Secure Your Containers

Maintaining the integrity of cloud containers is critical

  • By Ambuj Kumar
  • Mar 01, 2020

Development and deployment of container-based software has become a popular movement in technology. Docker, and container technology in general, is redefining cloud computing and offers significant benefits to developers and companies, including efficiency, cost savings, consistency, reliability and scalability for the entire DevOps processes. However, for enterprises running sensitive applications at scale using Docker, securing and maintaining the integrity of cloud containers is a critical aspect of DevOps.

A new approach proving effective is to run the cloud containers in a trusted environment, also known as a secure enclave, protected by hardware such as Intel SGX or AMD SEV. The secure enclave technology removes the risk associated with trusting the infrastructure or a user. Even if the infrastructure is comprised or the root user is hacked, the application remains secure.

Here is an illustration to better understand why this is important. An employee, Bill has decided to roll out a hotel reservation website using Kubernetes to scale and handle peak loads. Since the website will also collect guests’ personal information, security is a prime concern for Bill. Bill reaches out to Lori, the CISO, with a plan for security that includes database encryption and TLS.

Lori offers the tough question: “What about data in use?” She knows that even if data is carefully safeguarded while at rest and when exchanged over secure channels such TLS, data gets decrypted for use in memory, making software containers a good attack target for hackers in the cloud.

Bill does his homework and decides that running securitycritical services in Intel SGX secure enclaves is the only way to satisfy Lori’s security requirements. However, this also introduces various challenges to system administrators and developers:

  • Since running in Intel SGX involves making OCALLS (a new set of hardware instructions), instead of standard system calls, the applications need to be heavily refactored. This is almost impossible if applications are written in popular programming languages such as Java or Python.
  • Simply running an application (or its sensitive parts) within an enclave is not entirely sufficient. To fully utilize the security guarantees of Intel SGX, the user must also verify the integrity of the application, including whether it is running unmodified inside a secure enclave. Intel provides a way for users to achieve this using remote attestation. The remote attestation flow is complex, depends on the external Intel Attestation Service (IAS), and requires modifications to the application setup.
  • When running applications at scale, it becomes difficult to track the attestation status of every instance and apply software patches.

The security guarantees delivered by Intel SGX secure enclaves are promising, but by themselves introduce a level of cost and complexity. A new technology called runtime encryption is proving to be a successful approach to addressing these challenges, runtime encryption platform, which when combined with Intel SGX secure enclaves enables containers to be securely executed inside Intel SGX secure enclaves without the cost and complexity of using Intel SGX alone.

Runtime encryption’s approach is to decrypt and analyze data only when it is within a secure enclave protected by hardware technologies such as Intel SGX or AMD SEV. This new technology enables software to safely run in a secure enclave, creates keys to decrypt data, runs the analysis, and encrypts the result.

Other than runtime encryption, there are practically no solutions available which let organizations run containers in the cloud securely, while adhering to regulations and privacy. Runtime encryption can help organizations meet compliance requirements for regulations such as GDPR, California Consumer Privacy Act, and other similar regulations.

Runtime encryption also provides fine-grained access controls for the datasets in use in containers. With this new approach, the aggregate data is never exposed outside the secure enclave. Private analytics with runtime encryption are an easy to use, efficient, and offer a scalable approach which is critical for deploying containers.

Also, with runtime encryption, organizations can monitor the lifecycle of secure enclaves that run the container applications. Runtime encryption provides features such remote attestation, geolocation enforcement, DRM and secret injections. The platform seamlessly integrates with existing container orchestration technologies, including Kubernetes, Docker Swarm and OpenShift.

Containerization offers significant advantages to organizations, but only if they can keep their cloud data safe. Secure enclaves now combined with runtime encryption technology offer an effective, easy-to-use and low-cost solution to what was previously an unaddressed issue of migrating to the cloud.

This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of Security Today.

Featured

  • From Surveillance to Intelligence

    Years ago, it would have been significantly more expensive to run an analytic like that — requiring a custom-built solution with burdensome infrastructure demands — but modern edge devices have made it accessible to everyone. It also saves time, which is a critical factor if a missing child is involved. Video compression technology has played a critical role as well. Over the years, significant advancements have been made in video coding standards — including H.263, MPEG formats, and H.264—alongside compression optimization technologies developed by IP video manufacturers to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. The open-source AV1 codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media—a consortium including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others — is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and is quickly becoming the standard for video compression of all types. Read Now

  • Cost: Reactive vs. Proactive Security

    Security breaches often happen despite the availability of tools to prevent them. To combat this problem, the industry is shifting from reactive correction to proactive protection. This article will examine why so many security leaders have realized they must “lead before the breach” – not after. Read Now

  • Achieving Clear Audio

    In today’s ever-changing world of security and risk management, effective communication via an intercom and door entry communication system is a critical communication tool to keep a facility’s staff, visitors and vendors safe. Read Now

  • Beyond Apps: Access Control for Today’s Residents

    The modern resident lives in an app-saturated world. From banking to grocery delivery, fitness tracking to ridesharing, nearly every service demands another download. But when it comes to accessing the place you live, most people do not want to clutter their phone with yet another app, especially if its only purpose is to open a door. Read Now

  • Survey: 48 Percent of Worshippers Feel Less Safe Attending In-Person Services

    Almost half (48%) of those who attend religious services say they feel less safe attending in-person due to rising acts of violence at places of worship. In fact, 39% report these safety concerns have led them to change how often they attend in-person services, according to new research from Verkada conducted online by The Harris Poll among 1,123 U.S. adults who attend a religious service or event at least once a month. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • Camden CM-221 Series Switches

    Camden CM-221 Series Switches

    Camden Door Controls is pleased to announce that, in response to soaring customer demand, it has expanded its range of ValueWave™ no-touch switches to include a narrow (slimline) version with manual override. This override button is designed to provide additional assurance that the request to exit switch will open a door, even if the no-touch sensor fails to operate. This new slimline switch also features a heavy gauge stainless steel faceplate, a red/green illuminated light ring, and is IP65 rated, making it ideal for indoor or outdoor use as part of an automatic door or access control system. ValueWave™ no-touch switches are designed for easy installation and trouble-free service in high traffic applications. In addition to this narrow version, the CM-221 & CM-222 Series switches are available in a range of other models with single and double gang heavy-gauge stainless steel faceplates and include illuminated light rings.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.