checking-infrastructure-compliance

# Checking Infrastructure Compliance

## Overview

Audit infrastructure configurations against compliance frameworks (CIS Benchmarks, SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR) using policy-as-code tools like Open Policy Agent (OPA), Checkov, and tfsec. Generate compliance reports, identify violations, and produce remediation plans for Terraform, Kubernetes, and cloud provider configurations.

## Prerequisites

- Policy-as-code tool installed: `checkov`, `tfsec`, `opa`, or `kube-bench`
- Infrastructure-as-code files (Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes manifests) in the project
- Cloud provider CLI authenticated with read access to resources
- Compliance framework requirements documented (CIS, SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS)
- `jq` for parsing JSON policy outputs

## Instructions

1. Identify the applicable compliance framework(s) based on industry and data classification
2. Scan Terraform files with `checkov -d .` or `tfsec .` to detect misconfigurations
3. Scan Kubernetes manifests for security issues: missing resource limits, privileged containers, missing network policies
4. Validate IAM policies for least-privilege violations using cloud-native tools (`aws iam access-analyzer`)
5. Check encryption at rest and in transit: verify S3 bucket encryption, database TLS, and EBS volume encryption
6. Audit logging configurations: confirm CloudTrail/Cloud Audit Logs are enabled and sent to immutable storage
7. Generate a compliance report mapping each finding to the relevant control (e.g., CIS AWS 2.1.1)
8. Produce remediation Terraform/YAML patches for each violation with severity ranking (Critical, High, Medium, Low)
9. Set up CI/CD integration so compliance checks block merges on Critical/High violations

## Output

- Compliance scan results in JSON/SARIF format for CI integration
- Markdown compliance report with control mappings and pass/fail status
- Remediation code patches (Terraform diffs, Kubernetes manifest updates)
- OPA/Rego policy files for custom organizational rules
- CI/CD pipeline step configuration for automated compliance gating

## Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Solution |
|-------|-------|---------|
| `checkov: no Terraform files found` | Scanner run from wrong directory | Specify path explicitly with `-d path/to/terraform/` |
| `tfsec: failed to parse HCL` | Syntax error in Terraform files | Run `terraform validate` first to fix HCL syntax before compliance scan |
| `False positive on compliance check` | Rule too broad for the specific use case | Add inline skip comments (`#checkov:skip=CKV_AWS_18:Reason`) or create a `.checkov.yml` skip list |
| `OPA policy evaluation error` | Rego syntax error or missing input data | Test policies with `opa eval -d policy.rego -i input.json` and validate Rego syntax |
| `Scan timeout on large codebase` | Too many files or complex module references | Use `--compact` mode, scan directories individually, or increase timeout limits |

## Examples

- "Run a CIS Benchmark compliance check against all Terraform files and generate a report with remediation steps for Critical findings."
- "Create OPA policies that enforce: all S3 buckets must have encryption, all EC2 instances must have IMDSv2, and all security groups must not allow 0.0.0.0/0 ingress."
- "Scan Kubernetes manifests for PCI-DSS compliance: verify no privileged containers, all pods have resource limits, and network policies exist for every namespace."

## Resources

- Checkov: https://www.checkov.io/
- tfsec: https://aquasecurity.github.io/tfsec/
- Open Policy Agent: https://www.openpolicyagent.org/docs/latest/
- CIS Benchmarks: https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks
- kube-bench (CIS for Kubernetes): https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench