10 Container Security Best Practices in 2024

Containers have transformed software development and increased the rate of hosting and deployment in many industries. However, such wide adoption has turned containers into one of the favorite targets of cyber-attacks and underlined the requirement for strong security practices. According to the “Sysdig 2023 Cloud-Native Security and Usage Report,” 87 percent of container images in production run with critical or high-severity vulnerabilities, an immense increase from 75 percent in the past year. This shows that implementing strategies for container security is very critical.

In this article, we will discuss principles behind container security: common vulnerabilities, container security best practices or best practices for securing containerized enterprise applications, and measures of advanced security. A review of image scanning, runtime protection, access control, and network security features in container environments is provided. Moreover, we will analyze emerging technologies and tools that really boost container security and give real recommendations on how to improve your organization’s container security posture scores.

Container security is one of the areas throughout the application deployment cycle that cannot go unattended. Anything from understanding key elements in container architecture to locking them down is significant in defense against potential threats.

To effectively secure containers, it’s important to identify the key components of container architecture and how each might become a vulnerability.

A container image is a main source for your container application that embodies all the necessary application code, libraries one may be using in their application, and other dependencies. If vulnerable, all running container instances are at risk. It is thus very critical to ensure there are no vulnerabilities in the container images during the initial image scan. This reiterates why only trusted base images should be taken, vulnerability scanning should be performed often enough against an image, and the components in your images should be kept updated and secure always.

Container runtime manages the entire lifecycle of containers. It serves basically as an interface between the host OS and containerized applications, sitting between them to moderate every interaction. This isolates containers from the host system and from other containers, thus providing security and resource management features. The risk of vulnerabilities in the container runtime can be reduced by keeping the runtime software current and applying new security patches, while best practices for container security should also be adhered to.

It’s hard to imagine any large-scale containerized environment without a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes for managing it. Because such platforms take care of deployment, scaling, and even container networking, they are high target vessels for bad actors. Securing the orchestration hosts can be done by providing role-based access control, API endpoint protection, and regularly auditing their configuration.

The container runtime and orchestration platform relies on the host operating system. If attackers compromise the host OS, there can be complete control over the containerized environment. This makes regular updates, patch management, and OS hardening very important to establish a secure host OS. Leveraging a minimal OS that exposes a smaller attack surface can further reduce this risk of exploitation.

Many situations will call for containers to communicate with each other and external services, and therefore, the aspect of network security becomes very important. According to a 2023 Verizon report, almost 30 percent of the overall container breaches occurred from network-based attacks. Robust network segmentation and enforcement of network policies complemented by secure communication protocols, such as TLS/SSL, have greater importance. This risk of exposure can further be avoided by isolating container networks and limiting their exposure to the internet.

Containers bring forth different security concerns, which an organization must act on to make sure their environment is secured effectively.

Container images can rapidly turn into an easy target if they contain vulnerabilities or outdated software. Scanning regularly for vulnerabilities and making use of automated tools—like security checks built into a pipeline—are key to countering this risk.

Running containers that hold excessive privileges uncovers the core system resources to attackers. To decrease this risk, organizations should grant the least privilege, which involves ensuring that containers have only those permissions important in their functions, consequently limiting the attack surface.

Weak passwords and open ports, which are easy to break, are very common misconfigurations in any containerized environment. Best practices for secure configuration must be followed during deployment, and these best practices should be automated through IaC tools.

Most of those containers are transient/temporary in nature and, therefore, hard to observe using traditional security tools. In this respect, organizations may lack the capability for in-depth container activity monitoring to reveal some latent security threats. Container-specific monitoring and log solutions offer optimum insights concerning detecting and responding to such threats.

There is the danger of attackers injecting malicious code into the container supply chain through third-party images, libraries, or other components. The elements that a supply chain is made up of must all be secure, verified, and sourced from a trusted vendor to avoid such attacks.

Containers must reconcile with industry standards and regulations—PCI DSS, HIPAA, or GDPR. Given their dynamic nature, moving into compliance assurance within a containerized environment can be pretty challenging. Proper compliance frameworks should be implemented by organizations, with continuous auditing to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements.

Container escape is a case where an attacker takes advantage of some vulnerability to access the underlying host or other containers. In this way, it allows for lateral movement inside the environment and thereby provides wider access to attackers at large. Proper hardening of the container runtime, combined with in-built security controls on their part—Seccomp and AppArmor—avoids this type of attack.

Here are ten essential container security practices that could help businesses take necessary actions:

The first line of defense for container environments is the strict management of images used to create such containers. Use trusted base images only, ensuring they are updated with the latest security patches. Ensure that probable vulnerability scanning is automatized for any issues within your pipeline before deployment. Put in place policies that disallow the utilization of images from untrusted sources or those that are obsolete. You may want to consider image signing and verification—their images will be assured not to have unauthorized modifications. By securing container images from the outset, you significantly reduce the risk of introducing vulnerabilities into your environment.

Containers should run with the minimum privilege that will permit them to do their job. This shall be based on role-based access control, which enforces what containers and users can do within such an environment. Running containers as root is discouraged, and security-focused container runtimes enforcing restrictions like this must be used. The least privileges on containers make it difficult for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities to gain broader systems access, thus keeping the attack surface low. This means the need for periodic audits of container permission is required to ensure the environment remains safe and controlled.

Careful control over container networking should be effected to prevent unauthorized access and lateral movement. One of these methods will be using network namespaces but additionally having tight network policies in place governing traffic between containers and outgoing traffic from containers to the wider world. This latter is also a function of data in transit protection, employing appropriate security protocols like TLS/SSL for secure data transmission. Network segmentation strategies will again limit the damage if one of the said containers is compromised. This can also be done with VPCs or internal firewalls. These include all measures that can help to strengthen the resilience of your network against attacks on the container ecosystem.

Container runtimes are also an integral part. Make sure to plug the container runtime as well as the host operating system with the latest security fixes. Introduce security controls such as AppArmor, SELinux, and second in order to limit what may be executed at runtime. Periodically examine the runtime configuration against best practices and enforce policies that limit access to sensitive host resources. In this way, you lock down the runtime environment to reduce the risk of container runtime-based attacks, including container escape.

Monitoring and logging are incomparable in the detection of security incidents in near real-time and responding to them. Centralize logs and monitor them using security information and event management systems that are tuned for container environments. Use container-centric security tools to track anomalous runtime behavior that may indicate an attack. Implement real-time alerting that will trigger security teams of a potential threat so they can quickly react. This enables security incidents to be detected and resolved before they can do a lot of damage by ensuring consistent monitoring and logging.

The container orchestration platforms, like Kubernetes, should be hardened to prevent attackers from getting control over the complete environment of containers. Implement RBAC, securing access to orchestration to just admit modification capability to legitimate personas; regularly audit the configuration of the platform, looking for security gaps and configuring them. Sign and confirm container images to integrity before their deployment.

Keeping the orchestration platform updated also contains the latest patches, which is very vital in maintaining security. If the orchestration layer is secure, there will not be any exploitation of the platform by attackers to compromise several containers.

Security in containers must be integrated right from the start of the SDLC. That’s automating security testing and vulnerability scanning throughout—at each stage of development—not just before deployment. It’s discovering that all security is a shared responsibility among development, security, and operations teams via DevSecOps practices. And yet, it’s collaboration time: educate your teams on best practices about container security and provide them with the appropriate tools for such within the CI/CD pipeline. The integration of security into DevOps procedures facilitates a proactive, not reactive, culture with respect to security.

Keeping environments of containers up-to-date regarding security patches is critical to avoid exploits. That refers not only to images of a container and the OS host but also to a container runtime and orchestration platform. Automated patching tools can enable that easily by providing an integrated and non-disruptive update process. Regular scans assure protection against such known vulnerabilities, which might be exploited by attackers.

Keeping updated reduces the risk of security breaches and guards the environment against newly discovered threats.

It is essential to implement strong access controls to ensure the integrity of the container environment by preventing unauthorized access. Use multi-factor authentication to protect access to the container orchestration platform and other critical components. RBAC will help to grant users, based on their roles, access only to those resources that they need to perform their work. But in this case, as well, regularly check the accesses to see if they are according to the least privilege concept. By enforcing strong access controls, you reduce the likelihood of unauthorized access, protecting sensitive data and maintaining the integrity of the container environment.

Regular security audits and compliance checks are essential for maintaining a secure container environment. These audits should include a thorough review of container images, runtime configurations, network settings, and access controls. Compliance checks ensure that the environment adheres to industry standards and regulations, reducing the risk of legal and financial repercussions. Automated tools can help streamline this process, providing continuous monitoring and reporting. Run regular audits and compliance checks to catch security gaps before they are exploited and thereby ensure a secure and compliant container environment.

SentinelOne is a unified platform addressing container security needs with a proactive approach with its Singularity™ Cloud Workload Security platform. The solution includes container security for all possible challenges and strong protection for a containerized environment.

By integrating advanced security capabilities, SentinelOne’s Singularity™ provides AI-driven, holistic, and end-to-end protection throughout the container lifecycle and enables organizations to embrace cloud-native technologies with confidence.

This article has offered insight into container security by describing areas companies should secure, common challenges and risks to face, and best practices to secure containerized environments. Securing container images and minimizing privileges, enforcing runtime and network security— this blog has been through the most critical strategies aimed at building a robust container security posture. Such strategies will help to protect your containerized applications and data. However, to cement your defenses, consider SentinelOne’s Singularity™ Cloud Workload Security for complete visibility, real-time threat detection, and, hence, automated remediation through your container environment.

Secure container security through good image management, minimum permissions, and networking security. Improve runtime security; monitor activities and secure orchestration platforms. Begin integrating security practices in DevSecOps for all-around protection.

Some best practices for containerization include:

There are many specialized tools designed to effectively secure containerized environments. By utilizing solutions like the SentinelOne Singularity™ Cloud Workload Security, an organization’s container security posture can be immensely enhanced against various containerized threats.