By Omair Dawood, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Contrast Security
April 10, 2023
Apache Kafka is one of the most popular platforms for real-time data processing and efficient communication between distributed systems. According to enlyft, there are approximately 50,192 companies that use Apache, and the number has grown rapidly.
Apache Kafka was originally developed by LinkedIn and was built for website activity tracking, capturing all the clicks, actions or inputs on a website. By early 2011, it was made open-source. The main reason for its adoption was its high-throughput and low-latency messaging capabilities.
Kafka transformed the way organizations build and manage their application environments. As the utilization of Kafka increases, so does the need for securing these environments.
Kafka is being widely adopted by companies in numerous industries, including technology, financial services, e-commerce, telecommunications, healthcare, automotive and energy sectors. Major technology companies like LinkedIn, Netflix and Twitter use Kafka for purposes such as log aggregation, stream processing and real-time analytics. Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase rely on Kafka for processing high volumes of financial transactions and real-time risk analysis.
Apache Kafka plays a vital role in supporting companies that are modernizing their application environments, as it provides a highly scalable, reliable and efficient messaging platform for real-time data streaming.
There are many Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that are prevalent in Kafka. The nature of the language and how the message queues (MQs) work mean that the MQs hold gaps to allow for specific vulnerabilities. Because of their nature, these MQs will always be prone to exploits, making it crucial to secure Kafka environments. Not only do CVEs expose sensitive data; it is also necessary to ensure the reliability and integrity of data exchanged between various system components. Some CVEs and security concerns associated with Kafka include unauthorized access, SQL injections, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and header injections.
Contrast Assess is an Application Security (AppSec) solution that can help secure modern application environments that use Kafka. By using Contrast Assess, companies can proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities in their applications and Kafka configurations.
Our agent MQ messages as entry points, will follow data flow and will check for vulnerabilities in the exercised pathways (routes). You can customize trust boundaries in our Contrast user interface (UI). In addition, Contrast analyzes all the libraries and dependencies the web application uses to provide accurate results of vulnerabilities.
Here are a few ways Contrast Assess can be beneficial:
Find and fix real-time vulnerabilities with Contrast Assess. Get in touch to book a demo or get our free trial today.
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