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Security Threat Model

This document provides an overview of the threat model for the Secure CINC Auditor Kubernetes Container Scanning platform.

Introduction

A comprehensive threat model is essential for understanding potential security risks and implementing effective mitigations. This section outlines the threat modeling approach, identified threats, and mitigation strategies.

Threat Modeling Approach

Our threat modeling approach follows the STRIDE methodology to identify potential threats:

  • Spoofing - Impersonating users or services
  • Tampering - Modifying data or code
  • Repudiation - Denying actions
  • Information disclosure - Exposing sensitive information
  • Denial of service - Disrupting services
  • Elevation of privilege - Gaining unauthorized access

Key Threats and Mitigations

Identified Threats

  1. Unauthorized Access to Container Contents
  2. Privilege Escalation
  3. Information Disclosure
  4. Denial of Service
  5. Lateral Movement
  6. Token Exposure

Mitigation Strategies

Our comprehensive Threat Mitigations include:

  • Strong RBAC controls
  • Minimal container capabilities
  • Limited access duration through short-lived tokens
  • Namespace isolation for multi-tenant environments
  • Resource limits on all scanner components
  • Network policies to restrict communication

Approach-Specific Threat Analysis

Each scanning approach has unique threat characteristics:

Threat Category Kubernetes API Approach Debug Container Approach Sidecar Container Approach
Attack Surface 🟢 Minimal 🟠 Temporarily increased 🟠 Moderately increased
Container Isolation 🟢 Fully preserved 🟠 Temporarily broken 🟠 Partially broken
Token Exposure Risk 🟢 Low 🟢 Low 🟢 Low
Lateral Movement Risk 🟢 Low 🟠 Medium 🟠 Medium

Defense-in-Depth Strategy

Our security approach implements defense-in-depth with multiple security layers:

  1. Authentication Layer
  2. Time-limited tokens

  3. Service account isolation

  4. Authorization Layer

  5. Fine-grained RBAC

  6. Minimal permission scope

  7. Isolation Layer

  8. Namespace boundaries

  9. Container isolation

  10. Monitoring Layer

  11. Comprehensive logging
  12. Access monitoring