Microservices Security: Bad vs. Good Practices

Francisco Ponce, Jacopo Soldani, Hernán Astudillo, Antonio Brogi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The microservice architectural style is widespread in enterprise IT, making the securing of microservices a crucial issue. Many bad practices in securing microservices have been identified by researchers and practitioners, along with security good practices that, if adopted, allow to avoid the corresponding security issues. However, this knowledge is scattered across multiple pieces of white and grey literature, making its consulting complex and time consuming. We present here the results of a multivocal literature review that analyzes 44 primary studies discussing bad and good practices for microservice security. We were able to identify four bad and six good practices, and to associate each bad practice with specific bad smell(s) that signal it and with good practice(s) that avoid incurring in it. The resulting mapping between bad and good practices for microservice security can help practitioners and researchers to explore the systematic securing of microservice-based applications.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSoftware Architecture - ECSA 2022 Tracks and Workshops, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsThais Batista, Claudia Raibulet, Tomas Bures, Henry Muccini
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages337-352
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9783031368882
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Externally publishedYes
Event16th European Conference on Software Architecture, ECSA 2022 - Prague, Czech Republic
Duration: 19 Sept 202223 Sept 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13928 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference16th European Conference on Software Architecture, ECSA 2022
Country/TerritoryCzech Republic
CityPrague
Period19/09/2223/09/22

Keywords

  • bad practices
  • good practices
  • microservices
  • security

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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