{"id":18162,"date":"2022-03-14T11:12:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T05:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getastra.com\/blog\/?p=18162"},"modified":"2025-11-21T08:33:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:03:34","slug":"docker-hub-vulnerability-scanning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getastra.com\/blog\/security-audit\/docker-hub-vulnerability-scanning\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things You Must Know About Docker Hub Vulnerability Scanning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Docker Hub is one of the most popular repositories of docker images. Millions of users download docker images from Docker Hub regularly. And like anything on the internet that has a large user base, Docker Hub also draws a lot of hacker attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, data of 190,000 users was compromised in a Docker Hub<\/a> hack and the hacker had access to the database only for a few seconds. According to a statement by the company, the exposed data belonged to just 5% of their user base. You can imagine why a hacker should want to intrude into this channel and why it is important to learn about Docker Hub vulnerability scanning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we get on with our discussion of Docker Hub vulnerability scanning, let us quickly understand what docker images are and why are they important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>What is a docker image?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every explanation in this section will raise some more questions and we will try to answer as many of them as possible. Let us start at containers and learn what they are and why they are important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A container is a unit of software used to pack code and dependencies. Containers can be transferred easily from one computing environment to another computing environment, thus helping developers to package, test, and deploy their code, while bypassing the hassle of transitioning between environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A container image is a static file with executable code that is used to create a container quickly and reliably in a loosely isolated environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Docker is one of the containerization platforms. A docker image is like a blueprint that helps you create multiple containers with the same configuration. We call these containers, docker containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>How is a docker image used?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let us see if an example can help us understand this. If a company needs to develop an application on Java, the developer would setup a tomcat server and create a development environment around it. Now, once the application is developed, the tester would require to build a tomcat environment from scratch, and after that, the same procedure would have to be repeated while creating the production server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two major issues with this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The company loses hours in designing the environment for the application to run. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. There might be inconsistencies between the Tomcat servers created by the developers, the tester, and the product admin, resulting in a severe misconfiguration.
    <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    A docker image offers a solution. If the developer creates a docker container that contains information about the tomcat environment, he can use the tomcat docker image as a blueprint. The tester and the system admin can use the same docker image to create the testing and the production servers. Thus the company does not lose time and the whole process is leaner and more reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \"docker
    Image: Using Docker Containers<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Docker Hub is a platform that allows you to find and share docker images with your team and it is widely used across industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now that we have familiarized ourselves with docker images and Docker Hub, let us learn about Docker Hub Security and vulnerability scanning<\/a>, as promised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>1. Why should you be worried about docker image security?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Docker images are a reliable and secure medium of sharing information. But they can pose a security threat. Security issues related to Docker Hub and Docker images have been ignored for quite some time, however, a study in 2020 involving 2,227,244 docker images and corresponding meta information from Docker Hub has unveiled a lot of serious issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Docker container run commands often have sensitive parameters that can expose users to denial of service attacks, or leakage of host files. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. They found 42 malicious images capable of allowing remote execution of code and malicious cryptomining.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. It was also found that patches for docker image vulnerabilities are often delayed or ignored. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Another survey conducted in 2020 found that 51% of the 4 million publicly available docker images were critically vulnerable and more than six thousand of them had malware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      One of the primary concerns about docker image vulnerabilities is that most of the users pay very little attention to its security aspect. According to a survey 97% users of docker images ignore run-command parameters and are concerned only about whether the command runs successfully.<\/p>\n\n\n