# Security Hardening and Compliance Assessment of Kubernetes Control Plane and Workloads
## 4 Security Hardening of Kubernetes Components
### Image and Workload Hardening  
Container image scanning tools examine the container filesystem to collect metadata and identify any vulnerable components present within the image. A plethora of open-source and commercial enterprise solutions exist for this task, providing integration with CI/CD pipelines and an extensive array of scanning functionalities. Since containers are integral to contemporary software development and delivery pipelines, it is essential to ensure that container images are devoid of known security vulnerabilities to uphold integrity, availability, and confidentiality. Here are several key reasons why container vulnerability scanning is essential:  
* Proactive detection of vulnerabilities: Container vulnerability scanning allows organizations to identify security concerns in container images during the development phase and before deployment in production environments. Figure 5: Kubelet security measures, kubelet.yaml file. * Compliance: Numerous organizations must comply with regulatory standards that mandate particular security practices and controls. Vulnerability scanning guarantees that container images are devoid of recognized vulnerabilities. * Minimizing the attack surface: Scanning container images for vulnerabilities enables organizations to reduce their attack surface by eliminating superfluous components, packages, and dependencies that may present security threats. What is the functionality of container image scanning tools? The process of identifying vulnerabilities can be delineated through several interrelated phases:
* Retrieving images: Images must be sourced from a local or reputable repository. * Extracting image layers: To extract an image's layers, a vulnerability scanner must proficiently handle the Open Container Initiative format and accommodate the processing of tar archives. * Identifying packages and dependencies: Dependencies within a container are represented as operating system packages, non-OS packages, files, application libraries, and other components. * Examine vulnerability databases: Databases predominantly employ the CVE system. An essential element of vulnerability scanners is precisely identifying all vulnerabilities in the database and linking the appropriate package or range of packages as susceptible. * Match: A fundamental component of a vulnerability scanner is juxtaposing installed packages against recognized vulnerabilities. Diverse methodologies may be employed for this comparison, but the most direct method is name-based matching. * Clean outcomes: Adhering to a general matching algorithm may yield multiple outcomes. The name-based matching approach is prone to generating false positive outcomes. The results must be analyzed to mitigate inaccuracies before reporting. In summary, container image scanners operate through a detailed process that includes retrieving images, extracting layers, identifying dependencies, examining vulnerability databases, and precisely correlating potential vulnerabilities with installed packages. By executing these procedures, scanners enhance the security of containerized environments by promptly identifying vulnerabilities. Container image scanning tools examine the container filesystem to collect metadata and identify any vulnerable components present in the image. A plethora of open-source and commercial enterprise solutions exists for this task. Since containers are integral to contemporary software development and delivery pipelines, it is essential to ensure that container images are free from known security vulnerabilities to maintain integrity, availability, and confidentiality. That is crucial as we necessitate the following:  
* Proactive detection of vulnerabilities: Container vulnerability scanning enables organizations to identify security concerns in container images during development, allowing them to address these concerns before deployment in production environments. * Compliance: Numerous organizations must comply with regulatory standards that mandate particular security practices and controls.