Challenges of DFIR in Distroless and Other Container Environments

Containerization has changed the way organizations develop and deploy applications. However, the same benefits that make containers attractive, their ephemeral and layered nature, also present unique challenges for Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) teams.

Traditional DFIR Techniques Are Less Effective

Traditional DFIR relies heavily on full disk images and log analysis. In container environments, these techniques become harder to apply.

• Ephemeral Containers: Many containers are designed to be short-lived. They spin-up, complete their task and then spin-down. Forensic data simply ceases to exist when the container stops running.
• Layered Images: Container images are built layer-upon-layer, making it difficult to pinpoint the origin of an issue or identify the specific files involved.
• Shared Kernel: Containers share the host kernel, making it difficult to isolate evidence specific to a container.
• Container Orchestration Complexity: Container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes introduce additional layers of complexity for forensic investigations.

Distroless containers, with their minimalist footprints, come with additional challenges:

• Limited Forensic Artifacts: Fewer files and utilities in the container image leave fewer traces for forensic analysis.
• Debugging Difficulty: The absence of shells in many distroless containers makes traditional debugging techniques cumbersome.

Combating These Challenges

Fortunately, there are ways to address these challenges and conduct effective DFIR in container environments:

• Early Container Integration: Integrate container security with your existing DFIR processes from the beginning.
• Automated Collection: Ensure you can collect evidence from running containers before they disappear.
• Container Orchestration Visibility: Gain deep visibility into your container orchestration platform to understand container lifecycles and resource allocation.
• Forensic Tools for Containers: Utilize specialized forensic tools designed to collect and analyze evidence from container images and host environments.

Cado and Distroless Containers

Cado recently added the world's first capability to enable forensic investigations in distroless container environments. Security teams can now use the Cado platform to seamlessly investigate the root cause, scope, and impact of malicious activity detected within distroless container environments so that security teams can gain greater visibility into cloud risk and take advantage of the latest technologies without worrying about introducing additional risk.

The Cado Platform also supports other container services including ECS, K8s. This enables security teams to automatically gather and preserver critical forensic evidence across impacted containers as soon as is detected

Interested in seeing how Cado helps security teams investigate container environments, contact our team to schedule a demo.