Category: Challenges in activity logging

Latest trends and advancements in container security – Onboarding Containers

May 17th, 2023

Container security and CSPM are areas that continue to evolve and advance as technology progresses. Here are some of the most recent trends and future advancements to watch for in container security and CSPM:

  • Enhanced container image security: There has been an increased focus on improving container image security by integrating advanced scanning techniques, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). This will help identify even more complex vulnerabilities, malware, and supply chain attacks.
  • Runtime protection and behavioral analysis: Container runtime protection will evolve to include more advanced behavioral analysis and anomaly detection capabilities. This will enable the detection of suspicious activities and real-time mitigation of threats during container runtime.
  • Kubernetes-native security solutions: As Kubernetes remains the dominant container orchestration platform, there will be a rise in Kubernetes-native security solutions. These solutions will provide tighter integration with Kubernetes, offering enhanced visibility, configuration management, and automated remediation for Kubernetes-specific security risks.
  • Immutable infrastructure: The concept of immutable infrastructure, where containers are treated as disposable and immutable, will gain more traction. This approach simplifies security management by minimizing the attack surface and reducing the impact of security incidents.
  • Compliance automation: CSPM tools will increasingly automate compliance monitoring and reporting processes. This will help organizations align with various regulatory frameworks by continuously assessing the security posture of their container environments and generating compliance reports.
  • Integration with DevSecOps: Container security and CSPM solutions have seamlessly integrated with DevSecOps practices and toolchains. This integration enables security to be embedded throughout the software development life cycle, ensuring security and compliance from the initial stages of application development.
  • Zero trust architecture: Zero trust architecture, which assumes no implicit trust for any user or container, will be adopted more widely. Container security solutions and CSPM tools will incorporate zero trust principles to enforce strict access controls, authentication, and authorization mechanisms.
  • Serverless security: As serverless computing gains popularity, container security solutions and CSPM tools will adapt to address the unique security challenges of serverless environments. This includes securing serverless functions, managing access rights, and monitoring functions for vulnerabilities or misconfigurations.
  • Threat intelligence and threat hunting: Container security solutions and CSPM tools will leverage threat intelligence feeds and advanced threat hunting techniques to proactively identify emerging threats and indicators of compromise. This proactive approach will help organizations stay ahead of potential attacks.
  • Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD): Container security and CSPM solutions will integrate more seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines to enable automated security testing, vulnerability scanning, and configuration checks during the application build and deployment stages.

Staying current with the latest developments in container security is essential to maintaining the security of containerized applications and infrastructure.

Summary

In this chapter, we understood containerization and explored its benefits in the context of CSPM by explaining the concept of containerization, which involves encapsulating an application and its dependencies into a portable and isolated unit called a container. We also discussed unique container security challenges, onboarding containers to CSPM tools, particularly in the context of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and challenges that may arise in the onboarding process. We also delved into security best practices for containers and the most recent trends and advancements in container security in the context of CSPM.

In the next chapter, we will discuss CSPM tool environment settings and integration with other IT tools.

Further reading

To learn more about the topics that were covered in this chapter, take a look at the following resources:

Reporting and analytics integration – Exploring Environment Settings

February 13th, 2023

Integration with reporting and analytics platforms enables the CSPM tool to generate comprehensive security reports, visualizations, and insights. This integration allows security teams to analyze trends, track compliance status, and present the organization’s security posture to stakeholders effectively. Integration can be with Microsoft Power BI and Grafana, which are the most common tools used in the industry. Using a wide range of API offerings by CSPM tools, it becomes possible to integrate these with reporting. We will discuss reporting in detail in the next section of this chapter. Let us now understand CSPM tool integration with SIEM/SOAR tools.

Monitoring (SIEM/SOAR) tool integration

Integrating SIEM and SOAR tools with CSPM solutions is a crucial part of monitoring the security of cloud infrastructure. This integration helps you centralize and automate security monitoring, incident detection, and response in your cloud environment. Let’s take a closer look at this:

  • SIEM integration: Integration between a CSPM tool and an SIEM system allows the exchange of security-related data and events. CSPM tools can feed security findings, alerts, and configuration data to the SIEM system, enriching overall security event monitoring and analysis. SIEM integration provides a broader context to CSPM data, enabling correlation with other security events across the infrastructure and enhancing threat detection capabilities.
  • SOAR integration: CSPM tools can integrate with SOAR platforms to automate IR workflows. By exchanging data and alerts between the CSPM tool and the SOAR platform, security teams can automate response actions based on predefined playbooks or workflows. This integration streamlines IR, enables the rapid containment and remediation of security incidents, and enhances overall operational efficiency.

Using CSPM data in your applications is a key reason for configuring integration with the CSPM tool. Once the CSPM tool is integrated with your application, you can receive data from it, including data on alerts, assets, and other objects. This data can be utilized for diverse purposes such as in-depth analysis, storage, ticket creation, and more.

You can integrate your application with CSPM tools using the API and Webhooks:

  • Using API integration: The API functionality of the CSPM tool enables you to retrieve data and perform actions within the tool, such as initiating asset scans or verifying alerts. To utilize the API, you need to set up an API token within the tool. Once the API token is configured, you can send API requests from your application to interact with the CSPM tool, accessing the desired data or triggering specific actions.
  • Using Webhook integration: Webhooks enable the real-time pushing of alert data from the CSPM tool to your system as soon as specific alerts are identified. By incorporating Webhooks into notification integrations, you can promptly send messages or emails when critical alerts are detected, requiring immediate response actions. This ensures timely awareness and enables swift IM.

An effective CSPM tool should be able to integrate with a commonly used and wide range of SIEM/SOAR tools such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Sumo Logic, IBM QRadar, Cribl, JupiterOne, Vulcan, Chronicle, Swimlane, and more.

Understanding container security challenges – Onboarding Containers

October 10th, 2022

Security in containerized environments is of paramount importance due to the unique challenges posed by containerization. While containerization provides many benefits in terms of agility, scalability, and portability, it also introduces unique security challenges that need to be addressed.

Let us now look at common security risks and threats in containerized environments:

  • Isolation and vulnerability management: Containers rely on a shared host kernel, and if one container is compromised, it can potentially impact other containers and the underlying host. Therefore, ensuring strong isolation between containers and proactive vulnerability management is crucial to prevent lateral movement of threats and unauthorized access.
  • Container image security: Containers are built from images that contain the application and its dependencies. These images must be regularly scanned for vulnerabilities and validated to ensure they do not include any malicious or outdated components. Failure to secure container images can lead to the exploitation of known vulnerabilities and compromise the integrity of the entire containerized environment.
  • Runtime threats and monitoring: Monitoring container runtime is essential to detect and respond to security incidents in real time. It involves tracking container behavior, network traffic, and application activity to identify anomalies or malicious activities. Continuous monitoring helps in the timely detection of runtime threats, such as unauthorized access attempts, abnormal resource usage, or malicious code execution.
  • Compliance and regulatory requirements: Organizations working in regulated industries need to ensure their containerized environments comply with industry-specific security standards and regulatory frameworks. Failure to meet these requirements can lead to severe legal and financial consequences. Proper security measures, such as access controls, data encryption, and audit logs, must be implemented to maintain compliance.
  • Orchestration and configuration security: Container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes introduce additional security considerations. Securing the orchestration layer, managing access controls, and enforcing secure configuration practices are vital to protecting the underlying infrastructure and preventing unauthorized access or manipulation of containers.
  • Complex networking: Containers are often dynamic, and their IP addresses may change frequently. Service discovery becomes challenging in a dynamic and distributed environment. Managing networking for containers can be complex, especially when dealing with multiple containers on different hosts that need to communicate with each other.
  • Resource overhead: Container orchestration tools, such as Kubernetes or Docker Swarm, introduce additional resource overhead to manage and coordinate container deployment, scaling, and load balancing. Running multiple containers on a host can lead to resource contention, such as container density requiring careful resource allocation to ensure optimal performance.
  • Monitoring: Monitoring containers poses challenges due to their ephemeral nature. Traditional monitoring tools may struggle to provide real-time insights into the state of containers. Containers require specific monitoring tools that understand container orchestration platforms and can track metrics such as container health, resource usage, and application performance.
  • Logging management and aggregation: Containerized applications generate a large volume of logs, and managing and analyzing these logs becomes challenging. Centralized log management solutions are crucial but can be complex to set up. Aggregating logs from multiple containers and services requires a comprehensive strategy to ensure that logs are accessible for debugging and auditing purposes.
  • Secure deployment pipelines: Security should be integrated into the entire container deployment pipeline. From the development stage to production deployment, each step should include security checks and measures to ensure that containers are free from vulnerabilities and adhere to security best practices. Implementing secure container registries, automated security testing, and secure image signing are critical aspects of a secure deployment pipeline.
  • Container escape and privilege escalation: Container escape vulnerabilities, though rare, have the potential to compromise the entire host system. Proper security measures, such as user namespace remapping, seccomp, and AppArmor, must be implemented to mitigate the risk of container escape and privilege escalation attacks.

Process for offboarding cloud accounts from CSPM – Onboarding Cloud Accounts

July 23rd, 2022

The process for offboarding cloud accounts from a CSPM tool is an essential step in maintaining the security and compliance of your cloud infrastructure. Here is a general process for offboarding cloud accounts:

  • Identify inactive or decommissioned cloud accounts: Determine which cloud accounts are no longer in use, have been decommissioned, or are otherwise no longer relevant to your organization’s operations. This can be based on input from IT and operations teams, account status, or business requirements.
  • Review account dependencies: Before offboarding a cloud account, assess its dependencies within the CSPM solution. Identify any connected resources, configurations, or associated data that may require migration or backup.
  • Plan the offboarding process: Create a clear plan outlining the steps involved in offboarding the cloud accounts. Include considerations such as data backup, resource migration, and access revocation.
  • Backup or transfer data: If there is any relevant data associated with the offboarding cloud accounts in the CSPM solution, ensure it is properly backed up or transferred to a suitable location for future reference or auditing purposes.
  • Terminate monitoring and alerting: Disable monitoring and alerting for the specific cloud accounts within the CSPM solution. This ensures that the CSPM platform no longer collects data or generates alerts for those accounts.
  • Revoke access and permissions: Remove the CSPM solution’s access and permissions to the offboarding cloud accounts, ensuring that the solution can no longer access or manage the resources within those accounts.
  • Update documentation and processes: Update any relevant documentation, procedures, or workflows to reflect the offboarding of the cloud accounts from the CSPM solution. Ensure that stakeholders are informed of the changes and any alternative monitoring mechanisms, if applicable.
  • Validate and verify offboarding: After completing the offboarding process, perform validation checks to ensure that the cloud accounts are successfully removed from the CSPM solution and that monitoring and management have ceased.
  • Decommission resources (if applicable): If there are any resources associated with the offboarding cloud accounts that are no longer needed, follow proper decommissioning processes to remove or delete those resources securely.

Remember that the specific steps for offboarding cloud accounts from a CSPM solution may vary depending on the solution itself and the cloud provider involved. Always consult the documentation and guidelines provided by the CSPM solution and the respective cloud provider for the most accurate and up-to-date offboarding procedures.

Summary

In this chapter, we explored the best practices and steps involved in onboarding cloud accounts to a CSPM solution. We discussed the importance of automating the onboarding process to streamline and expedite account setup. Additionally, we examined the deployment architecture for onboarding multi-cloud environments, considering the complexities and unique requirements of each cloud provider. We also delved into the challenges that can arise during the onboarding process and provided mitigations to address them. We explored the topic of offboarding cloud accounts from the CSPM solution and its significance.

The next chapter is focused on containers onboarding to CSPM tool. As containers are complex and vast in themselves, their onboarding aspects are discussed separately.

Further reading

To learn more about the topics that were covered in this chapter, take a look at the following resources:

WHAT IS CONTAINER ESCAPE? – Onboarding Containers

March 5th, 2022

Container escape is an exploitative technique in which an unauthorized individual gains entry to the underlying host operating system from inside a container. This illicit access enables them to breach the container’s isolated environment and potentially manipulate or access resources on the host system. If container escape is successfully executed, it can jeopardize the security of other containers residing on the same host and potentially compromise the entire infrastructure.

Despite these challenges, containerization remains a popular and valuable technology. Many of these issues can be addressed with careful planning, proper tooling, and ongoing management practices. To address these security challenges, organizations use various tools and practices, including container security scanners, CSPM solutions, runtime protection tools, network security policies, access controls, and security best practices tailored to containers.

How does CSPM address these unique security challenges?

CSPM addresses the unique security challenges introduced by containers through its holistic approach. It provides complete visibility into containerized environments, constantly monitors for misconfigurations, compliance violations, and vulnerabilities, and automatically enforces security policies. This proactive stance ensures that dynamic, short-lived containers are always configured securely. Additionally, CSPM integrates seamlessly with DevOps, promoting security throughout the development and deployment process, thus mitigating issues early. It offers real-time alerts and automates incident response, enabling quick reactions to security threats within containers. This combination of continuous monitoring, proactive configuration management, and integration into the development life cycle allows CSPM to effectively tackle the challenges of container security.

Now that we understand the unique security challenges of a containerized environment and how CSPM addresses these concerns, let us explore the onboarding aspects of containers to a CSPM tool.

Onboarding containers to CSPM tools

Onboarding containers to a CSPM tool refers to the process of integrating containers into the CSPM tool for enhanced security monitoring and management. The onboarding process involves configuring the CSPM tool to scan, assess, and protect containers against security risks and compliance violations.

Note

To make the concept easily understandable, the Microsoft Defender for Containers feature of the Microsoft Defender for Cloud tool is taken as a reference wherever it is imperative to explain with an example. There are many other tools available on the market that offer container security posture management features as well. The example chosen here is purely based on publicly accessible information.

Amazon EKS clusters – Onboarding Containers

January 21st, 2022

At the time of writing this chapter, Defender for Containers support for Amazon EKS clusters is a preview feature. To receive the full protection offered by Microsoft Defender for Containers, the following components are needed:

  • Kubernetes audit logs
  • Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes
  • The Defender extension
  • The Azure Policy extension

To understand the full concepts and updated information, read the Microsoft documentation (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-containers-architecture?tabs=defender-for-container-arch-eks#architecture-diagram-of-defender-for-cloud-and-eks-clusters).

Figure 7.3 – Architecture diagram of Defender for Cloud and Amazon EKS cluster (source: Microsoft)

Google Cloud GKE cluster

At the time of writing this chapter, Defender for Containers support for GKE in a connected GCP project cluster is a preview feature. To receive the full protection offered by Microsoft Defender for Containers, the following components are needed:

  • Kubernetes audit logs
  • Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes
  • The Defender extension
  • The Azure Policy extension

To understand the full concepts and updated information, read the Microsoft documentation (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-containers-architecture?tabs=defender-for-container-arch-eks#architecture-diagram-of-defender-for-cloud-and-eks-clusters).

Figure 7.4 – Architecture diagram of Defender for Cloud and GKE cluster (source: Microsoft)

Once containers are onboarded, Defender for Containers receives and analyzes the following information to protect Kubernetes containers:

  • Audit logs and security events from the API server
  • Cluster configuration information from the control plane
  • Workload configuration from Azure Policy
  • Security signals and events from the node level

Now that you understand the architecture diagram of Kubernetes clusters along with Microsoft Defender for Containers, let us now understand how the onboarding of Kubernetes clusters works.

Enabling Microsoft Defender for Containers for Kubernetes clusters

Microsoft Defender for Containers is a feature bundled with cloud-native solutions through Microsoft Defender for Cloud for securing your Kubernetes clusters.

Let us now understand how it works in the case of Azure Kubernetes clusters.

Onboarding other clouds – Onboarding Cloud Accounts-1

October 2nd, 2021

Every CSPM vendor is on a journey to bring new features every day. It is part of the vendor assessment process to make sure that the vendor you are choosing has the capabilities to support all other cloud environments your organization is using. For example, as of today while writing this chapter, Microsoft Defender for Cloud supports Azure DevOps and GitHub environment (in preview) but no other cloud environments, such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) or Alibaba Cloud. However, you can still onboard your SQL servers, Windows servers, or any other workloads by installing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint agents to the workloads. Defender for Cloud can monitor the security posture of non-Azure computers, but first, you need to connect them to Azure.

The following are some links that you can refer to when onboarding non-Azure workloads to Microsoft Defender for Cloud:

Please refer to the Further reading section of this chapter to learn more about cloud account onboarding.

Let us now look at challenges and roadblocks that may arise during onboarding.

Onboarding roadblocks and mitigation best practices

During the onboarding process of cloud accounts to a CSPM tool, organizations may encounter several roadblocks. Let us understand these roadblocks one by one, along with mitigation best practices.

Roadblock #1 – Lack of necessary permissions

Obtaining the required permissions and credentials to connect cloud accounts can be challenging, especially in larger organizations.

Best practices are as follows:

  • Work closely with your cloud service providers to grant the necessary access
  • Clearly define and communicate the required permissions to relevant stakeholders
  • Use role-based access control (RBAC) to manage access more effectively

Roadblock #2 – Complex cloud environments

Multi-cloud or hybrid environments can be complex, with different configurations and security practices across platforms.

Best practices are as follows:

  • Develop a standardized approach for security policies and practices
  • Ensure your CSPM tool can support multiple cloud platforms
  • Create a comprehensive inventory of all cloud assets

Roadblock #3 – Resistance to change

Resistance from IT or development teams when introducing a CSPM tool can be a roadblock.

Best practices are as follows:

  • Communicate the benefits of the CSPM tool, such as improved security and compliance
  • Collaborate with teams to address their concerns and involve them in the onboarding process
  • Provide training to ensure that teams can use the tool effectively

Onboarding Azure accounts – Onboarding Cloud Accounts

September 8th, 2021

Defender for Cloud offers comprehensive security management and threat protection for your hybrid and multi-cloud workloads. The free features focus on securing your Azure resources specifically, while additional paid plans provide enhanced protection for your on-premises infrastructure and resources across different cloud platforms. With Defender for Cloud, you can achieve unified security and peace of mind across your entire IT environment, regardless of its composition and location.

Follow this link to enable Defender for Cloud for Azure workloads: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/get-started.

Since Microsoft offers Defender for Cloud through the Microsoft Azure portal, it becomes super-easy to enable it for Azure workloads, and for other cloud environments, the process remains like other CSPM tool processes.

Prerequisites

  • You need an active subscription to Microsoft Azure to utilize Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
  • Ensure you have appropriate permissions and access to manage Azure resources. You should have an Owner, Contributor, or Reader role assigned for the subscription or for the resource group that the resource is located in.

Enable Defender for Cloud on your Azure subscription

Once you follow the steps mentioned in the preceding link, Defender for Cloud gets enabled on your subscription and you have access to the basic features provided by Defender for Cloud, such as the Foundational CSPM plan, recommendations, access to the asset inventory, workbooks, Secure Score, and regulatory compliance with the Microsoft cloud security benchmark. The other important links are provided at the end of the chapter under the Further reading section.

Let us now understand how to onboard GCP accounts to Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

Onboarding GCP accounts

Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides robust protection for workloads hosted on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). However, it is necessary to establish a connection between your Azure subscription and GCP to leverage these security services effectively.

Follow this link to enable Defender for Cloud for GCP projects: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/quickstart-onboard-gcp#connect-your-gcp-project.

Prerequisites

  • You need a Microsoft Azure subscription as Microsoft offers the Defender for Cloud service through the Azure portal.
  • Microsoft Defender for Cloud on your Azure subscription must be enabled.
  • You need access to a GCP project.
  • You need to have a Contributor role on the relevant Azure subscription and an Owner role on the GCP organization or project.
  • It is possible to connect your GCP projects to Microsoft Defender for Cloud on the project level and also connect multiple projects to one Azure subscription. You can connect multiple projects to multiple Azure subscriptions as well.

Steps to onboard GCP accounts

Once you follow the steps mentioned in the preceding link, you will be able to establish a connection between your GCP project and Defender for Cloud and then a scan starts on your GCP environment. New recommendations will appear in Defender for Cloud after up to six hours. When auto-provisioning is enabled, Azure Arc and any enabled extensions are automatically installed for each newly detected resource.

Let us now look at some important points related to other environments.

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