Container Runtime Security Engineering

Harden containerized services so compromise requires multiple failures, not one misconfiguration.

Decision Criteria

• Base image, package footprint, and runtime privileges must be justified per service.
• Security controls must preserve required runtime behavior without relying on undocumented exceptions.
• Any new exposed port or mount point requires threat review and least-privilege analysis.
• Service startup dependencies must not require broad host access.

Principal Practices

• Use minimal images, pinned versions, and regular vulnerability scanning.
• Run workloads as non-root; apply read-only filesystem and dropped Linux capabilities where compatible.
• Restrict inter-service network access to required traffic only (data-net/app-net intent).
• Isolate secrets from logs and environment dumps.

Failure Modes & Anti-Patterns

• Broad Docker socket exposure in production-equivalent environments.