{"id":17377,"date":"2023-06-13T08:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T06:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ezway-technology.com\/container-security-the-5-best-practices-for-devops-engineers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:08:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:08:44","slug":"container-security-the-5-best-practices-for-devops-engineers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezway-technology.com\/en\/container-security-the-5-best-practices-for-devops-engineers\/","title":{"rendered":"Container security: The 5 best practices for DevOps engineers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\tContainerization has led many businesses and organizations to develop and deploy applications differently. A recent Gartner report indicates that by 2022, more than 75% of global organizations will be using containerized applications in production, compared to less than 30% in 2020. However, while containers offer many advantages, they certainly remain a source of vulnerability to cyberattacks if they are not properly secured. <\/p>
Previously, cybersecurity consisted of protecting a single “perimeter.” By introducing new layers of complexity, containers have rendered this concept obsolete. Containerized environments have many more levels of abstraction, requiring the use of specific tools to interpret, monitor, and protect these new applications. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Container security involves using a set of tools and policies to protect containers from potential threats. These threats can affect the application, infrastructure, system libraries, execution time, and more. Container security entails implementing a secure environment for the container stack, which consists of the following elements: <\/p> Most software professionals automatically assume that Docker and Linux kernels are safe from malware, an assumption that is easily overestimated.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Containers are isolated from the host, although they both share kernel resources. Often overlooked, this aspect makes it more difficult, but not impossible, for an attacker to compromise the operating system through a kernel exploit in order to gain root access to the host. <\/p> The hosts running your containers must have their own set of security access controls in place, ensuring that the underlying host operating system is up to date. For example, it should be running the latest version of the container engine. Ideally, you should implement monitoring to be alerted to any vulnerabilities at the host layer. Also, choose a lightweight operating system, which will speed up your application deployment and reduce the attack surface by removing unnecessary packages and minimizing your operating system footprint. <\/p> Essentially, in a production environment, it’s unnecessary to allow a human administrator to connect to the host via SSH to apply configuration changes. Instead, it’s preferable to manage all hosts through Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Ansible or Chef, for example. This way, only the orchestrator has persistent access to start and stop containers. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Regular vulnerability scans of your container or host should be performed to detect and remediate potential threats that hackers could exploit to gain access to your infrastructure. Some container registries offer this type of functionality; when your image is transferred to the registry, it automatically scans it for potential vulnerabilities. <\/p> One way to be proactive is to implement vulnerability analysis in your CI pipeline by adopting the “shift left” philosophy, meaning you implement security from the very beginning of your development cycle. Again, Trivy would be an excellent choice for achieving this. <\/p> Suppose you are trying to implement this type of analysis on your on-premises nodes. In this case, Wazuh is a solid option that will log each event and check it against multiple CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) databases. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Container registries provide a convenient and centralized way to store and distribute images. It’s common for organizations to store thousands of images in their registries. Because the registry is so critical to the operation of a containerized environment, it must be well-protected. Therefore, you should consider dedicating time to monitoring and preventing unauthorized access to your container registry. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Another step you can take is to strengthen the security around your container orchestration, for example, by mitigating risks related to over-privileged accounts or network attacks. Following the least-privileged access model, protecting pod-to-pod communications would limit the damage caused by an attack. One tool we recommend in this case is Kube Hunter, which acts as a penetration testing tool. As such, it allows you to run a variety of tests on your Kubernetes cluster so you can begin taking steps to improve its security. <\/p>What is container security?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
The 5 best practices for container security<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
1. Host and operating system security<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
2. Container vulnerability analysis<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
3. Security of container ledgers<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
4. Kubernetes Cluster Security<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t