4.4 Ensure images are scanned and rebuilt to include security patches

Warning! Audit Deprecated

This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

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Information

Images should be scanned frequently for any vulnerabilities. You should rebuild all images to include these patches and then instantiate new containers from them.

Rationale:

Vulnerabilities are loopholes or bugs that can be exploited by hackers or malicious users, and security patches are updates to resolve these vulnerabilities. Image vulnerability scanning tools can be use to find vulnerabilities in images and then check for available patches to mitigate these. Patches update the system to a more recent code base which does not contain these problems, and being on a supported version of the code base is very important, as vendors do not tend to supply patches for older versions which have gone out of support. Security patches should be evaluated before applying and patching should be implemented in line with the organization's IT Security Policy.

Care should be taken with the results returned by vulnerability assessment tools, as some will simply return results based on software banners, and these may not be entirely accurate.

Impact:

None

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

Images should be re-built ensuring that the latest version of the base images are used, to keep the operating system patch level at an appropriate level. Once the images have been re-built, containers should be re-started making use of the updated images.

Default Value:

By default, containers and images are not updated automatically to address missing operating system security patches.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3353