this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
94 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
48193 readers
1799 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You would think you'd already have problems if someone's managed to compromise one or more of your containers without you knowing though whether they can get the host or not
Could be serving users malware or silently sucking up all the sensitive data the container sees
What if anything do people do about anti virus in containers?
True, but the security idea behind being in a containerised environment is that your problems aren't immediately made worse by the fact that your database server is on the same machine as your web application - since they'd both be on separate but networked containers.
The real threat to containers isn't AV-detectable malware, but Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploits.
Containers are best used as single purpose installations. With that configuration, it isn't easy to get non-standard executables - including malware - onto a container.
Most RCE exploits also don't involve the dropping of malware files onto the file system. There are some that do, but that issue is better handled in other ways.
Why? Well AVs only do something about binaries they know or think to be malware. A well crafted, customised Cobalt Strike beacon (aka: malicious remote control software) will blow through any resistance an AV has to offer.
So what do we do? Remember what I said that containers are best used as single purpose installations? Therefore you know exactly what executables should be running, making it trivial to set up executable whitelisting. That means that any executable not on the list will not run.
But even that isn't completely bulletproof. It won't do much against web shells, in which case your best detection mechanism is to look for applications calling /bin/bash or /bin/sh that shouldn't be.