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Containers ensure smooth software operations across different environments, making them attractive targets for hackers. Therefore, container security is crucial and should be a focus in cybersecurity. Security tools are necessary to protect and maintain the integrity of applications in containerized environments.
Container security implements security measures throughout the container’s lifecycle, including creation, maintenance, and decommissioning. It involves conducting security scans on container images in CI/CD pipelines and existing registries. As containers become more renowned for their portability, scalability, and efficiency, implementing container security tools is becoming increasingly important.
This article introduces and highlights the significance of the top container security tools crucial for safeguarding containerized environments.
What are Container Security Tools?
Container Security Tools are software solutions designed to address containerized environments’ unique security challenges. In the realm of container security, it is imperative to maintain a continuous and ongoing process that safeguards not only the container host, its network traffic, and its management stack but also encompasses monitoring the build pipeline, application security, and the foundational layers of the containerized application. By employing these tools for container security, organizations can ensure that every aspect of their containers operates securely and aligns with their intended configurations and security standards.
10 Best Container Security Tools in 2024
Let’s get started with the list of container security tools!
#1 SentinelOne
#2 Wiz
The next container security tool is Wiz. It is a cloud security platform that provides visibility, risk assessment, and protection for cloud environments. It is designed to help organizations gain insights into their cloud infrastructure’s security posture, identify potential vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, and implement proactive security measures.
Features:
- Snapshot Scanning: Takes a snapshot of each VM system volume and statistically analyzes its operating system, application layer, and data layer without impacting performance.
- Inventory and Asset Management: Wiz generates a comprehensive and current inventory of all services and software in your cloud environment. This inventory includes details such as the application version and package, providing an accurate record of your cloud infrastructure’s services and software components.
- Secrets Scanning and Analysis: Wiz identifies clear-text keys stored on virtual machines (VMs) and containers, analyzes and interprets the keys to comprehend their purpose, and maps their permissions within your environment. This process helps understand the extent of access and privileges these keys grant within your system.
Wiz has not provided pricing information for this product or service. Contact Wiz to obtain current pricing.
#3 Snyk
Snyk is a developer-centric security solution that caters to the needs of software developers. It specializes in identifying license violations within Docker images and generates vulnerability reports for each package found in a repository. Snyk supports multiple programming languages, simplifying its adoption for customers. It also offers seamless integrations with popular developer platforms such as GitHub and GitLab, providing developers with convenient connectivity options.
Features:
- Seamless integration with GitHub and GitLab
- Automated scanning of open-source software (OSS)
- Numerous integrations available, including container registries and continuous integration (CI) providers
- Rapid codebase scanning capabilities
This container security tool provides three distinct subscription plans: Free, Team, and Enterprise. The Free plan caters to the needs of startups and small businesses with limited resources. The Team plan costs $52 per month per contributing developer, making it suitable for teams requiring enhanced collaboration features. As for the Enterprise plan, it offers personalized pricing options based on specific requirements. Interested customers can request a live demo from Snyk to explore the capabilities and potential cost associated with the Enterprise plan.
#4 Orca
The fourth one in the Container Security Tools list is Orca Security, a trailblazer in cloud security innovation, offering immediate and comprehensive security and compliance solutions for AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes. Their approach eliminates the drawbacks associated with agent or sidecar deployments, such as incomplete coverage, overwhelming alerts, and excessive operational expenses. Organizations can achieve robust cloud security with Orca Security without compromising coverage or incurring additional operational burdens.
Features:
- Orca Security employs an agentless approach, eliminating the need for deploying agents or sidecars on cloud assets. This ensures comprehensive coverage, reduces operational complexities, and minimizes overhead.
- The platform offers deep cloud visibility, assessing various assets such as VMs, containers, and serverless functions, including hidden or shadow IT resources.
- Continuous vulnerability scanning and assessment enable the identification of known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, accompanied by prioritized remediation guidance for effective risk mitigation.
Orca security is priced at $50,000 for a year. You can also get a free trial.
#5 Anchore
Anchore is the following container security tool we are going to explore. It is a container security platform designed to assist organizations in ensuring the security and compliance of their containerized applications.
Features:
- Vulnerability Scanning: Anchore scans container images to detect vulnerabilities present in the software packages and components they contain. It provides detailed reports with information on vulnerability severity levels and recommendations for remediation.
- Policy-Based Enforcement: Anchore enables users to define security policies and rules for container images based on specific criteria such as vulnerability severity, package versions, and configuration checks.
- Image Analysis: Anchore conducts a thorough analysis of container images, examining their composition, including software packages, operating system layers, and metadata. This analysis helps identify potential security risks and compliance issues.
Anchore offers a range of enterprise plans, including the Team, Business, Ultimate, and Ultimate+ plans. Pricing details for these plans can be obtained by contacting Anchore directly.
#6 Aqua Security
The tool is designed for high scalability and continuously stays updated with the latest threats and vulnerabilities. It protects both Linux and Windows containers, irrespective of the platforms they are deployed on. Moreover, it incorporates numerous advanced methods for preventing threats ensuring the security of containers.
Features:
- vShield addresses and patches vulnerabilities that are difficult to fix or resolve, safeguarding against potential exploitation by attackers.
- It ensures container image immutability by utilizing digital signatures.
- Aqua DTA offers advanced threat detection and behavioral anomaly monitoring.
- Additionally, it provides firewall rule recommendations that restrict network connections based on criteria such as IP address or URL.
The annual subscription for this tool is based on the number of nodes/hosts in traditional orchestrated environments (supporting up to 100 containers per node) and on the number of running containers for AWS Fargate/Microsoft ACI deployments. The pricing varies depending on the size of the deployment. The subscription includes unlimited image scanning, integration with CI/CD pipelines, and standard support. Additionally, premium support is available as an optional add-on.
7# Palo Alto
A leader in threat protection through cutting-edge technologies including application control, URL filtering, and intrusion detection is Palo Alto Networks. Additionally, it provides cloud security and threat intelligence services, enabling businesses to completely safeguard their networks and data. It offers real-time threat visibility and mitigation with a user-friendly interface and strong automation capabilities, ensuring businesses remain ahead of cyber threats in a constantly changing environment.
Key Features:
- Application Control: Enables precise management of apps.
- URL filtering: Protects against risks by screening web content.
- Detects and reduces intrusion attempts through intrusion detection.
- Threat intelligence: Offers immediate threat awareness.
- Effective automation skills.
#8 Fugue
Cloud infrastructure management may be made easier and more effective with the help of the automation platform Fugue for cloud security and compliance. The unique ability of Fugue to enforce policy-as-code ensures that cloud services automatically adhere to preset security and compliance criteria.
Key Features:
- Continuous Assessment: Recognizes and fixes configuration errors.
- Infrastructure compliance is maintained through compliance enforcement.
- Quickly resolves security flaws.
- Enhances cloud governance through improved governance.
- Streamlines DevOps workflows via DevOps integration.
- Compatibility with Cloud Providers: Integrates with AWS and Azure.
Features:
- Sysdig’s Falco security auditing solution emphasizes monitoring the behavior of containers, hosts, and networks.
- Using Falco, you can continuously examine your infrastructure for problems, identify irregularities, and receive alerts regarding any Linux system calls.
- Per the official guidelines, the recommended approach is executing Falco within a Docker environment.
Pricing starts from $20 per month. There is a free trial available too.
#9 Sophos Cloud Native Security
The next on the list of container security tools is Sophos Cloud Native Security. It provides security measures to safeguard workloads running on cloud platforms and Windows and Linux systems. While container security monitoring excludes Windows, it effectively oversees Linux-based systems both on-premises and in the Cloud.
Features:
- Monitors Linux hosts
- Monitors container workloads
- Detects attacks in real-time
The Sophos Cloud Native Security solution is a cloud-based system that deploys an agent on all the platforms you utilize, including both on-premises and cloud environments. You have the opportunity to evaluate the Sophos system through a complimentary 30-day trial
#10 Qualys
The next on the list of container security tools is Qualys Container Security. It offers comprehensive security insights into the container host and its containers. It empowers users to detect and mitigate security issues in real time proactively. It effectively gathers information on images, image repositories, and image-based containers.
Features:
- The Container Runtime Security add-on enhances visibility into actively running containers, offering heightened insight.
- It enables the implementation of policies to restrict the usage of images with specific vulnerabilities.
- Additionally, it includes pre-built dashboards for immediate analysis and also allows customization of dashboards to suit specific needs.
Qualys provides a complimentary trial period for users to experience their offerings. The platform’s pricing depends on factors such as the number of Cloud Platform Apps utilized, the count of IPs, web applications, and user licenses within the user’s environment. All subscriptions to the Cloud Platform encompass training and support services as part of the package.
How to Choose the Best Container Security Tool?
Several factors contributed to the inclusion of container security tools on our list. These key features include:
- Access roles and permissions monitoring capability.
- Centralized policy management for enforcing rules.
- Comprehensive scanning of entire container stacks and detection of image vulnerabilities.
- Provision of a testing environment to capture runtime malware and observe policy outcomes.
- Reporting, auditing, and storing container metadata for analysis and compliance verification.
- Real-time detection of runtime malware, such as unpatched vulnerabilities, insecure configurations, data leaks, weak credentials, and suspicious activities (including insider threats).
- Consideration of price, affordability, and return on investment (ROI) to determine the value of the solution.
These features collectively contribute to assessing and selecting container security tools for our list.
Conclusion
You can choose from the top container security tools listed above, irrespective of what you have currently employed. It is crucial to consistently follow application security best practices during development to prevent potentially costly errors later on. With containers becoming a prevailing practice in numerous organizations, heightened attention should be given to container security. Enhancing container security becomes even more paramount when considering the numerous risks that arise as container ecosystems evolve.
