Controls
Reproducible builds and minimal bases are crucial for establishing a secure foundation. Utilizing small, well-maintained base images reduces the attack surface and simplifies vulnerability management, ensuring consistency across deployments.
Generating and maintaining Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) coupled with regular vulnerability scanning allows for proactive identification and remediation of security weaknesses within your containerized applications. This provides visibility into all software components and their associated risks.
Implementing signing, provenance (SLSA), and policy enforcement strengthens the integrity of your images throughout the development lifecycle. These practices verify the authenticity and trustworthiness of each step, from build to deployment.
Runtime
Admission control, sandboxing, and drift detection with continuous verification.
Examples
Example: Signed Images with Policy Enforcement
Generate SBOM and sign images.
Enforce signature and SBOM presence at admission.
Monitor runtime and alert on drift.
Frequently asked questions
Which base images?
Use minimal, verified sources with long-term support to minimize potential vulnerabilities and ensure ongoing security updates. Regularly audit your base image selections for known issues.
How to manage SBOMs?
Automate the generation of SBOMs using dedicated tools and store them securely as artifacts within a version control system. This provides an immutable record of your software dependencies, facilitating vulnerability management.
Signing?
Implement keyless signing for images to verify their authenticity and integrity at deployment time. Regularly rotate keys and maintain strict access controls over signing processes.
Vuln noise?
Employ severity-based gating to prioritize vulnerability remediation efforts, focusing on the most critical risks first. Establish a clear process for tracking and addressing vulnerabilities throughout the container lifecycle.
Secrets in images?
Prevent the inclusion of sensitive information within images by using secrets management solutions or environment variables at runtime. Regularly scan images for leaked secrets to mitigate potential exposure risks.
Policy engines?
Utilize admission controllers with clearly defined rules to enforce security policies during container deployments, restricting access and preventing unauthorized modifications.
Private registries?
Restrict egress traffic from private registries and implement image allowlists to control which images can be deployed within your environment. This adds an extra layer of defense against compromised or malicious images.
Runtime drift?
Detect configuration changes in running containers compared to a baseline and automatically reconcile them with the desired state, ensuring ongoing compliance and security posture.
Multi-cloud?
Standardize supply chain security controls across all cloud platforms you utilize to maintain consistency and simplify governance. Leverage automation and centralized management tools for efficient operations.
Evidence?
Maintain comprehensive attestations and audit logs throughout the container supply chain, providing verifiable evidence of compliance and security controls for regulatory audits or internal assessments.
Try it live
Everything above runs in your browser — open Network Packet Routing and change the parameters while it is running. Nothing is installed, nothing is uploaded, the whole model lives in one tab.
▶ Open Network Packet Routing simulation