<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Balachander T J's Blog]]></title><description><![CDATA[👋 Welcome to My Tech Blog!]]></description><link>https://balachandertj.hashnode.dev</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2026 21:13:15 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://balachandertj.hashnode.dev/rss.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><ttl>60</ttl><item><title><![CDATA[PHP2Shell: Are DevOps and DevSecOps Ready for the AI-Driven Security Era?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Discover how PHP2Shell and AI-driven vulnerability research are reshaping DevOps, DevSecOps, production security, and the future of secure automation.]]></description><link>https://balachandertj.hashnode.dev/php2shell-are-devops-and-devsecops-ready-for-the-ai-driven-security-era</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://balachandertj.hashnode.dev/php2shell-are-devops-and-devsecops-ready-for-the-ai-driven-security-era</guid><category><![CDATA[Devops]]></category><category><![CDATA[DevSecOps]]></category><category><![CDATA[cybersecurity]]></category><category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category><category><![CDATA[cloud security]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Balachander T J]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 25 Oct 2026 07:41:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/66dc6ffafccd94ea06cb6539/53d201a2-4771-4c43-91e5-85d93117bf1f.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The recent <strong>PHP2Shell vulnerability disclosure</strong> caught my attention, not just because of its severity, but because of what it signals for the future of cybersecurity.</p>
<p>On October 21, 2026, two critical PHP vulnerabilities, <strong>CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619</strong>, were disclosed, both carrying a CVSS 4.0 score of 9.2.</p>
<p>What's particularly interesting is how AI-assisted security research helped uncover and investigate weaknesses that had existed for years.</p>
<p>It raises an important question:</p>
<p><strong>If AI can help discover complex vulnerabilities faster, are our security operations ready to respond at the same pace?</strong></p>
<h2>🚨 The Real DevOps Challenge</h2>
<p>We've made remarkable progress in CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, cloud automation, and observability.</p>
<p>We can deploy applications in minutes and monitor infrastructure in real time.</p>
<p>Yet when a critical CVE is announced, many teams still struggle with fundamental questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>🔍 Which production workloads are affected?</li>
<li>📦 Are vulnerable dependencies hidden inside container images or legacy applications?</li>
<li>🛠️ Can we identify, patch, and validate affected systems without disrupting production?</li>
</ul>
<p>A healthy application doesn't necessarily mean a secure application.</p>
<p><strong>A green pipeline tells us the deployment succeeded. It doesn't guarantee the software is still secure.</strong></p>
<p>This is where DevSecOps needs to evolve beyond build-time scanning toward continuous runtime visibility and vulnerability management.</p>
<h2>🤖 AI Is Changing the Security Landscape</h2>
<p>AI-assisted research is accelerating vulnerability discovery, code analysis, and security investigations.</p>
<p>That's a significant advantage for defenders, but similar capabilities could also help attackers investigate weaknesses more efficiently.</p>
<p>As AI agents become part of DevOps workflows, another challenge emerges: <strong>governance</strong>.</p>
<p>An AI agent might identify a vulnerable runtime, propose a fix, and prepare a deployment.</p>
<p>But should it have unrestricted access to execute production changes?</p>
<p>Not necessarily.</p>
<p><strong>AI should accelerate security decisions, not bypass engineering controls.</strong></p>
<p>Least-privilege access, approval workflows, audit trails, and verified remediation must remain central to AI-driven operations.</p>
<h2>🛡️ Where DevSecOps Needs to Go Next</h2>
<p>I believe the next evolution of DevSecOps is about connecting three critical capabilities:</p>
<h3>🔎 1. Visibility</h3>
<p>Know exactly what's running across infrastructure, containers, and applications.</p>
<h3>🧠 2. Intelligence</h3>
<p>Use AI to accelerate vulnerability detection, impact analysis, and remediation planning.</p>
<h3>🔐 3. Governance</h3>
<p>Ensure automated actions follow security policies, access controls, and approval processes.</p>
<p>The real opportunity isn't adding another dashboard or AI tool. It's connecting existing systems so teams can move from vulnerability discovery to verified remediation faster.</p>
<h2>💡 Final Thoughts</h2>
<p>PHP2Shell is more than another critical vulnerability.</p>
<p>It's a reminder that while we've become incredibly efficient at delivering software, securing it continuously remains a challenge.</p>
<p>AI will continue to accelerate both software development and security research. Our operational practices need to evolve alongside it.</p>
<p><strong>DevOps taught us to deliver faster. DevSecOps taught us to integrate security. AI is now challenging us to respond faster, without losing control.</strong></p>
<p>And that leaves us with an important question:</p>
<p><strong>We've automated how quickly we deploy software. Have we done enough to automate how quickly we secure it?</strong></p>
<hr />
<h2>📚 References</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://thephp.foundation/blog/2026/10/21/todays-php-security-release-and-how-were-strengthening-php-security/">PHP Foundation — Security Disclosure</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.wiz.io/blog/php2shell-php-rce">Wiz Research — PHP2Shell Technical Analysis</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p><strong>Tags:</strong> <code>DevOps</code> <code>DevSecOps</code> <code>Cybersecurity</code> <code>AISecurity</code> <code>CloudSecurity</code></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Getting Started with Prometheus on Minikube: A Step-by-Step Guide]]></title><description><![CDATA[Prometheus is indeed an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit that was originally developed at SoundCloud. It is widely used for collecting…]]></description><link>https://balachandertj.hashnode.dev/getting-started-with-prometheus-on-minikube-a-step-by-step-guide</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://balachandertj.hashnode.dev/getting-started-with-prometheus-on-minikube-a-step-by-step-guide</guid><category><![CDATA[Devops]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kubernetes]]></category><category><![CDATA[containers]]></category><category><![CDATA[monitoring]]></category><category><![CDATA[observability]]></category><category><![CDATA[Beginner Developers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Linux]]></category><category><![CDATA[step-by-step guide]]></category><category><![CDATA[Helm]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ubuntu]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Balachander T J]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 27 Oct 2024 05:54:32 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2 id="heading-introduction">Introduction</h2>
<p><strong>Prometheus</strong> is indeed an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit that was originally developed at <strong>SoundCloud</strong>. It is widely used for collecting and querying metrics, providing powerful data visualization and alerting capabilities.Prometheus joined the <strong>Cloud Native Computing Foundation</strong> in <strong>2016</strong> as the second hosted project, following Kubernetes.</p>
<p><strong>Prerequisites</strong></p>
<p>Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Minikube</strong>: Make sure it's installed on your machine. If not, follow the <a target="_blank" href="https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start/">Minikube installation guide</a>.</p>
</li>
<li><p><a target="_blank" href="https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl-linux/"><strong>kubectl</strong></a>: This is the command-line tool for interacting with Kubernetes.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Basic understanding of Kubernetes and Helm.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="heading-step-1-install-helm">Step 1: Install Helm</h2>
<p>Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies deployment. If you don't have Helm installed, follow the <a target="_blank" href="https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/">Helm</a> installation guide.</p>
<h2 id="heading-step-2-installation-of-the-prometheus-using-helm-charts">Step 2: Installation of the Prometheus using Helm charts:</h2>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
</code></pre>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">Output:
<span class="hljs-string">"prometheus-community"</span> has been added to your repositories
Hang tight <span class="hljs-keyword">while</span> we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the <span class="hljs-string">"prometheus-community"</span> chart repository
Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈
</code></pre>
<p>Downloaded the latest version of the Prometheus using the Helm Charts.</p>
<h1 id="heading-step-3-deploy-the-prometheus-helm-charts">Step 3: Deploy the Prometheus Helm Charts:</h1>
<p>Create a namespace on a K8s cluster by using the below command:</p>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">kubectl create ns monitoring
</code></pre>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">Output:
namespace/monitoring created
</code></pre>
<p>To install Prometheus Helm Chart on K8s Cluster, use this <code>helm install</code> command:</p>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">helm install prometheus prometheus-community/prometheus -n monitoring
</code></pre>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">Output:

NAME: prometheus
LAST DEPLOYED: Sun Oct 27 10:36:29 2024
NAMESPACE: monitoring
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
The Prometheus server can be accessed via port 80 on the following DNS name from within your cluster:
prometheus-server.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
Get the Prometheus server URL by running these commands <span class="hljs-keyword">in</span> the same shell:
  <span class="hljs-built_in">export</span> POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace monitoring -l <span class="hljs-string">"app.kubernetes.io/name=prometheus,app.kubernetes.io/instance=prometheus"</span> -o jsonpath=<span class="hljs-string">"{.items[0].metadata.name}"</span>)
  kubectl --namespace monitoring port-forward <span class="hljs-variable">$POD_NAME</span> 9090
The Prometheus alertmanager can be accessed via port 9093 on the following DNS name from within your cluster:
prometheus-alertmanager.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
Get the Alertmanager URL by running these commands <span class="hljs-keyword">in</span> the same shell:
  <span class="hljs-built_in">export</span> POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace monitoring -l <span class="hljs-string">"app.kubernetes.io/name=alertmanager,app.kubernetes.io/instance=prometheus"</span> -o jsonpath=<span class="hljs-string">"{.items[0].metadata.name}"</span>)
  kubectl --namespace monitoring port-forward <span class="hljs-variable">$POD_NAME</span> 9093
<span class="hljs-comment">#################################################################################</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">######   WARNING: Pod Security Policy has been disabled by default since    #####</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">######            it deprecated after k8s 1.25+. use                        #####</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">######            (index .Values "prometheus-node-exporter" "rbac"          #####</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">###### .          "pspEnabled") with (index .Values                         #####</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">######            "prometheus-node-exporter" "rbac" "pspAnnotations")       #####</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">######            in case you still need it.                                #####</span>

<span class="hljs-comment">#################################################################################</span>
The Prometheus PushGateway can be accessed via port 9091 on the following DNS name from within your cluster:
prometheus-prometheus-pushgateway.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
Get the PushGateway URL by running these commands <span class="hljs-keyword">in</span> the same shell:
  <span class="hljs-built_in">export</span> POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace monitoring -l <span class="hljs-string">"app=prometheus-pushgateway,component=pushgateway"</span> -o jsonpath=<span class="hljs-string">"{.items[0].metadata.name}"</span>)
  kubectl --namespace monitoring port-forward <span class="hljs-variable">$POD_NAME</span> 9091
For more information on running Prometheus, visit:
https://prometheus.io/
</code></pre>
<p>Port forwarding for the Prometheus services <code>service/prometheus-server</code> , <code>service/prometheus-alertmanager</code></p>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">kubectl port-forward service/prometheus-server -n monitoring 9090:80 --address 0.0.0.0
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1730007314634/a23590b0-0c2e-4326-afdf-b6ef89c0356d.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">kubectl port-forward service/prometheus-alertmanager -n monitoring 9093:9093 --address 0.0.0.0
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1730007450738/8a7201c9-a7e1-4cba-b6d6-a5f710b32ed9.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<p>Open your browser to access the <strong>Prometheus UI</strong> and <strong>Alertmanager</strong>.<br /><a target="_blank" href="http://localhost:9093">http://localhost:9093</a> , <a target="_blank" href="http://localhost:9093"><strong>http://localhost:90</strong></a><strong>90</strong></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1730007578378/0fd0d4a4-ae9c-43c9-80b0-b22435315969.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1730007531324/b862465e-b02b-4874-b60f-a5b42a596e61.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<h2 id="heading-step-4-clean-up-activityoptional">Step 4: Clean Up Activity(Optional)</h2>
<pre><code class="lang-bash">kubectl delete ns monitoring
</code></pre>
<p>This step will delete the namespace where Prometheus is installed.  </p>
<p>In conclusion, deploying Prometheus on Minikube is a great way to start your monitoring journey in Kubernetes 🚀. With just a few commands, you can set up a powerful tool to track your applications' performance and resource usage 📊. As you explore further, feel free to check out additional features like alerting and custom dashboards to improve your monitoring setup 🔔. If you found this guide helpful or want to share your own experiences, please leave a comment below 💬. Happy monitoring! 🎉  </p>
<p>#Prometheus #Minikube #Kubernetes #Monitoring #DevOps #CloudNative #OpenSource #Containerization #TechTutorial #SoftwareDevelopment</p>
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