Improving Container Security Posture with Nightly Base Image Pipelines and AquaSec Trivy Scanner

The Challenge

One of our professional services clients had a pressing need to ensure their base container images were kept up-to-date with the latest security fixes. The existing manual process of periodically updating base images was time-consuming and error-prone and could easily be left undone. The client needed an automated and reliable way to keep the images updated with the latest security fixes.

The Solution

To overcome the challenge, we helped our client implement nightly base image pipelines that automatically updated the base images with the latest security fixes. CICD pipelines were used to implement the scheduled workload and were configured to run nightly via a CronJob. The pipelines pulled the latest Dockerfiles for the base images and applied any security fixes to the operating system via package management tooling.

AquaSec Trivy scanner was also integrated into the pipeline to further improve container security. AquaSec Trivy scanned container images for vulnerabilities, configuration issues, and file systems. This scan result provides the much needed analysis of any issues that may exist in the newly built container image and help direct remediation.

The Impact

The nightly base image pipelines and AquaSec Trivy scanner significantly improved the client's container security posture. By keeping the base images up-to-date automatically, the risk of vulnerabilities in the images was reduced.

By keeping packages up-to-date, container images can be made more secure and less vulnerable to attacks that exploit known vulnerabilities.

However, it's important to note that package updates are not always sufficient to address all CVEs, especially if they are related to the application code or other system components. Additionally, updates can sometimes introduce new vulnerabilities or conflicts with other packages. Therefore, it's important to have a comprehensive approach to container security that includes regular vulnerability scans, image hardening, and other best practices.

To learn more about our our approach to DevSecOps and Secure Core Engineering, head here.

Or book a callback using the button below, and let's talk.