We close out this research paper with two key areas: Monitoring and Auditing. We want to draw attention to them because they are essential to security programs, but have received only sporadic coverage in security blogs and the press. When we go beyond network segregation and network policies for what we allow, the ability to detect misuse is extremely valuable, which is where monitoring and logging come in. Additionally, most Development and Security teams are not aware of the variety of…
Over a year ago we first published our series on Tidal Forces: The Trends Tearing Apart Security As We Know It. We called out three megatrends in technology with deep and lasting impact on security practice:
After the focus on tools and processes in previous sections, we can now focus on containers in production systems. This includes which images are moved into production repositories, selecting and running containers, and the security of underlying host systems.
Testing the code and supplementary components which will execute within containers, and verifying that everything conforms to security and operational practices, is core to any container security effort. One of the major advances over the last year or so is the introduction of security features for the software supply chain, from container engine providers including Docker, Rocket, OpenShift and so on. We also see a number of third-party vendors helping to validate container content, both…
To state the obvious, traditional security operations is broken. Every organization faces more sophisticated attacks, the possibility of targeted adversaries, and far more complicated infrastructure; compounding the problem, we have fewer skilled resources to execute on security programs. Obviously it’s time to evolve security operations by leveraging technology to both accelerate human work and take care of rote, tedious tasks which don’t add value. So security orchestration and automation are…
Most people fail to consider the build environment when thinking about container security, but it is critical. The build environment is traditionally the domain of developers, who don’t share much detail with outsiders (meaning security teams). But with Continuous Integration (CI) or full Continuous Deployment (CD), we’re shooting new code into production… potentially several times a day. An easy way for an attacker to hack an application is get into its development or build environment –…
To better understand which container security areas you should focus on, and why we recommend particular controls, it helps to understand which threats need to be addressed and which areas containers affect most. Some threats and issues are well-known, some are purely lab proofs of concept, and others are threat vectors which attackers have yet to exploit – typically because there is so much low-hanging fruit elsewhere.
The explosive growth of containers is not surprising – these technologies, such as Docker, alleviate several problems for developers deploying applications. Developers need simple packaging, rapid deployment, reduced environmental dependencies, support for microservices, generalized management, and horizontal scalability – all of which containers help provide. When a single technology enables us to address several technical problems at once, it’s very compelling. But this generic model of…
I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays… just in time to return to work, catch up on email, and watch the entire Internet burn down thanks to a cluster of hardware vulnerabilities built into pretty much every computing platform available.
Traditional application security concerns are shifting, responding to disruptive technologies and development frameworks. Cloud services, containerization, orchestration platforms, and automated build pipelines – to name just a few – all change the way we build and deploy applications. Each effects security a different way. One of the new application security challenges is to provision machines, applications, and services with the credentials they need at runtime. When you remove humans from…