Unpacking the intricacies of container security often requires looking beyond the container itself. While containers offer layers of abstraction, the underlying host operating system remains a critical foundation, and frequently, the tell-tale signs of an attack start point or malicious activity impacting containers are found right there, within the host logs. Achieving comprehensive threat detection and effective incident response in containerized environments hinges significantly on understanding and analyzing these logs.
Traditional host visibility becomes paramount. Examining log sources like syslog, auditd, kernel logs, and logs from the container runtime itself on the host machine can reveal the initial vectors attackers exploited or the system-level actions that facilitated a container compromise. Look for unusual process executions originating from unexpected users or directories, modifications to system files or directories involved in container management, suspicious network connections initiated by host processes, or unusual kernel events related to namespaces, cgroups, or seccomp that might indicate a container breakout attempt or exploitation.
Analyzing auditd logs, in particular, can provide detailed records of system calls, file access, and process creation, allowing security teams to reconstruct the sequence of events that led to a container attack. Was a vulnerable service running on the host exploited first? Was a supply chain attack on a host-level package the entry point? Did misconfigured host permissions allow unauthorized access that then targeted a container? The answers are often embedded in the granular activity recorded by the host OS.
Effective container security posture mandates integrating host log analysis into your monitoring and alerting strategy. By correlating events seen within containers (if available) with the activities logged on their foundational hosts, security analysts gain a much clearer picture of the attack paths and can pinpoint the exact origin of the compromise. This focused approach to forensics not only speeds up incident response but also provides crucial intelligence for hardening both the host infrastructure and container configurations against future threats. Prioritizing host log analysis is not just a best practice; it’s a fundamental necessity for robust container security.
Source: https://securelist.com/host-based-logs-container-based-threats/116643/
