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Enforce policies with Harness GitLab CI/CD

Use SCS GitLab CI/CD to implement SBOM Verification and Policy Enforcement.

Modern software supply chains often rely on security policies to determine whether an artifact is safe to promote or deploy. Without automated policy enforcement, security and compliance checks can be inconsistent, allowing artifacts that violate organizational policies to progress through the software delivery lifecycle.

Harness Supply Chain Security (SCS) integrates with GitLab CI/CD to automate SBOM policy enforcement as part of your GitLab workflow. It enables you to verify SBOM attestations and evaluate software artifacts against policy sets defined in SCS during pipeline execution. Based on the evaluation results, the pipeline can help prevent artifacts that do not meet your organization's security and compliance requirements from progressing through the software delivery lifecycle.

What will you learn in this topic?

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

  • Set up Harness GitLab CI/CD integration from your SCS project.

  • Configure SBOM policy enforcement in your GitLab workflow using the SBOM Policy Enforcement component.

  • Configure optional SBOM attestation verification using keyless, key-based, or Secret Manager verification methods.

  • Enforce SBOM policies against software artifacts before promotion or deployment.

Before you begin

Make a note of the following before you proceed with enforcing SBOM policies using GitLab CI/CD:

  • Understand how to create Harness API keys using Personal API Keys or Service Account API Keys. Go to Manage API Keys and Service Account API Keys to create either key type.

  • If you are using key-based or Secret Manager signing or verification, create or configure a Cosign key pair before configuring the pipeline. Go to Quickstart Signing and Verifying with Cosign to understand how to generate a local key pair or create one using a supported KMS provider. The key should be generated using Cosign of type ecdsa-P256. You do not need to install Cosign on your GitLab runner. The harness/ssca-plugin container image used by the Harness GitLab CI/CD components includes Cosign, so no additional installation is required.

  • If you plan to use Secret Manager attestation, store your verification key in a supported secret manager. Currently, Harness supports HashiCorp Vault. For GitLab CI/CD, you point the component at the key through pipeline variables such as KMS_KEY (and VAULT_ADDR when the key is stored in HashiCorp Vault), so you do not need to configure a Harness Secret Manager connector. Go to Add a HashiCorp Vault secret manager to configure HashiCorp Vault.

  • Ensure that your GitLab runners support Docker-in-Docker (DinD). The component runs using the docker:24-dind service. Go to Use Docker-in-Docker to configure DinD support.

  • Ensure that you create an Open Policy Agent (OPA) SBOM policy set in SCS before configuring the SBOM Policy Enforcement component. Go to Create SBOM Policies to create a policy set.

Understand SBOM policy enforcement with Harness GitLab CI/CD

Harness SCS integrates with GitLab CI/CD through reusable GitLab CI/CD components. These components enable you to automate software supply chain security tasks in your GitLab pipelines, helping you build, verify, and govern software artifacts without adding custom implementation to your CI/CD workflow.

The SBOM Policy Enforcement component verifies the SBOM attestation associated with a container image or local artifact and evaluates the uploaded SBOM against the specified policy set configured in Harness SCS. During pipeline execution, the component validates the SBOM attestation using the configured verification method and then evaluates the artifact against the configured OPA policy set. Based on the policy evaluation results, the pipeline either continues or blocks the artifact from progressing to subsequent stages.

Why use it?

When to use it?

How can you leverage it?

Enforce security and compliance policies against software artifacts before release.

When you want to validate SBOM attestations and ensure artifacts comply with organizational policies before promotion or deployment.

Use policy evaluation results to prevent non-compliant artifacts from progressing through your software delivery lifecycle.

Set up Harness GitLab CI/CD

Before configuring SBOM policy enforcement in your GitLab pipeline, set up Harness GitLab CI/CD from your SCS project. The setup guides you through creating or selecting a Harness API key and generates a project-specific YAML configuration with your Harness account ID, organization ID, project ID, and account URL already populated. You can copy this configuration into your GitLab workflow and update the remaining inputs as needed.

Complete the following steps to set up Harness GitLab CI/CD:

  1. Navigate to the Integrations page under the Manage section from the sidebar navigation of your SCS account.

  2. Click the Add Integration button to go to the Configure Integration page. Alternatively, you can access this page by clicking Get Started > Get Started from the sidebar navigation of your SCS account.

  3. Scroll down to the GitLab collapsible and click it to expand.

  4. Click the Configure button under Configure GitLab CI/CD in your pipeline to generate SBOM and SLSA, and sign artifacts to open the Configure Integration page, where the Artifact Security feature cards are displayed.

  5. Click the Verify SBOM card to open the SBOM Verification sidepanel.

  6. Click the Go to Key Generation button to create the Harness API key required to configure Harness GitLab CI/CD.

    • Select Using Service Account from the dropdown to create the API key using a service account. Go to Service Account API Keys to create the key.

    • Select Using Personal Account from the dropdown to create a personal API key. Personal API keys are created at the account level and inherit the permissions assigned to your user account. Go to Manage API Keys to create a personal API key.

  7. Click Copy in the upper-right corner of the code block to copy the generated GitLab CI/CD configuration, and then paste it into your GitLab workflow file.

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Configure SBOM policy enforcement in GitLab CI/CD

After setting up Harness GitLab CI/CD, configure the SBOM Policy Enforcement component in your GitLab workflow file. Add the required GitLab CI/CD variables to your GitLab project, configure the component inputs, configure the attestation verification settings if required, and run the pipeline. During pipeline execution, the component evaluates the specified artifact against the configured policy set and enforces the policy results. For the authoritative list of component inputs and defaults, see the CI/CD Catalog at SCS GitLab Plugins.

If you are using GitLab Self-Managed, mirror the required Harness GitLab CI/CD components to your GitLab instance before configuring your pipeline. After mirroring the components, update the component reference in your workflow file to use the mirrored component. Go to Use a GitLab.com component on GitLab Self-Managed to mirror the components.

Complete the following steps to configure SBOM policy enforcement:

  1. Add the required GitLab CI/CD variables

  2. Include the SBOM Policy Enforcement component

  3. Configure SBOM verification in the workflow

  4. Review the workflow

  5. Run the pipeline

Step 1: Add the required GitLab CI/CD variables

Before configuring the SBOM Policy Enforcement component, add the following variables to your GitLab project. Go to Define a CI/CD Variable for a project to add project variables.

Variable
Description
Required
Example
Masked?

HARNESS_API_KEY

Harness Personal API Key or Service Account API Key used to authenticate with Harness.

Yes

pat.xxxxxxxxx

Yes

HARNESS_ACCOUNT_ID

Harness account identifier.

Yes

AbCdEf123456

No

HARNESS_ORG_ID

Harness organization identifier.

Yes

SCS_Org

No

HARNESS_PROJECT_ID

Harness project identifier.

Yes

SCS

No

HARNESS_ACCOUNT_URL

Harness account URL.

Yes

https://example.harness.io

No

Masked GitLab CI/CD variables cannot be passed through component inputs. For this reason, the Harness scope variables (HARNESS_ACCOUNT_ID, HARNESS_ORG_ID, HARNESS_PROJECT_ID, and HARNESS_ACCOUNT_URL) must remain unmasked so that they can be wired through the component inputs. HARNESS_API_KEY remains masked and is consumed directly from the job environment, not passed as a component input. These values are included in the generated YAML provided during the Set up Harness GitLab CI/CD workflow.

Step 2: Include the SBOM Policy Enforcement component

Add an scs stage to your GitLab workflow file, or set the stage input on the component to an existing stage. Then, include the Harness SBOM Policy Enforcement component in your GitLab workflow file.

The following code snippet demonstrates how to add the scs stage and include the SBOM Policy Enforcement component in your GitLab workflow file. The snippet includes the minimum required component inputs because the component requires the Harness scope variables and the target artifact to run.

Configure the component using the GitLab CI/CD variables created in the previous step and the following component inputs.

Input

Description

Required

Default

Example

HARNESS_ACCOUNT_ID

Harness account ID. Pass a non-masked CI/CD variable reference.

Yes

N/A

$HARNESS_ACCOUNT_ID

HARNESS_ORG_ID

Harness organization ID. Pass a non-masked CI/CD variable reference.

Yes

N/A

$HARNESS_ORG_ID

HARNESS_PROJECT_ID

Harness project ID. Pass a non-masked CI/CD variable reference.

Yes

N/A

$HARNESS_PROJECT_ID

HARNESS_ACCOUNT_URL

Harness base URL with scheme. Pass a non-masked CI/CD variable reference.

Yes

N/A

$HARNESS_ACCOUNT_URL

TARGET

Container image reference when SOURCE is container, or artifact file path when SOURCE is local.

Yes

N/A

$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA

POLICY_SET_REF

Reference to the OPA policy set used for allow/deny enforcement.

Yes

N/A

account.my_policy_set

VERIFY

Verifies the SBOM attestation before policy evaluation.

No

false

true

SOURCE

Artifact source. Supported values are container and local.

No

container

local

ARTIFACT_NAME

Display name for a local artifact. Applicable when SOURCE=local.

No

File name from TARGET

payment-service

ARTIFACT_VERSION

Artifact version. Applicable when SOURCE=local.

No

N/A

$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA

stage

GitLab pipeline stage in which the component runs.

No

scs

security

job-name

Name of the GitLab job created by the component.

No

scs-sbom-policy-enforcement

enforce-sbom-policy

By default, the component enforces SBOM policies for a container image. To enforce SBOM policies for a local artifact, set SOURCE to local. When using a local artifact, specify the artifact path in TARGET and provide an ARTIFACT_VERSION.

To verify the SBOM attestation before policy evaluation, configure the verification inputs (VERIFY_WITH, OIDC_PROVIDER, FULCIO_URL, KMS_KEY, and VAULT_ADDR) as described in Step 3: Configure SBOM verification.

Override the generated job

Standard GitLab job keywords, such as needs, before_script, script, after_script, allow_failure, and tags, are not component inputs. To set them, redeclare the generated job (default name scs-sbom-policy-enforcement, or the value of job-name) in your workflow file. GitLab merges your keys into the generated job.

If you are enforcing policies for an image in a private registry that is not the GitLab container registry, provide the registry credentials as masked GitLab CI/CD variables so that the component can access the image.

Step 3: Configure SBOM verification

Harness supports the following verification methods:

  • Keyless verification – Uses OpenID Connect (OIDC) identities to verify the signed SBOM without managing long-lived signing keys.

  • Key-based verification – Uses a cryptographic key managed through your organization's key management solution.

  • Secret Manager – Uses verification keys stored in a supported secret manager.

  • By default, the component runs OPA policy evaluation only and does not verify the SBOM attestation (VERIFY defaults to false). In this mode, the inputs do not require VERIFY_WITH or KMS_KEY.

  • To verify the SBOM attestation before policy evaluation, set VERIFY: true. VERIFY_WITH then selects the verification method; it defaults to secret-manager, which requires KMS_KEY (and VAULT_ADDR when KMS_KEY is a Vault URI).

Configure the appropriate verification inputs based on the verification method you want to use.

If you enable SBOM verification, you can configure keyless verification to verify the signed SBOM using an OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity. For GitLab CI/CD, set OIDC_PROVIDER to non-harness. The harness OIDC provider is not supported as of now. Keyless verification requires GitLab 15.7 or later, because it depends on GitLab id_tokens. Configure the following inputs.

Input
Description
Required

VERIFY_WITH

Specifies the verification method. Set the value to keyless.

Yes

OIDC_PROVIDER

OIDC provider used to obtain the verification identity. For GitLab CI/CD, set the value to non-harness.

Yes

FULCIO_URL

Fulcio certificate authority endpoint. Used when OIDC_PROVIDER is non-harness. Defaults to https://fulcio.sigstore.dev.

No

Provide the OIDC token to the generated job using id_tokens. The component reads the token from PLUGIN_NON_HARNESS_OIDC_TOKEN.

To verify the signed SBOM using a cryptographic key, set VERIFY_WITH to keybased and provide the Cosign key material as masked GitLab CI/CD variables on the job. KMS_KEY is not used for key-based verification. It applies only to Secret Manager verification.

Input
Description
Required

VERIFY_WITH

Specifies the verification method. Set the value to keybased.

Yes

Provide the following masked GitLab CI/CD variable on the job:

Variable
Description
Required

SSCA_VERIFICATION_COSIGN_PUBLIC_KEY

Cosign public key used to verify the SBOM attestation.

Yes

To use a verification key stored in a supported secret manager, configure the following inputs.

Input
Description
Required

VERIFY_WITH

Specifies the verification method. Set the value to secret-manager.

Yes

KMS_KEY

KMS or Vault key URI for the verification key stored in the secret manager.

Yes

VAULT_ADDR

HashiCorp Vault address. Required when KMS_KEY uses a Vault URI.

Conditional

Step 4: Review the workflow

After configuring the required GitLab CI/CD variables and component inputs, your GitLab workflow file should resemble the following example. This example verifies the SBOM attestation for a container image and evaluates it against the specified policy set in Harness SCS. The policy evaluation results determine whether the artifact complies with your organization's security and compliance requirements before it proceeds through the pipeline. The Harness scope variables are wired through inputs, HARNESS_API_KEY remains a masked GitLab CI/CD variable, and the Vault variables (KMS_KEY and VAULT_ADDR) are provided because attestation verification is enabled.

To run policy evaluation without verifying the SBOM attestation, set VERIFY: false and omit the verification inputs:

Step 5: Run the pipeline

Commit and push your changes to trigger the GitLab pipeline. During pipeline execution, the SBOM Policy Enforcement component verifies the SBOM attestation, if verification is enabled, and evaluates the specified artifact against the configured policy set. Based on the policy evaluation results, the pipeline determines whether the artifact complies with your organization's security and compliance requirements before proceeding to subsequent stages. Go to Tutorial: Create and run your first GitLab CI/CD pipeline to run a GitLab pipeline..

After the pipeline completes, open the job execution logs and click the Harness Artifact Details link to view the generated artifact in SCS. Go to View the status of your pipeline and jobs to check job status and pipeline details.

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The Artifact Details page displays the SBOM policy evaluation results for the artifact. The policy evaluation is also recorded in the Chain of Custody, providing an immutable audit trail of the artifact lifecycle and the associated GitLab CI/CD pipeline execution. Go to Artifact Overview to navigate through artifacts.

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Example SBOM policy enforcement workflow

Example SBOM policy enforcement workflow for a container image

The following example demonstrates how to configure the SBOM Policy Enforcement component in a GitLab workflow to verify the SBOM attestation for a container image and evaluate it against a policy set configured in Harness Software Supply Chain Security (SCS). The example uses a verification key stored in HashiCorp Vault to verify the SBOM attestation before evaluating the artifact against the specified policy set.

Example SBOM policy enforcement workflow for a local artifact

The following example enforces policies for a local artifact. It builds the artifact in an earlier job, passes it forward with artifacts, and uses needs so the enforcement job runs after the artifact is available. When SOURCE is local, TARGET is the artifact file path and ARTIFACT_VERSION is required.

Next steps

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