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Understanding Container Security Contexts Print

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Settings that constrain a container.

WHAT A SECURITY CONTEXT SETS

The user and group to run as Whether privilege escalation is permitted Which capabilities are held Whether the filesystem is read-only Which kernel call filter applies

WHAT TO SET ON EVERY WORKLOAD

Run as a non-root user Disallow privilege escalation Drop all capabilities Read-only root filesystem, where possible

WHY DISALLOWING ESCALATION MATTERS

It prevents a process gaining more privileges than it started with.

WHAT CAPABILITIES TO ADD BACK

Only what the application demonstrably needs.

WHAT MOST APPLICATIONS NEED

Nothing.

WHAT A READ-ONLY FILESYSTEM REQUIRES

Writable mounts for temporary files and anything the application writes.

WHAT TO MOUNT FOR THAT

A small temporary volume.

WHAT A KERNEL CALL FILTER DOES

Restricts which kernel operations are permitted.

WHAT THE DEFAULT PROFILE BLOCKS

Operations almost no application needs.

WHAT TO AVOID DISABLING

That profile, which people turn off to fix an error rather than investigating it.

WHAT PRIVILEGED MODE DOES

Removes essentially all restrictions.

WHEN IT IS JUSTIFIED

Almost never, outside specific infrastructure components.

WHAT TO ENFORCE

These settings through admission policy, not documentation.

WHAT TO TEST

That the application works under them.


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