container-security

name

container-security

description

Container and Kubernetes security assessment — image vulnerability scanning, SBOM diff analysis, K8s cluster auditing, RBAC privilege mapping, NetworkPolicy review, container escape testing, and runtime monitoring (Falco/Tetragon). Use when scanning Docker/OCI images, auditing K8s clusters, reviewing Dockerfiles, diffing SBOMs across releases, analyzing RBAC, or assessing container runtime posture. Triggers on requests involving Trivy, Grype, Syft, Kubescape, kube-bench, Falco, container escapes, or CIS Docker/K8s benchmarks.

Container Security

Thin router for container and Kubernetes security assessments. Load the reference, workflow, or payload file you need — do not read all of them.

When to Use

• Scanning Docker/OCI images for CVEs (single image or pipeline)
• Generating or attesting SBOMs (Syft / CycloneDX / SPDX)
• Diffing SBOMs across releases to flag newly-introduced CVEs
• Auditing a live Kubernetes cluster (CIS / NSA / MITRE)
• Mapping K8s RBAC and finding privilege-escalation paths
• Reviewing NetworkPolicy coverage
• Authoring Falco / Tetragon runtime rules
• Analyzing or testing container escape vectors (authorized only)
• Docker daemon / host hardening review

Trigger Phrases

"scan this image", "trivy / grype / syft", "audit k8s cluster", "kube-bench", "kubescape", "run CIS benchmark", "check RBAC", "networkpolicy coverage", "falco rule", "container escape", "SBOM diff", "new CVEs since last release".

When NOT to Use This Skill

Request	Use instead
Static scan of K8s YAML / Helm / Kustomize before deploy	iac-security
Terraform / CloudFormation / Pulumi misconfig	iac-security
EKS / GKE / AKS control-plane or managed-service misconfig	exploiting-cloud-platforms
Cloud IAM misconfiguration (beyond K8s RBAC)	exploiting-cloud-platforms
Application-code vulns inside the container	auditing-code-for-vulnerabilities
Third-party library CVEs at source-code level	auditing-supply-chain
API endpoints exposed by containerized services	testing-apis

Rule of thumb: pre-deployment YAML → iac-security; running cluster or built image → this skill.

Decision Tree

Target?
|
|-- Built/registry image ----------> workflows/image_scan.md
|     \-- two images to compare? --> workflows/sbom_diff.md    (FLAGSHIP)
|
|-- Dockerfile source -------------> examples/vulnerable_dockerfile.md
|                                    + hadolint (references/image_scanning.md)
|
|-- Live K8s cluster --------------> workflows/cluster_audit.md
|     |-- RBAC deep-dive ----------> workflows/rbac_analysis.md
|     |-- Network policy gap ------> workflows/network_policy_review.md
|     \-- CIS benchmark only ------> references/kubernetes_hardening.md
|
|-- Runtime monitoring ------------> references/runtime_security.md
|                                    + examples/falco_custom_rule.yaml
|
\-- Escape testing (authorized) --> references/container_escape.md
                                     + payloads/container_escape_poc.md

Parallelism Hints

Run concurrently (no shared state, no rate conflicts):

• Trivy + Grype + Syft + Hadolint on the same image — always parallel
• Scanners across multiple image tags — one sub-agent per tag
• kube-bench across nodes — deploy as DaemonSet, collect in parallel
• Kubescape frameworks (nsa, mitre, cis) — parallel invocations
• RBAC object fetches (clusterroles, roles, bindings) — parallel
• SBOM diff Grype scans (prior vs current) — parallel
• Per-principal RBAC graph expansion — parallel (stateless)

Sequential only:

• Cosign attestation (needs SBOM first)
• Cross-scanner CVE consensus merge (needs all scanner outputs)
• Finding emission (needs evaluated data)

Sub-Agent Delegation

• Multi-image pipeline: spawn one sub-agent per image; each runs workflows/image_scan.md and returns finding records. Parent merges.
• Multi-cluster environment: one sub-agent per cluster; each runs workflows/cluster_audit.md with its own kubecontext.
• Cluster audit fan-out: parent runs inventory, then spawns sub-agents for rbac_analysis, network_policy_review, and runtime log triage in parallel.
• SBOM diff per service: one sub-agent per service in a monorepo release; parent aggregates the "newly-introduced CVEs" roll-up.

Reasoning Budget

Task	Budget
Running a scanner and capturing output	Minimal
Applying CIS checks, filling checklists	Minimal
SBOM canonicalization and package diff	Minimal
Cross-scanner CVE consensus	Moderate
RBAC privilege-graph traversal (principal -> cluster-admin)	Extended
Container escape chain composition	Extended
SBOM diff CVE exposure scoring + waiver decision	Extended
Runtime alert triage (chaining Falco events to intent)	Moderate

Extended thinking pays off where the answer requires composing many small facts into an attack path or risk decision; it does not help when running a scanner and reporting output verbatim.

Multimodal Hooks

• Image layer histograms — attach Syft/Dive output screenshots to evidence for bloat/secret-layer findings.
• RBAC graphs — rbac-tool viz produces graphviz; render as PNG and embed in report for stakeholder clarity.
• Falco/Tetragon alert screenshots — useful for runtime-detection evidence bundles.

Structured Output

All findings MUST conform to schemas/finding.json.

Container-security-specific fields: affected.image_digest, affected.image_tag, affected.cluster_name, affected.namespace, affected.resource_kind, affected.service_account, cve, cvss, fixed_version, cis_control, and the sbom_diff block for diff findings.

Workflow Index

Workflow	Purpose
workflows/image_scan.md	Build-time / registry image vuln scan with consensus merge
workflows/sbom_diff.md	Flagship. Compare prior vs current SBOM; flag new CVEs
workflows/cluster_audit.md	Live K8s cluster assessment (CIS / NSA / MITRE)
workflows/rbac_analysis.md	RBAC privilege mapping and attack-path search
workflows/network_policy_review.md	NetworkPolicy coverage + enforcement validation

Payloads Index

Payload	Purpose
payloads/container_escape_poc.md	Documented escape PoCs (authorized testing only)

References Index

Reference	Purpose
references/image_scanning.md	Trivy, Grype, Syft, Clair, Snyk, Hadolint commands
references/kubernetes_hardening.md	kube-bench, Kubescape, CIS K8s mapping, PSS
references/container_escape.md	Escape vectors, capabilities, runtime CVEs
references/runtime_security.md	Falco, Tetragon, eBPF, rule authoring
references/bounty_patterns_2024_2026.md	Post-2023 bounty TTPs (CVE-2024-21626 runC, CVE-2025-23266 NVIDIA, SA token theft, RoleBinding privesc)

Examples Index

Example	Purpose
examples/falco_custom_rule.yaml	Ready-to-load Falco rule pack
examples/vulnerable_dockerfile.md	Common Dockerfile anti-patterns + fixes

Templates Index

Template	Purpose
templates/assessment_report_template.md	End-of-engagement deliverable skeleton

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Install
Trivy	Image / FS vuln + SBOM + IaC	brew install trivy
Grype	Image / SBOM vuln	brew install grype
Syft	SBOM generator	brew install syft
Hadolint	Dockerfile lint	brew install hadolint
Kubescape	K8s security platform	curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubescape/kubescape/master/install.sh | /bin/bash
kube-bench	CIS K8s benchmark	brew install kube-bench
kube-hunter	K8s pentest recon	pip install kube-hunter
Falco	Runtime security (eBPF)	Helm chart falcosecurity/falco
Tetragon	eBPF detection + enforcement	Helm chart cilium/tetragon
Docker Bench	Docker CIS benchmark	git clone https://github.com/docker/docker-bench-security.git
Cosign	Sign / attest images + SBOMs	brew install cosign
Crane	Registry ops (resolve digest)	brew install crane
rbac-tool	RBAC graph visualization	brew install insights-engineering/tap/rbac-tool

Last Validated

2026-04. Minimum tool versions: Trivy 0.59, Grype 0.87, Syft 1.18, Kubescape 3.0, kube-bench 0.10 (CIS K8s v1.9), Falco 0.38, Tetragon 1.2, Hadolint 2.12, Cosign 2.4.