SQ40101
Detected container images configured to run with administrative privileges.
priority | CI/CD status | severity | effort | SAFE level | SAFE assessment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
pass | medium | medium | None | hardening: warning Reason: elevated container privileges |
About the issueโ
Containers are a simple, yet powerful approach to process and filesystem isolation. When configured correctly, a container runs a set of processes isolated from their host system. Containers typically run as executables or as services, but regardless of their use, they must be properly secured. One security concept that fosters isolation is the principle of least privilege, meaning that a container should be given only those privileges needed to complete its task. Containers without a configured user identity will run as root, meaning that any kind of container compromise (both remote and local) will give administrative access to the entire container, its processes, and filesystem.
How to resolve the issueโ
- If a service can run without privileges, create a specific user (with commands like 'groupadd' and 'useradd' on Linux, and 'net user' on Windows), and then switch to the non-root user with the 'USER' Dockerfile instruction.
Incidence statisticsโ
ReversingLabs periodically collects and analyzes the contents of popular software package repositories for threat research purposes. Analysis results are used to calculate incidence statistics for issues (policy violations) that Spectra Assure can detect in software packages.
This section is updated when new data becomes available.
Total amount of packages analyzed
- RubyGems: 183K
- Nuget: 644K
- PyPi: 628K
- NPM: 3.72M
Total detections per repository
For every repository, the chart shows the number of packages that triggered the software assurance policy. In other words, it shows how many packages in each package repository were found to have the specific issue described on this page. This information helps you understand how common the issue is across different software communities.
If a repository is absent from the chart, that means none of the packages in that repository triggered this policy during analysis, or the policy was not used during analysis.
Distribution of total detections by project popularity
For every repository, the chart shows how many of the total detections belong to the Top 100 (1-100), Top 1000 (101-1000) and Top 10 000 (1001-10 000) most downloaded projects. This information helps you understand the impact of the issue within each community, making it clearer when the issue affects the most popular projects.
If the chart shows zero values for all of the top project groups, that means all detections were in unranked projects (lower than 10 000 on the list of most downloaded projects).
Recommended readingโ
- Dockerfile Reference - USER (External resource - Docker)
- Processes In Containers Should Not Run As Root (External resource - Medium)