cloud-containers-scanning-distroless

--| | Shell (bash/sh) | Yes | Yes | No | | Package manager | apt | apk | No | | coreutils | Full | BusyBox | No | | curl/wget | Yes | Yes | No | | User management | Yes | Yes | No | | Known CVEs (typical) | 50-200+ | 5-20 | 0-5 | | Image size (base) | ~77MB | ~7MB | ~2-20MB |

Security Implications

• No shell: Attackers cannot exec into containers to run commands
• No package manager: Cannot install additional tools or malware
• No coreutils: No cat, ls, find, curl for reconnaissance
• Minimal CVEs: Fewer packages means fewer vulnerabilities to patch
• Non-root by default: :nonroot tag runs as UID 65534

Debugging Distroless Containers

Since distroless has no shell, use these techniques for debugging:

Debug Image Variant

# Use debug variant in non-production environments only
FROM gcr.io/distroless/base-debian12:debug
# Includes busybox shell at /busybox/sh

# Exec into debug variant
kubectl exec -it pod-name -- /busybox/sh

Ephemeral Debug Containers (Kubernetes 1.25+)

# Attach a debug container with full tooling
kubectl debug -it pod-name --image=busybox:1.36 --target=app-container

Crane/Dive for Image Inspection

# Inspect image layers without running
crane export gcr.io/distroless/static-debian12 - | tar -tf - | head -50

# Analyze image layers
dive gcr.io/distroless/static-debian12

Image Scanning Results

Typical vulnerability comparison using Trivy:

# Scan Ubuntu-based image
trivy image myapp:ubuntu
# Result: 47 vulnerabilities (3 CRITICAL, 12 HIGH)

# Scan Distroless-based image
trivy image myapp:distroless
# Result: 2 vulnerabilities (0 CRITICAL, 0 HIGH)

References

• GoogleContainerTools/distroless GitHub
• Distroless Images - Docker Documentation
• Alpine, Distroless, or Scratch? - Google Cloud
• Docker Hardened Images