Enhancing Security and Compliance During GitLab Migration

Apr 28

5 min read

enhancing security during gitlab migration

Alright, so you’re migrating to GitLab—congratulations! It’s a great move. But hold up. Before you get too caught up in the new features and integrations, there’s something that’s easy to overlook: security and compliance.

As engineers, we’re great at setting up automation and CI/CD pipelines, but when it comes to security, it’s easy to assume it’s something that can be added in later. The truth? Security and compliance are NOT afterthoughts. Get them wrong during migration, and you could face bigger headaches down the road—think data leaks, compliance failures, and potential fines.

So, let’s get into the nitty-gritty. We’ll break down how to handle security and compliance during your GitLab migration, step-by-step, and make sure your transition is as smooth—and secure—as possible.

1. Lay the Groundwork: Pre-Migration Security and Compliance Prep

You’ve heard the saying: Failing to plan is planning to fail. The same applies here—don’t just dive into the migration without a plan for security. Trust us, it’s worth putting in the effort upfront.

Audit Your Existing Environment

Before you touch anything in GitLab, take stock of what you have:

Who’s accessing what? Do a deep dive into your current users, groups, and permissions. It’s time to clean up any unnecessary access.
What’s sensitive? Identify repositories or variables that contain sensitive information (like API keys, passwords, etc.).
What’s redundant? Is there any stale code or old projects that no longer need to be migrated? This is a good time to cut the fat.

Map Out Compliance Requirements

Different projects have different needs when it comes to compliance. You need to get clear on:

Which compliance frameworks apply to each project—whether it’s GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, or something else.
What security controls you need to implement to stay within those frameworks. We’ll cover these in more detail later, but now’s the time to document them.

2. GitLab’s Security Features: The Heart of Your Migration Strategy

GitLab offers a ton of built-in security features that can help lock things down during your migration. But, if you skip over them, you’re basically leaving a front door open.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) – Restricting Permissions Where It Counts

Before you start migrating code, take control of access:

Group permissions: GitLab allows you to set up groups and subgroups. Organize your projects and users in a way that aligns with your security model.
Permission levels: Limit admin access. You don’t need more users with elevated permissions than you absolutely have to.
Audit and review: Constantly review access levels and adjust permissions based on the role and responsibilities of the user.

Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – Locking Down the Gate

If you’re not using SSO and MFA, what are you even doing? These are the minimum standards for any security-conscious team:

SSO: Integrate with your enterprise identity provider to streamline authentication and avoid unnecessary credential sprawl.
MFA: It’s a simple yet powerful way to add a layer of protection, especially for those sensitive areas of your GitLab instance.

Secrets Management – Stop Storing Credentials in Code

This one’s a biggie. If you’re still storing AWS keys, API tokens, or passwords in your .gitlab-ci.yml, stop. GitLab provides a Secrets Store where you can safely manage your sensitive information and inject it into pipelines at runtime.

This is also a good time to rotate secrets as part of your migration process. Don’t bring over any old keys that have been sitting there for months or even years.

3. Compliance Setup: Make GitLab Work for You

We get it—compliance feels like an administrative nightmare. But, if you know how to use GitLab’s features effectively, it doesn’t have to be.

Mapping Your Projects to Compliance Frameworks

GitLab allows you to tag projects with specific compliance requirements. Whether it’s SOC 2, PCI-DSS, or HIPAA, you can map the project’s requirements directly within GitLab’s settings. This is huge because it means GitLab will automatically apply your compliance rules to the right pipelines.

Automated Code Reviews and Quality Checks

Compliance doesn’t just live in the documentation—it lives in your code too. With GitLab, you can:

Set up mandatory code quality checks: Ensure every commit follows the best practices for security and compliance (think static analysis, dependency checking, etc.).
Automate vulnerability scanning: GitLab can automatically run security scans on your code to find vulnerabilities and stop them before they hit production.

Merge Request Approvals: A Gatekeeper for Security

When a developer submits a merge request (MR), don’t just let anyone approve it. Set up approval rules that require:

As of April 2025, GitLab expanded its out-of-the-box compliance controls from 5 to over 50, allowing organizations to map specific requirements from various compliance standards directly within GitLab.

4. The Post-Migration Checklist: Securing and Maintaining Compliance

Alright, migration is complete. But the job doesn’t stop there. You need to maintain security and compliance consistently after the migration is done. This is where most teams slip up.

Automate Security Scanning

GitLab’s built-in security scanning tools (like SAST, DAST, and Dependency Scanning) should be an integral part of your CI/CD pipeline. Ensure these tools are enabled and routinely triggered during your builds. That way, you don’t need to worry about manual security checks—GitLab will do it for you automatically.

Audit Logs and Monitoring: Track Everything

Security without visibility is like driving with your eyes closed. Use GitLab’s Audit Logs to keep track of everything happening in your environment:

Who is accessing what?
What’s being merged?
Who approved changes?

You can integrate GitLab’s logs with your SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools, like Splunk or Datadog, to keep an eye on suspicious activity in real-time.

Review Access Periodically

Just because someone had access to a repo yesterday doesn’t mean they need it today. Do quarterly reviews of your user access and permissions. This way, you ensure that only the right people have access to your sensitive projects.

Rotate Secrets Regularly

Remember those secrets we talked about earlier? Don’t just set them and forget them. Regularly rotate your credentials to minimize the risk of leaks. GitLab can integrate with your secret management tools (like HashiCorp Vault) to automatically rotate keys and passwords.

5. Bonus: Work with a GitLab Professional Services Partner

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this, it’s okay. You don’t have to go it alone. VivaOps is a professional services partner for GitLab, and we specialize in helping teams like yours with security, compliance, and smooth migrations. We’ve got your back if you need guidance or hands-on help to set everything up the right way.

Wrapping It Up

Migrating to GitLab is a big step, but with the right security and compliance practices, it doesn’t have to be a headache. By taking the time to plan, set up the proper controls, and automate your security processes, you’ll unlock a smoother, safer delivery pipeline your entire team can trust.

So, take a deep breath, follow these steps, and get your GitLab migration rolling with confidence. Security and compliance don’t have to be afterthoughts—they can be baked into the migration process, and it’ll pay off big time.

Ignore it? Well... enjoy explaining that accidental S3 leak in the next board meeting.