Category: Cybersecurity
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Using OCI Annotation to Track Container Image Lifecycle
For a while, we’ve been exploring the idea of using OCI annotations to track the lifecycle of container images. The problem we are trying to solve is as follows. Container images are immutable and cannot be dynamically patched like virtual machines. To apply the latest updates to a containerized application, teams must produce a new…
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OCI Artifact Manifests, OCI Referrers API and Their Support Across Registries (Part 1)
[UPDATE: 2023-03-26] When I wrote this post, the expectation was that OCI will release version 1.1 of the specification with artifact manifest included. This release was supposed to happen by end of Jan 2023 or mid Feb 2023. Unfortunately, the OCI 1.1 Image Spec PR 999 put a hold on that and as of today,…
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Implementing Containers’ Secure Supply Chain with Sigstore Part 3 – Ephemeral Keys and Artifact Promotion
In the last post of the series about Sigstore, I will look at the most exciting part of the implementation – ephemeral keys, or what the Sigstore team calls keyless signing. The post will go over the second and third scenarios I outlined in Implementing Containers’ Secure Supply Chain with Sigstore Part 1 – Signing…
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Implementing Containers’ Secure Supply Chain with Sigstore Part 2 – The Magic Behind
In my previous post, Implementing Containers’ Secure Supply Chain with Sigstore Part 1 – Signing with Existing Keys, I went over the Cosign experience of signing images with existing keys. As I concluded there, the signing was easy to achieve, with just a few hiccups here and there. It does seem that Cosign does a…
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Implementing Containers’ Secure Supply Chain with Sigstore Part 1 – Signing with Existing Keys
Today, the secure supply chain for software is on top of mind for every CISO and enterprise leader. After the President’s Executive Order (EO), many efforts were spun off to secure the supply chain. One of the most prominent is, of course, Sigstore. I looked at Sigstore more than a year ago and was excited…
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What is a Container Image Quarantine Flag and How to Use it?
In my last post, Implementing Quarantine Pattern for Container Images, I wrote about how to implement a quarantine pattern for container images and how to use policies to prevent the deployment of an image that doesn’t meet certain criteria. In that post, I also mentioned that the quarantine flag (not to be confused with the…
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Implementing Quarantine Pattern for Container Images
One important step in securing the supply chain for containers is preventing the use of “bad” images. I intentionally use the word “bad” here. For one enterprise, “bad” may mean “vulnerable”; for another, it may mean containing software with an unapproved license; for a third, it may be an image with a questionable signature; possibilities…
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Addressing the Current Challenges of Patching Container Vulnerabilities
While working on a process of improving the container secure supply chain, I often need to go over the current challenges of patching container vulnerabilities. With the introduction of Automatic VM Patching, having those conversations are even more challenging because there is always the question: “Why can’t we patch containers the same way we patch…
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Signatures, Key Management, and Trust in Software Supply Chains – Part 2: Exploiting Signatures
In Part 1 of the series Signatures, Key Management, and Trust in Software Supply Chains, I wrote about the basic concepts of identities, signatures, and attestation. In this one, I will expand on the house buying scenario, that I hinted about in Part 1, and will describe a few ways to exploit it in the…
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Signatures, Key Management, and Trust in Software Supply Chains – Part 1: Identities, Signatures and Attestation
For the past few months, I’ve been working on a project for a secure software supply chain, and one topic that seems to always start passionate discussions is the software signatures. The President’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity (EO) is a pivotal point for the industry. One of the requirements is for vendors…