Container security is a set of tools, policies, and processes designed to enhance the security capabilities of a container so that the applications it houses can run without any security incidents or vulnerabilities arising from misconfigurations. The technology is not yet as isolated as virtual machine technology, and shares the underlying kernel and OS with the host system. An example is Github Action integration with the Sysdig Secure Inline Scan Action: The previous example builds a Docker image and then scans it locally, from the Docker daemon. (SCAP) is a multi-purpose framework of specifications that According to a 2021 report, abit over 60% of all asked chief information security officers said that vulnerability and threat management had been negatively impacted because of the way container runtime environments behave. The image below show us the configuration to ensure that the anonymous-auth argument is set to false. 8. The host server, which could be bare metal or a virtual machine. It has become a de facto standard for security benchmarking. Containerized applications include many components, such as open source dependencies, custom code, images, and Dockerfiles. Preferably, have only a single Application in one application container. How can you prevent the security incident from happening again? The cause of a host, container, or application being compromised can be a bad configuration, like excessive permissions, exposed ports or services, or an exploited vulnerability. Its Observability of Unknown capability detects sophisticated attacks, e.g., ZeroDay, where signature/pattern-based approaches fail. After all, they are virtual machines; dont assume that if you are using a cluster provisioned by your cloud provider that they come perfectly secured. Pretending to be something or someone youre not, Modifying something youre not supposed to modify, Claiming you didnt do something regardless of whether you did or not, Exposing information to people who are not authorized to see it, Attacks designed to prevent a system from providing service, A program or user with access to do things that they are not supposed to do, A container is an operating system-level virtualization method for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on a single control host which allows for multiple isolated user-space instances and resource management features, A container abstracts an application from the underlying operating system to enable faster development and easier deployment, Container technology has been around for over 10 years, and has had a recent explosion due to the popularity of cloud computing, Communication with the host via virtual machine emulation, Communication with the host via standard system calls, Containers allow for processes inside the container to be ran as a non-root user which reduces the risk of malicious code or users from exploiting the application, Containers run as independent runtime environments with separate file systems and network stacks that are isolated from other containers and the host system, Containers allow applications to be segregated that would normally run on the same host and allows only pre-configured ports and files to be exchanged between containers, A properly configured container will only contain the dependencies (libraries and additional software) required to run the application which can lead to a reduction of vulnerability attack surface, Containers are integrated with application dependencies which allows for a better and a faster vulnerability patching process by minimizing the effort of validating compatibility between applications and patches, Container technology can be combined with underlying host hardening tools to add to defense in depth, The complexity and scalability of containers can lead to containers exposing more information than intended, or allow for containers to be at different patch levels exposing risk. If there is a vulnerability at the system kernel level, it could provide a way into the containers running on the host. specific controls in this article but stay tuned, we can have a Pursue best practices such as good base image selection, container hierarchies, dependency version management, package selection minimalism, layer management practices, cache cleaning, reproducibility, and documentation. Prisma Cloud is a comprehensive Cloud Workload Protection solution that delivers flexible protection to secure cloud VMs, containers and Kubernetes apps, serverless functions and containerized offerings like Fargate tasks. When experts have identified all priorities and taken the false positives out of the picture, the process of container security becomes a lot like a workflow where problems need to be executed. Several tools exist for this, mainly based on static configuration analysis, allowing you to check configuration parameters at different levels and provide guidance in fixing them. They make it easy to set up a central repository from which you can download container images with a few keystrokes. Image scanners work by scanning the packages within the image and by running build dependency tests to look for new possible dependencies. Instead, use role-based access control to define explicitly who can access what, and blacklist access from everyone else. This high-level guide helps enterprise architects and technology stakeholders understand the scope of security activities on Google Cloud and plan accordingly. Once you detect a security incident is happening in your system, take action to stop the threat and limit any additional harm. This may seem overly obvious, but given that there are so many publicly available container images that can be downloaded quickly, it can be easy to pull an image accidentally from a source that is not verified or trusted. Be aware that in the In a sense, they are just applications that could contain exploitable vulnerabilities. With Prisma Cloud, DevOps and cloud infrastructure teams can adopt the architecture that fits their needs without worrying . It will also reveal vulnerabilities in package dependencies for Java, Node, Python, and others, even if you didnt apply dependency scanning in the previous stages. On detection and policy enforcement prior to and after deployment. dominance of containers is increasing and thus the security threats. Avocado enables real-time threat observability/modeling/analytics to mitigate vulnerabilities and plan preventive measures. Containers should run as user, not root. 6. At the moment, security protocols and solutions simply cant monitor every single aspect of containerized applications. It includes a community-contributed library of rules, and you can create your own by using a simple syntax. A container packages code so that an application can run quickly and reliably. Tenable.io Container Security delivers end-to-end. Use a TLS certificate with trusted Root CA, and When a container is run from an image, there are many options such as temporary containers, mounting volumes, and user accounts. Docker's massive adoption rates in recent years have made container security a critical consideration for organizations that use containers for development or production. With UID and GID of root user in a container, you can access O'Reilly members get unlimited access to live online training experiences, plus books, videos, and digital content from O'Reilly and nearly 200 trusted . Security can be applied at each of the different phases: development, distribution, execution, detection and response to threats. In this context, source code analysis tools are useful. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature. Tools such as the Docker Bench for Security needs to be used religiously to check for dozens of common best-practices around deploying containers in production. Once your application is built and packaged, it is common to copy it inside a container with a minimal set of libraries, dependent frameworks (like Python, Node, etc. Today's post covers a few suggestions on what can you do to make your Kubernetes workloads more secure. If you host your containers in the cloud using a service like ECS, that is another layer to secure. One of the key points of cloud-native security is addressing container security risks as soon as possible. The detectors agent observes every process or call to specific functions or calls performed by open-source libraries. container orchestration engine or external secret manager. SSH daemon) in the container to reduce threats. If you are using infrastructure as code, incorporate IaC scanning tools like Apolicy, Checkov, tfsec, or cfn_nag to validate the configuration of your infrastructure before it is created or updated. \___|_| |_|\___|\___|_|\_\___/ \_/ According to Docker, "A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another." Containers use resources even more efficiently than virtualization . code, designing CI/CD for the container build and delivery. A cybersecurity incident can cause severe damage to the reputation of While this article doesnt profess to be an exhaustive guide to Docker security (for that, you should refer to the, Resource quotas are easy to set using command-line flags. challenges providing security in organizations are: In the recent survey by PaloAlto Networks, State of Cloud Security Container Image Security: Beyond Vulnerability Scanning. All the secrets should be kept out of the image and Dockerfile. based on CIS Benchmarks, as well as compliance standards, like PCI DSS, SOC 2, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-190, HIPAA, ISO 27001, GDPR and others, all in a single centralized dashboard. Due diligence must be performed across the lifecycle of applications and systems being deployed to the cloud, including planning . Looking for help with cloud native security consulting & implementation? See Security Best Practices in IAM for more information. What I mean by surface area is the number of packages and libraries installed in the image. Applications are packaged as container images, commonly Docker images. This could mean something is happening in your containers (e.g., a cryptominer consuming all the available CPU), or an exploit causing response slowness and potentially a DoS. Culture in organizations that work well with containers reflect the value of containers. This includes tools such as static analysis . You need to focus on just two layers (the host environment and the application) when hardening your deployment and monitoring for security-relevant events. We already mentioned Connaisseur Admission Controller as a way to enforce content trust and reject images that are not signed by trusted sources. Sysdig Falco. As container security is a continuous process and security threats evolve over time, you can gradually implement some of these practices by integrating . Application container technologies, also known as containers, are a form of operating system virtualization combined with application software packaging. He began his career in corporate communications and PR, in London and New York, before moving to Tel Aviv. Container Security. Use the multi-stage Dockerfiles to remove software build components down software development. For example, a vulnerability caused by an overflow in a JSON processing library that is used by a web API server could be prevented by adding some checks at the HTTP request level, blocking requests that contain strings that could potentially lead to the overflow. This allows the sidecar container to read the main container's logs and process it. Its especially important to do so in those that might be exposed, like applications that are reachable from the internet if the exploit can be executed over a remote network connection. Sticking to container security best practices is critical for successfully delivering verified software, as well as preventing severe security breaches and its consequences.. Docker provides default profile to allow the Containers' flexibility . Note that although it is possible to also scan dependencies later, once the application is built, dependency scanning will be less accurate as some metadata information is not available, and it might be impossible for statically linked applications like Go or Rust. Published in mid-2019, the report finds common issues related to security, automation, team collaboration and tooling selection when running Kubernetes in production. The number of inputs to manage in a complex and big environment can be overwhelming, so classify and prioritize to focus on the highest risks first. For this reason, you should consider blacklisting public container registries other than official trusted repositories, such as those on Docker Hub. by Liz Rice. Securing your host is just as important as securing containers. Developer best practices. For example, enabling the dependency-check plugin in Maven requires just adding a plugin to the pom.xml: And every time maven is executed, it will generate a vulnerability report: Avoid introducing vulnerabilities through dependencies by updating them to newer versions with fixes. In this example, the sidecar container reads the file and outputs it to the Kubernetes log every thirty seconds . It provides key actions to take and includes links for further reading. Technology changes so fast, so I'm sure there's more that I didn't cover here. Unbiased content and research for cybersecurity practitioners, buyers, and investors. Dockers massive adoption rates in recent years have made container security a critical consideration for organizations that use containers for development or production. Secrets Manager, Kubernetes secrets, Docker secrets When using a container-specific host OS, attack surfaces are typically much smaller than they would be with a general-purpose host OS, so there are fewer opportunities to attack and compromise a container-specific host OS. As a last line of defense, Kubernetes Admission Controllers can block unsafe containers from running in the cluster. When creating the container image, please use a hardened base image Security is a vast topic, we havent covered Kubernetes lost once they are terminated, it is important to securely stream the Sysdig Falco is a container security monitor that is free and open-source, and it is designed to detect unusual activities in your applications. In some cases, this might not be possible because the fix is not available, or bumping the version would require a lot of refactoring due to breaking changes. Get rid of the most critical and exploitable vulnerabilities, or at least be aware of them, and apply other protection mechanisms like firewalls, restricting user access to the host, stopping unused services, etc. Use this information to update the operating system, kernel, packages, etc. For added Docker security, if you use Kubernetes to orchestrate your containers, you can explicitly prevent containers from starting as root (even if an admin attempts to start one that way manually) using the MustRunAsNonRoot directive in a pod security policy. For more information, visit https://www.avocadosys.com . 18 | statement { packages installed on top of the base also need to be from verified and The lack of these additional abstraction layers, as well as tightly coupling with the kernel, operating system, and container runtime, make it easier to use exploits to jump from inside the container to the outside and vice versa. visibility of Docker container images, providing vulnerability assessment, malware. Applying prevention techniques when building, distributing, and running your container with the correct privileges and protections, as well as ensuring the underlying stack, will limit the range of action that an attacker can take. Most professionals will also recommend that you combine a runtime detection system with an observation platform so security staff can also better understand the business risks that vulnerabilities represent. It's better to use alpine-based images. Containers, best defined as an operating system virtualization instance that can run applications, microservices and processes, are a staple in the technology industry. Namespaces provide the first and most straightforward form of isolation: processes running within a container cannot . What organizations and security staff need to understand is that container security isnt a one-way street or a simple solution. 1. Application images are among key vulnerable areas for security risks in a container environment. If you see something I'm missing (or just wrong about), let me know. Even better is to create containers with the least privilege possible. As deep understanding of container security is still a rare commodity in this market we're all learning while running the use of best practices such as the CIS benchmarks or the NIST guidelines is a way for organizations to get "secure by default" fast, and tend to the finer points of their . A container image is a static file with executable code that can create a container on a computing system. Among different sources of information, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) is paramount. The Docker daemon, which needs to be secured to keep the containers it hosts safe. Benchmarks on cloud provider accounts, also called Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), are essential, as they will check the security on every single asset on the account. Securing Images. Examples of misconfigurations you can detect: The following figure is provided by CIS Benchmark for Distribution Independant Linux, the configuration is to ensure rsh server is not enabled. You probably have multiple Docker container images, each hosting individual microservices. It will help you shift left security by checking for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, allowing you to act before threats are deployed. Although it can be tempting to leave your registry accessible by anyone in order to simplify access and avoid having to configure new roles when someone new needs access, this inconvenience is worth it if it prevents a breach in your registry. Some of them, like, Integrations for Developers Environments, Docker Container Security: Challenges and Best Practices. A good forensics analysis will provide many clues and reveal what, when, and how it happened. Resource quotas allow you to limit the amount of memory and CPU resources that a container can consume. practices employed. This publication explains the potential security concerns associated with the use of containers and provides recommendations for addressing these . This leads to vulnerabilities and configuration issues. Learn more. For the most part, these image scanning tests are automated, not slowing down the development cycle, but are still prone to identify false positives. leakage from the logs. identified few images on Docker There are several tools out there, but we recommend a platform approach with automationensuring total visibility for SecOps teams and minimum workflow interrupts for DevOps teams. Configure alerts to quickly get notified when the values exceed the expected thresholds. Kubernetes, by default, leaves many authentication mechanisms to be managed by third-party integrations. Container scanning tools analyze a container image layer by layer to identify potential security issues. Among other topics, both good practices will be addressed when constructing the Docker images as well as best security practices to be applied at . Container images are used to create containers. For example, you can block pull requests by default if some checks are failing. As a matter of fact, theres research out there that shows some development teams bypass these tests to speed up the product delivery time. Sticking to container security best practices is critical for successfully delivering verified software, as well as preventing severe security breaches and its consequences. Not all vulnerabilities have fixes available, or may now be able to be applied easily. imposition of penalties, and unwanted legal issues by end-users. For full details, see the, For added Docker security, if you use Kubernetes to orchestrate your containers, you can explicitly prevent containers from starting as root (even if an admin attempts to start one that way manually) using the, However, the ease and convenience of container registries can become a security risk if you fail to evaluate the security context of the registry youre using. 54 percent of containers live for five minutes or less, which makes investigating anomalous behavior and breaches extremely challenging. STRIDE is a popular threat modeling framework and here I'll share a non-exhaustive list of container threats mapped to this framework. It should be looked at more as a process that should start when the container is being built and expands to evaluating everything thats in it along with its configuration and incorporates risk analysis that assesses the containers runtime behavior. Implementing container security best practices involves securing every stage of the container lifecycle, starting from the application code and extending beyond the container runtime. Choosing the right project from CNCF Landscape is challenging. New attacks and exploits are discovered continuously. OS containers are not inherently unsecure, but are being deployed unsecurely, driven by developers and a need for agility in service development and deployment. The next figure shows the configuration to ensure that authorization for Docker client commands is enabled. in cloud providers to restrict communication between VMs, VPCs, and the Internet. One handy thing that Docker makes easy to do is to configure resource quotas on a per-container basis. But how do we detect vulnerable components? This white paper can help security operations teams and developers select approaches to secure container development and deployments on the Microsoft Azure platform. It models the in-place system. Guide: https://docs.bridgecrew.io/docs/ensure-iam-policies-do-not-allow-data-exfiltration When you start a container with docker run, behind the scenes Docker creates a set of namespaces and control groups for the container. means that the Container will be running with root user. Adam Murray is a content writer at Mend. As such, every scanning technology and detector software can help security teams be more productive with vulnerability identification and threat mitigation. Cluster and pod security. Given that containers are more complex in many respects than virtual machines and other deployment technologies that were widely used before Docker, learning how to secure Docker containers can be complex as well. Copyright 2023 White Source Ltd. | All rights reserved. Using container images and rebuilding new images whenever a code change is needed can effectively improve the patching process. Ensure documentation and training cover the nine pillars of container best practices described in this article. Checking the related cluster events around that time frame, we see a pod has been replaced, so it is also possible that a malicious or simply incorrectly configured version was deployed. Many different attack vectors exist. In these cases, professionals will usually use four common tool types to keep the software adequately protected: As mentioned before, these solutions can scan the source code of the container before its built. The second goal, or keeping the container images secure, is much more challenging especially when security experts are dealing with open-source components. attacker to find ways to exploit your system. You also typically do not need to worry much about APIs, overlay networks or complex software-defined storage configurations, because these are not usually a major part of virtual-machine or bare-metal deployments. An application running inside a container is no different than an application running directly in a machine, sharing a file-system and processes with many other applications. You need to have a good strategy, including: Your strategy should translate in policies that a container vulnerability scanner can use to trigger alerts for detected vulnerabilities according to some criteria, and to apply prevention and protection at different levels, like: It is also important to perform continuous vulnerability scanning and reevaluation to make sure that you get alerts when new vulnerabilities that apply to running containers are discovered. Not anymore! Before you ship the application or even build your application, you can scan your code to detect bugs or potentially exploitable code (a new vulnerability). For starters, there are several great security tools that will help with that, and the latest benchmarks from the CIS (Center for Internet Security) always tend to be perspective and clear. shell). If the issue applies to other assets in your environment, apply the fix in all of them. Security is a key component in any infrastructure, and AWS containers are no exception. Thats why its essential to make sure that your APIs and network architectures are designed securely, and that you monitor the APIs and network activity for anomalies that could indicate an intrusion. That might be OK to do in a Docker testing environment if youre learning how to use Docker for the first time, but in production, there is almost never a good reason to let a Docker container run with root permissions. By downloading the sources of all packages in your Docker images and scanning them to identify where the code originated, you can determine whether any of the code incorporated into your container images contains known security vulnerabilities. Securing Images. When designing CI/CD for the container build and delivery, include image Here are some useful things that one should follow while using the containers - Create Immutable Containers - Immutable infrastructure is a paradigm in which servers are never modified after they are deployed, i.e., they can be only rebuilt. The figure below shows an example of this attack. If using Oracle Kubernetes Engine, you can set up pod security policies for the cluster as explained in the documentation. For Docker 1.5.0 (CIS Docker Benchmark version 1.5.0) These images can be outdated ones, insecure versions of the software, applications carrying bugs, those containing hidden malware and those . A few container security risks include misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, runtime threats, and failed audits. Cybersecurity experts often state that, in comparison to more traditional computing platforms, container security can be a bit more challenging to maintain fully. Once the security measures are running, they can be attacked. the organization and competitive disadvantage in the market, the STRIDE evaluates the system detail design. Related Names. Clair - Clair is a popular static vulnerability scanning tool for the application container. You can run them at the developer machine, but integrating code scanning tools at the CI/CD process can make sure that a minimum level of code quality is assured. There are 3 groups of activities that constitute an attack surface, in my view, as shown in graphic below. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. Speaking of registries, you should also be sure that the container images you pull come from a trusted source. 1. For background on registry concepts, see About registries, repositories, and images. VPCs, Security groups, network rules, firewall rules, etc. Containers should be immutable images with the absolute minimal number of dependencies needed to run a single application. Features such as these can help both security experts and developers a great deal when it comes to saving time and improving efficiency. As a result, the Avocado delivers security technology that discovers, diagnose, monitors and protects cloud workloads, applications and APIs across the distributed ecosystem. Ideally, youll use a registry such as Docker Trusted Registry that can be installed behind your own firewall in order to mitigate the risk of breaches from the Internet. Published: 05-09-2018. This post isn't intended to be an exhaustive list of threats and best practices, but a general point of view and orientation. sourced from popular private or public registries. Released April 2020. the process running on the host operating system except for the fact A container is a self-sustaining, independent software unit that packs up its entire internal code. Containers emerged as a lightweight alternative to virtual machines (VMs) that offer better microservice architecture support. In the latter case, it might be possible to prevent a vulnerability from being exploited (or at least limit its scope) by making changes in configurations, like firewalls, using a more restrictive user, and protecting files or directories with additional permissions or ACLs, etc. tant and still the best practice. Thus, even if the specific image you download comes from a trusted registry, the image could incorporate packages from other sources that may not be trusted. Well, kind of. File: /modules/ingestor/main.tf:17-31 Doing so is the only way to ensure that you can reap all the benefits of Docker containers without leaving yourself at risk of major security problems. checking, technical control compliance activities, and security STRIDE evaluates the system detail design. Weve reviewed how container security best practices can be easily applied to your DevOps workflows. Before Docker, most organizations used virtual machines or bare-metal servers to host applications. Each of those images and instances needs to be secured and monitored separately. This website uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. The public part is located in: and the private counterpart will be located in: Other developers can also generate their keys and share the public part. compared to full-blown OS images for the base image. We explain why securing Docker containers is challenging, which default settings in a Docker environment you should change in order to make your containers more secure, and which best practices to follow when, The challenge of Docker container security, Your containers. AWS Security Best Practices AWS Whitepaper. If you install a container runtime like Docker by yourself in a server you own, its essential you use a benchmark to make sure any default insecure configuration is remediated. Gatekeeper provides a powerful language that can be used to define flexible rules to accept or reject containers based on the pod specification (e.g., enforce annotations, detect privileged pods, or using host paths) and the status of the cluster (e.g.m, require all ingress hosts to be unique within the cluster). Notice: This whitepaper has been archived. Containers provide a portable, reusable, and automatable way to package and run applications. Use an image scanner to analyze your container images. How should you think about applying defense-in-depth practices to containers? preventable hack involving Containers you want to share with the community. 29 | resources = ["*"] Security trainings can use the CSVS with its strong focus on the proactive controls to tech about best practices. Know everything that happens in your organization, monitoring and detecting issues as fast as possible. Knowing the associated business risk of the possible vulnerabilities can also come in handy when it comes to prioritizing threat management. These solutions aim to tell everything security teams there is to know about possible vulnerabilities that plague the application framework, the host operating systems, and even the network devices like routers and switches. Sponsorships Available. Are there any best practices that will enable security experts to mitigate these negative impacts? Sysdig Secure includes a Compliance and Benchmarks feature which can help you schedule, execute, and analyze all of your infrastructure (Linux hosts, Docker, Kubernetes, EKS, GKE, AKS, MKE, OpenShift clusters, etc.) Thus, Kubernetes, OpenShift, and other container technologies are present everywhere. Common sense is if the number of objects is '_ \ / _ \/ __| |/ / _ \ \ / / The second area that we think about in terms of container security is what we're calling the software supply chain. According to Synk's report of 2019, the top 10 docker images did include around about 580 vulnerabilities in their system libraries. Even if you deploy vulnerability scanning solutions based on repository For example, you can protect from a network exploitable vulnerability by impeding connections to the running container or the vulnerable service. supports automated configuration, vulnerability and patch Security Platform Restrictions. All settings that could lead to an attack, resources that should be private but are made public (e.g., S3 buckets), or storage that lacks encryption are defined in this kind of benchmark. Kubernetes, an open-source platform for managing and deploying containers at scale by using Kubernetes clusters, has become the cornerstone of enterprise infrastructure.This growth in popularity also means Kubernetes has also become a high-value target for attackers. Secure Host. If you plan to use it for a prolonged period, with a production workload or exposure to the internet, you have to take special care of them. Best practices for enterprise organizations. 2023 Avocado Systems. The Simply put, container security is the process of implementing the necessary security tools, policies, and protocols to help keep these container-based workloads safe from cyber threats. For Security Trainings The CSVS can also be used to define characteristics of secure container infrastructure. If configured well, secrets management makes . Learn how to protect AWS container environments with best practices for ECS, EKS and the extension for on-premises deployments. CIS has a benchmark for Distribution Independant Linux, and one specifically for Debian, CentOs, Red Hat, and many other distributions. This type of analysis is also great for identifying already documented vulnerabilities within the container packages. What are the best practices of Container Security? can improve the security posture. Similar to other linting tools, apply IaC scanning tools locally and in your pipeline, and consider blocking changes that introduce security issues. Running inside a container wont prevent this, but will make it much harder to jump from the application exploit to the host system, or access data from other applications. The biggest drawback of these scanning tools is that even the latest, automated pieces of software can be cumbersome and slow. and modify the files written by root on the host machine. Securing containers is much easier with an understanding of the attack surface for cloud native applications. Docker Container Security: Challenges and Best Practices. And if the attack vector requires local access to the host (being logged in the host), you can restrict the access to that host. Furthermore, some of these solutions may detect false positives, which, again, may waste time during the development cycle, and later on, they may also cause headaches for security practitioners. application with malicious javascript Check out a great example of forensics investigation in THREAT ALERT: Crypto miner attack involving RinBots server, a popular Discord bot. Hes spent the last ten years working with tech companies like Amdocs, Gilat Satellite Systems, Allot Communications, and Sisense. We also ), and configuration files. In this article, we offer an overview of Docker container security. The We unleash growth by helping companies adopt cloud native technologies with our products and services! AppArmor is a Linux security module to protect OS and its applications In order to make this process even more straightforward, look for solutions that: As you can see from this detailed article, container security is the most effective when security experts implement a multi-layered approach. This publication explains the potential security concerns associated with the use of containers . A Closer Look at Container Security As container adoption continues to grow, a strong focus on security is an absolute must. Tools like Clair, Synk, Anchore, On the other hand, containers depend on another set of kernel features, a container runtime, and usually a cluster or orchestrator that might be exploited too. Thanks to the way it works, the agent can easily avoid detecting false positives that are triggered by vulnerable libraries that arent used in the application or in a way that may enable the attackers to infiltrate the system. From a security perspective, these technologies are relatively simple. Also on the topic of where your container images come from keep in mind that Docker images typically contain a mixture of original code and packages from upstream sources. Do not expose unnecessary network ports, sockets or run unwanted DoS attack that prevents creating new containers in a host. Read it now on the O'Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial. Check: CKV_AWS_108: "Ensure IAM policies does not allow data exfiltration" Package management tools, like npm, maven, go, etc., can match vulnerability databases with your application dependencies and provide useful warning. /groupId> Resource quotas are easy to set using command-line flags. Your containers and host might contain vulnerabilities, and new ones are discovered continually. management, Copyright 2023 Sysdig, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Docker is a complicated beast, and there is no simple trick you can use to maintain Docker container security. Instead of just killing the container or shutting down a host, consider isolating it, pausing it, or taking a snapshot. Firewalls at hosts levels to expose only the minimal set of required services. As described in our Cloud lateral movement post, a hacker can use this chain of exploits and wrong configurations to run crypto mining applications in your cloud account. It also describes . From the development cycle to running regular runtime tests, containerized systems rely on continuous observation to be kept secure. In the middle, you need to assess risk and manage vulnerabilities. But reusing code from external dependencies means you will be including bugs and vulnerabilities from these dependencies as part of your application. And the container security space has changed substantially since our initial research 18-20 months back. Doing it later in the development life cycle slows down the pace of cloud adoption, while raising security and compliance risks. It can be included as part of your CI/CD pipelines, triggered when new images are pushed to a registry, or verified in a cluster admission controller to make sure that non-compliant images are now allowed to run. trusted sources for the same reason. 6 Container Security Best Practices. For isolation purposes, they employ a lightweight mechanism using kernel namespaces, removing the requirement of several additional layers in VMs, like a full operating system, CPU and hardware virtualization, etc. It can help to keep your Docker environment efficient and prevent one container or application from hogging system resources. attacking their software supply chain. ", # Matches urls including or not http/https, triggered when new images are pushed to a registry, Sysdig Secure includes a Compliance and Benchmarks feature, CIS Benchmark for Distribution Independant Linux. Container security in Microsoft Azure. OpenSCAP for Container Security Content Automation Protocol This is a benchmark that is essential to automate, as the assets in the cloud account change all the time, and you have to constantly watch that everything is as secure as possible. Sources of events include: Falco is capable of monitoring the executed system calls and generating alerts for suspicious activity. Container Services: Services in this category typically run on separate Amazon EC2 or other infrastructure instances, but sometimes you don't manage . Shift left security, the first step is prevention. You do, however, have to resist the temptation to let a container run as root simply because its more convenient in some situations. Linux namespaces, Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), Cgroups, capabilities, and secure The first type is able to detect only the vulnerabilities in open-source code, while the latter will also be able to spot vulnerabilities in custom solutions. Pick those images which are published frequently with the latest Container images constitute the standard application delivery format in cloud-native environments. Security of the orchestration manager has become a primary concern, as organization rely . For example, issues in the container runtime itself can cause an impact in your running containers, like this DoS attack that prevents creating new containers in a host. Overlay networks and APIs that facilitate communication between containers. Running several source code tests: Although some of the SAST and SCA tools can be cumbersome, they are still a crucial part of good container security practices. By building data-flow diagrams (DFDs), STRIDE is used to identify system entities, events, and the boundaries of the system. Fortunately, that challenge can be overcome. Find out three steps you can take to master container security. The following image is an example of configuration check that ensures credentials unused for 90 days or greater are disabled. Infrastructure is declared as code aka Infrastructure as Code stored and versioned in a repository, and automation takes care of applying the changes in the definition to keep the existing infrastructure up to date with the declaration. that it has additional metadata to identify that it is part of a Use meaningful dashboards to explore the evolution of metrics, and correlate with changes in other metrics and events happening in your system. According to the 2020 CNFC Survey, 92 percent of companies are using containers in production, a 300 percent increase since 2016. 1. program to a limited set of resources like network access, kernel Container security is the process of implementing security tools and policies to assure that all in your container is running as intended, including protection of infrastructure, software supply chain, runtime, and everything between. 22 | "s3:List*", 26 | "sqs:DeleteMessageBatch", The scope or blast radius of an exploited vulnerability inside a container largely depends on the privileges of the container, and the level of isolation from the host and other resources. Weve all been there: You are tired and you dont want to fight with permission settings in order to get an application to work properly, so you just run it as root so that you dont have to worry about permission restrictions. Understand container security challenges and learn about critical container security best practices, such as securing images, registries, etc. containers. 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