development teams gain immediate visibility into security vulnerabilities without leaving their primary workflow environment. This real-time awareness helps teams prioritize security issues alongside feature development.
Streamlined Remediation Process: By converting HackerOne reports directly into GitLab issues, the remediation process becomes part of the standard development cycle. This eliminates context switching between platforms and ensures security fixes are tracked alongside other development work.
Accelerated Time to Fix: The integration significantly reduces the time between vulnerability discovery and resolution. With vulnerabilities immediately available in GitLab, development teams can begin working on fixes without delay, improving overall security posture.
Improved Collaboration: Security researchers, security teams, and developers can communicate more effectively through this integration. Comments and updates flow between both platforms, creating a collaborative environment focused on improving security.
Real-World Impact: Organizations implementing the HackerOne and GitLab integration have reported:
- Up to 70% reduction in time from vulnerability discovery to fix
- Improved developer satisfaction by keeping them in their preferred workflow
- Enhanced security visibility across the organization
- More effective allocation of security resources

Learn more

To learn more about GitLab and HackerOne, and how we can help enhance your security posture, check out the following resources: