State of the Art of Container Security

In this State of the Art episode, Charles Humble speaks with Adrian Mouat, Developer Relations at Chainguard and author of "Using Docker", about the evolution of container security and the persistent challenge of outdated packages. Adrian explains how traditional Linux distributions weren't designed for the immutable, frequently-replaced nature of containers, leading to security vulnerabilities that scanners detect but teams struggle to address. He discusses how Chainguard tackles this problem by building everything from source using Wolfi, creating minimal "distroless" images with near-zero CVEs, and how concepts like SBOMs, attestations, and defense in depth are reshaping security practices. The conversation also covers major security incidents including the XZ Utils backdoor and Shai-hulud attacks, emphasizing the importance of building from source, using short-lived credentials, and replacing rather than updating containers – practices pioneered by companies like Google that are gradually spreading across the industry.