Several strategies exist to apply the principles of zero-trust security to development environments based on Docker Desktop to protect against the risks of security breaches, Docker senior technical leader Jay Schmidt explains.
The zero-trust security model has gained traction in the last few years as an effective strategy to protect sensitive data, lower the risk of security breaches, get visibility into network traffic, and more. It can be applied to traditional systems as well as to container-based architectures, which are affected by image vulnerabilities, cyberattacks, unauthorized access, and other security risks.
The fundamental idea behind the zero-trust model is that both external and internal actors should be treated in the same way. This means going beyond the traditional "perimeter-based" approach to security, where users or machines within the internal perimeter of a company can be automatically trusted. In the zero-trust model, privileges are granted exclusively based on identities and roles, with the basic policy being not trusting anyone.
In his article, Schmidt analyzes how the core principles of the zero-trust model, including microsegmentation, least-privilege access, device access controls, and continuous verification can be applied to a Docker Desktop-based development enviroment.
Microsegmentation aims to create multiple protected zones, such as testing, training, and production, so if one is compromised, the rest of the network can continue working unaffected.
With Docker Desktop, says Schmidt, you can define fine-grained network policies using the bridge network for creating isolated networks or using the Macvlan network driver that allows containers to be treated as distinct physical devices. Another feature that allows to customize network access rule are air-gapped containers.
In keeping with the principle of least-privilege access, enhanced container isolation (ECI) makes it easier to ensure an actor has only the minimum privileges required to perform an action.
In terms of working with containers, effectively implementing least-privilege access requires using AppArmor/SELinux, using seccomp (secure computing mode) profiles, ensuring containers do not run as root, ensuring containers do not request or receive heightened privileges, and so on.
ECI enforces a number of desirable properties, such as running all containers unprivileged, remapping the user namespace, restricting file system access, blocking sensitive system calls, and isolating containers from the Docker Engine's API.
Authentication and authorization using role-based access control (RBAC) is another key practice that Docker Desktop supports in various ways. These include Single Sign On to manage groups and enforce role and team membership at the account level, and Registry Access Management (RAM) and Image Access Management (IAM) to protect against supply chain attacks.
Another component of Docker Desktop security model is logging and support for software bills of materials (SBOM) using Docker Scout. Using SBOMs enables continually checking against CVEs and security policies. For example, you could enforce all high-profile CVEs to be mitigated, root images to be validated, and so on.
Finally, Docker security can be strengthened through container immutability, which ensures containers are not replaced or tampered with. To this aim, Docker provides the possibility to run a container using the --read-only flag or specifying the read_only: true key value pair in the docker-compose file.
This is just an overview of tools and features provided by Docker Desktop to enforce the zero-trust model. Do not miss the original article to get the full details.
