In the recent years massive adoption rates of dockers have made the security an important point to consider for firms which are using these containers for the development and production of different things.Containers are complex when compared to virtual machines or other deployed technologies. The process to secure docker containers are also very complex.
We will take a view of docker security container and explain the reason behind the complexity of docker container. We will discuss the default environments for better security and practices to monitor containers for security.
Following is the complete guide for container security:
Challenges faced by dockers container security:
Many organisations used virtual machines or bare-metal servers before Docker to host applications. These technologies are quite simple when seen from a security perspective. When hardening your development and monitoring for security relevant events you need to focus on just two layers. As APIs, overlay networks or complex software defined storage configuration are not a major part of virtual machine or bare metal developments so you do not have to worry about these.
A typical Docker environment has many moving parts hence its security is much more complicated. Those moving parts include:
- Probably you have multiple Docker container images and individual micro services will be hosted by each one of your containers. Also probably multiple intances of each imagine will be running at a time. Proper security and monitoring will be required for these intances and images.
- To keep the containers and its host safe, the Docker daemon need to be secured.
- Bare metal or virtual machine might be the host server.
- Another layer to secure is service like ECS if you use it to host your containers.
- Communication between containers is facilitated by APIs and Overlay networks.
- Other storage system that exists externally from your containers is Data volume.
And if you are thinking that learning to secure Docker is tough because dockers security is undoubtely much more complex than any other security system.
Best practices of Docker container security:

Luckily we can overcome the challenges. this article is not a tiring guide to security of docker but you can use this official Docker documentation),as a reference. Below are some best practices:
#1 setting of reference quotes
One easy thing in docker is configuring of resource quotas. Resource quotas helps us to limit the memory amount and resources of cpu which is consumed by the container.
This is helpful for many reasons. It helps to keep the environment of docker efficient and saves one container from mixing with other system resources. It also increases the security by saving the container from using large space or resources so that it gets prevented from any harmful activity.
Resources quotas are easily set by use of commands. View this Docker documentation.
#2 Root should not be run
We all know the feeling when we are tired and dont want to get entangled in problems related to permission setting to get an application work properly so running in root is the only option left so you dont worry about issues related to permission restrictions.
if you are a beginner it is sometimes okay to use Docker testing environment but there is no reason good enough to let a Docker container run with roof permissions in production.
Because Docker doesn’t run containers as root by default so this is an easy docker security to be followed. So you don’t have to make amendments to prevent running as a root by default in a default configuration. letting a container as a root is a temptation that needs to be resisted as it is more convenient in some situations.
If you use kubernetes to orchestrate your containers for added Docker security, you can explicitly prevent containers from starting as root. We can use MustRunAsNonRoot directive in a pod security policy.
#3 Secure container registeries
Docker is powerful because of the container registeries.It makes it easy to set central repositories which helps us in downloading the container images.
Using the container registries is a security risk if one does not know the evaluation of the security constraints.We can use Docker Trusted Registry which can be installed in the firewalls to eradicate the risk of viruses.
The registry can be accessed from the back of firewalls and we can limit the unknown access of uploading and downloading images from our registry. Using role based access can control explicitly of unknown users or access.It is nice to leave our registry open to others but it is useful only if it stops the access of viruses and harmful things.
#4 Use of trusted and secure images
We should be sure that the the images or container images we use are from a trusted source. This is obvious but there are many platforms from where we can download images and they might not be trusted or verified.
One should consider not using public container registries or try to use official trusted repositories, like the ones on Docker Hub.
One can use image scanning tools which help to identify harmful sources . Mostupper level containerhave embedded scanning tools. The ones like Clair.
#5 Identify the source of your code
Docker images contain some original code and packages from upstream sources. sometimes the image downloaded can come from a trusted registry, the image can have packages from untrusted sources. these unknown packages can be made up of code taken from multiple outside sources.
That is why analysis tools are important. Downloading the sources of the Docker images and scanning the code origin we can know if any of the code is from unknown sources.
#6 network security and API
As we have seen above Docker containers depend on APIs and networks for communication. It is important to make sure that your APIs and network architectures are secure and monitoring the APIs and network activity for any unusual activity must also be checked.
As APIs and networks are not a part of Docker and are resources of Dockers so steps for securing APIs and networks are not included in this article. But it is important to check the security of the sources.
In Conclusion
Docker is a complex concept and having no simple trick for maintaining Docker container security. But one has to think carefully about steps to secure your Docker containers, and strengthen your container environment at many levels. This is the only way to ensure that you can have all the benefits of Docker containers without having major security issues.