Development environment and toolchain security policy

Development environment and toolchain security policy

EN-01 — Environment ownership and inventory

[Organisation] maintains an inventory of development endpoints, repositories, build services, artefact stores, test environments, deployment services and supporting tools. Each environment has an owner, purpose, information classification, baseline configuration and support arrangement. The inventory identifies connections to operational systems and external services, including AI services and supplier administration.

The owner records the environment’s trust boundaries and the privileges available to users, service identities and automated jobs. The environment is configured for its assigned purpose and the adopted security requirements. Temporary environments and evaluation tools are included while they hold organisational information or authority. Their temporary status does not remove responsibility for access, records and disposal.

EN-02 — Identity and access

Access is granted through an identified request and authorisation process. The record identifies the person or service, required activity, scope, privilege and review or expiry arrangement. Shared or emergency access, where adopted, has a recorded owner and accountability mechanism. Administrative rights are distinguished from ordinary development activity, and access is reviewed when roles, employment or supplier arrangements change.

Service identities receive the permissions required for their assigned workflow. The owner records how credentials are issued, stored, rotated and revoked. Authentication methods, including any multifactor requirements, follow the organisation’s selected controls and environment risk decision. Access reviews examine actual permissions and use, including inactive identities, tokens, delegated applications and externally granted access.

EN-03 — Secrets and sensitive information

Secrets are held in the approved credential or secret-management facility identified for the environment and are supplied to authorised processes through the recorded mechanism. Source repositories, issue text, build output and copied prompts are checked for unintended disclosure according to the selected controls. A secret exposed outside its authorised boundary is handled as an exposure requiring assessment and, where appropriate, revocation or replacement.

Production information is used in development or testing only under the approved processing purpose and protection arrangements. The owner identifies whether synthetic, minimised or de-identified information can fulfil the need and records the selected approach. De-identification claims are assessed in context; replacing names alone does not demonstrate that re-identification is no longer possible.

EN-04 — Tool approval and configuration

Before a tool receives organisational information or system authority, its owner records the tool, version or service identity, purpose, permissions, data destinations, update behaviour and supplier assessment. Approval states the permitted use and any conditions. The record includes browser extensions, editor extensions, build plugins, package managers and agent connectors where they can access the development environment.

The owner maintains configuration baselines for security-relevant settings and records changes through the configuration procedure. Baselines identify logging, access, network paths, updates, endpoint protection, recovery and data handling appropriate to the environment. Unsupported components and configuration deviations remain visible with their treatment or risk decision. A tool’s popularity or convenience is not used as evidence of its permission scope.

EN-05 — Build and release boundaries

The engineering owner records which identities may change source, change build definitions, obtain release credentials and publish artefacts. Selected separation and review controls are implemented in the repository and delivery services. Where standing automation is authorised, its permitted inputs, outputs and failure handling are documented. Changes to build definitions and signing arrangements are treated as changes to the delivery system.

Build records identify source revision, dependency inputs, build definition, environment or runner identity and resulting artefact. The owner protects release integrity information and the facilities used to create it. Untrusted contributions and external content are handled according to the environment’s authority boundary; running supplied scripts or build instructions is an execution decision, not merely a document review.

EN-06 — Monitoring and recovery

The environment owner records relevant security and operational events, including access changes, privileged actions, build-definition changes, artefact publication and significant configuration changes. The monitoring plan identifies which events are reviewed, who receives alerts and what response is expected. Logs avoid unnecessary secret or personal-information content and are protected against unauthorised modification.

Recovery arrangements cover source and configuration records, artefact stores, credentials, required tool versions and supporting services. The owner tests recovery according to the schedule and records the result. Loss of a developer endpoint, compromised build runner or unavailable identity service is assessed for its effect on delivery and existing released artefacts. Restoration does not assume that the most recent state is trustworthy.

EN-07 — Environment review and disposal

At [schedule] and after material changes, the owner reviews inventory completeness, access, configuration, support status and supplier connections. The review verifies the environment actually in use, rather than relying only on an intended baseline. Findings are recorded with owners and dates. Tool or environment retirement removes access, tokens, retained information and unused integration paths according to the disposition plan.

Environment record: [EN ID; purpose; owner; system relationships]
Boundary and information: [Components; connections; data; locations]
Access: [Authorisation route; identities; privileges; review]
Baseline: [Version; configuration location; approved deviations]
Tooling and supply chain: [Tools; versions; permissions; supplier records]
Build/release authority: [Workflow; identities; approvals; evidence]
Monitoring and recovery: [Events; recipient; retention; restore evidence]
Review/retirement: [Schedule; triggers; disposal owner; closure evidence]