Container security is one of the fundamental steps to ensure data security. Data becomes secure, and you can protect it from possible cyber attacks.
Container security protects applications, images, and software. Containers are lightweight data carriers that transport data from one node to another. However, container cyber security is another factor in the security of the container.
Container security is important because it assists in reducing the risk of deploying a container with a security flaw or malicious code into production. It is a reality that containers are the cornerstone of modern application development software.
Modern application development and deployment, with their portability, efficiency, and scalability, can increase document security.
The rapid adoption of containers has become a new security concern for brands that must protect their data from hacking. Common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) are necessary to safeguard container environments.
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How to Cope with Security Vulnerabilities?
All software contains security vulnerabilities, and the number of publicly reported CVEs grows daily.
Software depends on other software, which can include a vulnerability at each level, further increasing the risk and making it urgent for organizations to detect and patch vulnerabilities.
Now, take a look at how to detect CVEs and best practices for reducing them in your container applications through prevention and detection.
The Typical Sources of CVEs
There are two common sources of CVEs.
- Code: Your code depends on other software libraries to generate code quickly. If these libraries are pinned to old versions, they may contain CVEs due to older versions. It is necessary to note that although the CVE is not directly related to your code, your code might still be vulnerable if the vulnerable function is being used. This is a transitive vulnerability CVE of your code. For example, if you use a coding library within your code and this library has the potential CVEs due to older versions. Your code can be vulnerable against a function from that older version of libraries.
- Coding language: The language libraries you use could themselves have CVEs. For example, Golang could have some CVEs within its language that are regularly patched in new Golang versions.
These kinds of sources open your container environment to potential CVEs and increase your attack surface.
How To Detect CVEs?
Detecting CVEs is usually carried out by vulnerability scanners, which have many free and paid versions. Vulnerability scanners identify everything your software consists of, like the base image, code, language, etc., to build a list of software components or a software bill of materials (SBOM). This information is checked against the scanner’s database to identify which libraries have vulnerabilities.
Reasons to Scan CVEs
There can be variability in scan results from different vulnerability scanners. There are a few reasons for this.
- First, some scanners might only use CVEs from the national standard databases, such as the U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD), while others use additional third-party databases.
- Second, a vulnerability scanner’s approach to identifying libraries within code can differ from how it detects software binaries and matches known vulnerabilities with those binaries.
- Third, scanners’ handling of transitive dependencies (dependencies of dependencies that you import into your code) varies in depth and granularity. All of these considerations can affect the outcome of a scan.
Why CVEs Matter in Container Security?
The common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) associated with the container cyber security are as follows:
- Image Vulnerability Assessment: Some software is created to gather all the information on the container images. This causes vulnerabilities during the execution.
- Base image vulnerabilities: Container images are often built on top of base images. The prime examples of such software are Ubuntu and Alpine. The container’s image may possess vulnerabilities inherited by the derived images.
- Common Image Tracking Software: Trivy and Anchore can scan container images easily. This is one of the most common vulnerabilities faced by container images.
Dependency Management
Dependency management is another issue of container cyber security. The reason for that is the container cyber security using libraries and dependencies. The applications operate securely and remain free from threats while serving users. They also contain secure protection features.
- Third-party libraries: The containers often include third-party libraries and depend upon their codes. Third parties libraries introduce vulnerabilities if they need to be updated regularly.
- CVE checks: Regularly check the CVEs and their dependencies to ensure that outdated or vulnerable components do not compromise their container environments.
- Runtime Security: Container runtime security can be the key to secure your data. It is the process of safeguarding containerized applications from outside attacks or hacking attempts. You need to increase cyber security for robust containers. Runtime security practices are necessary to ensure the runtime security of the containers.
- Privileged containers: Companies have created a privileged mode of container security with elevated permissions. This mode makes containers more resistant to attacks and cyber attacks.
Supply Chain Security
- Image provenance: You can ensure the integrity and authenticity of container images, which is crucial to avoiding cyber-attacks and protecting your image’s integrity.
- CVE verification: In CVE verification, the images used in a container environment are free from known vulnerabilities and CVEs. Thus, you can protect your products and data against supply chain threats and verify the CVE threats.
Best Practices for CVE Management in Containers
- Regular scanning: For better CVE management, scan container images and dependencies for CVEs regularly.
- Patching: Apply security in patches promptly to address vulnerabilities identified in CVEs.
- Image provenance: To avoid CVEs, you must verify the authenticity and integrity of container images.
- Least privilege principle: You can run containers with the minimum necessary privileges. The least privilege principle is common for container security.
- Security best practices: To avoid cyber attacks, follow security best practices, secure communication protocols, and avoid hardcoding sensitive information.
By prioritizing CVE management in their container environments, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of security breaches and protect their applications and data.
