20 Developers and Kubernetes Experts Reveal the Biggest Mistakes People Make During the Transition to Kubernetes

Containers, Orchestration & Security, Security Research & Strategy
19 Min Read •

Making the transition from virtual machines to containers is a complex process that can take some time, particularly for larger, more complex environments. Users are drawn to Kubernetes’ container-centric environment, as well as its ability to enable portability across infrastructure providers. Kubernetes also offers broad applicability; for the most part, an application that runs well in a container will run well on Kubernetes. These, along with myriad other benefits, are what make the transition to Kubernetes worthwhile for many applications. Not up-to-date on the ins and outs of Kubernetes? Check out our list of 50 Useful Kubernetes Tutorials for IT Professionals to get started.

Because the process can be both lengthy and complex, mistakes are common during a transition. First, it’s important to understand that Kubernetes is not a silver bullet. Organizations that adopt container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes before they really understand the technology are more vulnerable to configuration errors. There are also some important Kubernetes security considerations, such as blast radius (how far a malicious party can gain access beyond the initial point of compromise), that leave certain components of a cluster more vulnerable. That’s why it’s important to build security into your deployment as early as possible. To find out where your security maturity level stands, take our Cloud SecOps Maturity Assessment, and learn more about how Threat Stack can secure your containerized environments.

If you’re ready to get started with your infrastructure transformation, there are other pitfalls you’ll want to avoid. To help you get off on the right foot and avoid common mistakes, we reached out to a panel of developers and Kubernetes experts and asked them to answer this question:

“What’s the biggest mistake people make during the transition to Kubernetes?”

Read more “20 Developers and Kubernetes Experts Reveal the Biggest Mistakes People Make During the Transition to Kubernetes”

AWS Security Groups: What They Are and How to Get the Most Out of Them

AWS Security
5 Min Read •

AWS Security Groups are a flexible tool to help you secure your Amazon EC2 instances. AWS Security Groups are just one of several tools AWS offers to help you secure your cloud environment, but that doesn’t mean AWS security is hands-off. You’re still responsible for securing your applications and data in the cloud, and that means you need to leverage additional tools, such as Threat Stack, to gain better visibility and take a proactive approach to security in the cloud. Threat Stack is an AWS Advanced Technology Partner, offering an intrusion detection platform that’s built in AWS, to serve AWS.

As we found in a recent survey, nearly three-fourths of companies have at least one critical AWS security misconfiguration. That’s why it’s imperative to understand the various tools AWS makes available to users and how to best utilize them to keep your data secure. Here’s a look at how AWS Security Groups work, the two main types of AWS Security Groups, and best practices for getting the most out of them. Read more “AWS Security Groups: What They Are and How to Get the Most Out of Them”

What is Cloud Workload Security?

Security Research & Strategy
5 Min Read •

A cloud workload is a distinct capacity or work function that we put on a cloud instance. It can be a Hadoop node, a Web server, a database, or a container, among other things.

Broadly speaking, therefore, cloud workload security is any means of protecting these workloads.

There is a common misconception that securing your workloads is the responsibility of the cloud service provider. But that’s not true if you work with an “infrastructure as a service” (IaaS) model such as Amazon Web Services. With IaaS, you share some of that responsibility. In some instances, you would need to extend the security policies, tools, and controls you have for your onsite systems to the cloud in order to secure these workloads. A widespread failure to fully understand and act on the shared responsibility model is demonstrated in a November 2017 survey, where we found that 73% of companies have at least one critical AWS security misconfiguration.

With Threat Stack, a leader in cloud-native security and compliance management, you can better secure your cloud environment and cloud workloads. Our Cloud Security Platform® is designed to meet the unique challenges facing Security and Operations teams working in the cloud. Let’s take a look at the common threats facing cloud workloads along with best practices for enhancing cloud workload security. Read more “What is Cloud Workload Security?”

Threat Stack Introduces Bulk Data Export Feature

AWS Security, Containers, Orchestration & Security
2 Min Read •

One of the biggest benefits of the Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform® is the deep level of visibility we bring to observing operator behaviors in customers’ cloud runtime environments. We frame this discussion in terms of “security observability,” and it can be distilled into a single question: “If suspicious or risky behaviors occur on one of your servers, what can you see and how quickly can you see it?” Read more “Threat Stack Introduces Bulk Data Export Feature”

9 Core & Specialty AWS Security Certifications

AWS Security
5 Min Read •

Cloud computing has become a necessity for almost all businesses. Given this reality, there is a significant need to design, develop, deploy, manage, and secure workloads in the cloud.

AWS offers a multitude of certifications, and having relevant certifications is an important way you can demonstrate cloud credibility and competence as an individual and how your organization can demonstrate value to its customers.

With that in mind, here’s a list of nine key AWS Security Certifications to consider. Whether you’re just starting to build your cloud credentials, looking to expand your skills and expertise in a particular area, or want to deepen your expertise, there should be something to match your needs among these industry-recognized certifications. Read more “9 Core & Specialty AWS Security Certifications”

Threat Stack Announces New and Enhanced CloudTrail Rules

AWS Security, Dev & DevOps Knowledge, Security Research & Strategy
4 Min Read •

As AWS continues to expand its services landscape, Threat Stack has made a commitment to keeping in step by crafting additional coverage that keeps your cloud environment secure. The latest additions we’ve made to Threat Stack’s CloudTrail rules are focused on giving more granular alerting and context to your interactions with the AWS control plane.

Threat Stack has significantly expanded the CloudTrail Base Ruleset in its Cloud Security Platform®. Not only have we increased the number of rules from 26 to 87 — we have also provided rules for five AWS Services that were not covered previously (DynamoDB, Elastic Container Service, Elastic Kubernetes Service, Security Token Service, and AWS Support). And don’t forget — the Cloud Security Platform still gives you the flexibility to create custom rules based on CloudTrail event data.

While we’re not going to comment on all 87 rules in this post, we are going to focus on important highlights, including:

  • New rules to cover five additional AWS Services
  • Expanded rules for Identity and Access Management (IAM)
  • Expanded rules for Virtual Public Cloud (VPC)

The new rules for five additional AWS Services are discussed in Part 1 below, while Part 2 gives an overview of the expanded rules for AWS Services that we already support. Read more “Threat Stack Announces New and Enhanced CloudTrail Rules”

Detecting Unsafe Data Deserialization With Threat Stack

AWS Security, Security Research & Strategy
6 Min Read •

UPDATED — January 22, 2019
The Threat Stack SOC is aware of the recent disclosure of a breach of the PHP Extension and Application Repository (PEAR). Details of the breach have not been disclosed publicly, and we have no special knowledge of the breach. However, attacks against code repositories and injection of malicious code into third-party application dependencies help to underscore the importance of behavioral detection methods to identify and mitigate the exploitation of insecure PHP deployments. We will update this blog as appropriate pending additional public information on the PEAR breach.

UPDATED — February 1, 2019
Several weeks after the original publication of this blog, the PHP Extension and Application Repository (PEAR) disclosed a breach of its website, which led to the compromise of go-pear.phar. While Threat Stack has no inside or special knowledge of the breach at PEAR, based on publicly available information, we have confirmed that the Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform and Cloud SecOps Program can detect and mitigate an attack leveraging this injected PHP code.

It appears the attackers in this incident leveraged the research Sam Thomas presented at Black Hat 2018, which we discussed in this blog post. Based on publicly available information, the attackers appeared to be performing the first step in the attack chain by attempting to deliver injected phar files into a target environment. It is possible this attack was part of a poison well tactic targeting a specific or multiple organizations known to use PEAR and this file.

Insecure data deserialization first made its way into OWASP’s 2017 Top 10 list by way of community feedback. In the history of application security, that makes it a relatively new vulnerability that can be harder to detect due to the way it uses popular code libraries that are commonly used in web development.

The Threat Stack Cloud SecOps Program℠ exists not only to monitor customer environments and investigate alerts, but also to work with customers to help them improve their security postures. Occasionally, here in the SecOps Program’s security operations center (SOC), we get questions about the detection capability of the Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform®, and whether it is capable of detecting new and advanced attack vectors. (Our system uses behavioral detection, which is an extremely robust methodology for detecting new and old attack techniques.)

In this post, I’ll walk through how my colleagues and I in the SOC addressed an inquiry regarding a specific insecure deserialization exploit seen in the wild. Read more “Detecting Unsafe Data Deserialization With Threat Stack”

Aligning SecOps Teams With Compliance Roadmaps

All Things Compliance, Security Research & Strategy
4 Min Read •

Compliance is essential, and organizations need to get it right. Despite the importance of compliance, organizations often treat it as an afterthought, rather than a business driver. Some see it as a hurdle or uninvited challenge, even though it can have a significant positive impact on the business.

With the rise of new compliance frameworks like GDPR, the stakes are even higher. If you aren’t compliant, there are heavy fines. Now, more than ever, it’s time to ensure that your organization is adhering to the applicable compliance guidelines.

In this post, we show how SecOps teams can align with compliance roadmaps to drive a more continuous, proactive approach to meeting compliance objectives. Read more “Aligning SecOps Teams With Compliance Roadmaps”

AWS re:Invent 2018 Recap: Security, DevOps, ML, & Hybrid Cloud Take Center Stage

AWS Security
3 Min Read •

Another year at AWS re:Invent has come and gone. As usual it was a jam packed show full of exciting announcements, great keynotes, sessions, and interesting conversations. In case you couldn’t make it to Vegas this year or could use a summary of what you missed while you were running between sessions, here are some of the highlights from our week in the desert. Read more “AWS re:Invent 2018 Recap: Security, DevOps, ML, & Hybrid Cloud Take Center Stage”

Three Old-School Network Security Tips That (Still!) Work for Modern Infrastructure

AWS Security, Containers, Orchestration & Security, Security Research & Strategy
2 Min Read •

The adage “Everything old is new again,” rings true in the cybersecurity industry as much as anywhere else. Some of the best practices from old-school network security still apply to modern virtual server or containerized environments.

Even though hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated with their attacks, applying some of these oldies but goodies to your arsenal could help reduce the risk of a security incident or breach.

Here are a few security best practices that stand the test of time. Read more “Three Old-School Network Security Tips That (Still!) Work for Modern Infrastructure”