Dynamic Security Policy Enforcement for Container Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security policy enforcement methods for container systems lack flexibility, requiring system or container restarts and failing to examine parameter values of system calls, leading to potential unintended permission changes and difficulty in implementing detailed security controls.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic security policy enforcement system that includes a policy management unit for generating structured security policies, a policy enforcement unit for converting these policies into kernel-space code, and a policy operation decision unit that hooks system calls using LSM technology to enforce policies without restarting containers, allowing for detailed examination of kernel-space contexts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If security policies are applied using traditional MAC (SELinux, TOMOYO, AppArmor) methods, then system-wide security control is achieved, but policy changes require system restart and lack container-specific flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the security policy enforcement into container-specific instances using LSM hooks that can be independently configured for each container. This allows individual container policies to be modified without affecting other containers or requiring system-wide restart, resolving the contradiction between system-wide security control and policy flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic security policies that can be changed at runtime without system restart. The LSM hook mechanism allows policies to be loaded, modified, and applied dynamically to running containers, enabling adaptive security control that maintains reliability while improving versatility.
2Ease of manufacture
If seccomp security profiles are used to permit or deny system calls, then coarse-grained security control is achieved, but detailed parameter examination is not possible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces LSM hooks as an intermediary layer between system call execution and security policy enforcement. This intermediary enables detailed examination of system call parameters while maintaining the ease of policy application through structured rule sets, resolving the contradiction between coarse-grained control and detailed parameter examination.
3Reliability
If security policies are applied to new processes using LSM and BPF, then sandbox-dedicated security is achieved, but implementation is abstract and difficult for developers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent provides pre-defined, copyable security policy templates and rule sets that can be directly applied to containers. This eliminates the need for developers to implement complex LSM and BPF configurations from scratch, reducing implementation difficulty while maintaining reliable security enforcement through proven templates.
4Ease of operation
If Docker seccomp security profile is used to control system calls, then simple allow/deny control is achieved, but important actions may be unintentionally denied
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by enabling fine-grained security controls specific to each container's needs. Instead of uniform allow/deny rules, the system configures customized policy rule sets for each container based on its specific requirements, ensuring that important actions are not unintentionally denied while maintaining ease of policy management through structured configurations.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a dynamic security policy enforcement system for a container system. The dynamic security policy enforcement system comprises a policy management unit for generating and managing a security policy for a container based on a structured format including a set of rules of a predetermined condition; a policy enforcement unit for checking the set of rules when the container requests a system call, changing the security policy of the structured format into a code in a preset format, and transferring the policy changed into the code to a kernel space; and a policy operation decision unit for enforcing the policy received from the policy enforcement unit in the kernel space based on a policy enforcement program that hooks the system call and generating a return value for performing a predetermined operation. Due to this, a policy can be applied to containers in all states including an initialization state and a running state at any time, and there is no need to restart the system or container to apply the policy.