Docker Container Image Scanning Methods

With the development of containerized environments, the issue of security is becoming critical for application deployments. This article provides a comparative analysis of static and dynamic methods for scanning Docker container images. Static analysis is used to identify potential vulnerabilities before container deployment, while dynamic analysis is performed in an isolated environment at runtime, ensuring product reliability. The work of Trivy, JFrog Xray, Snyk, and Docker Scout scanners is compared, and their advantages, disadvantages, and effectiveness in different conditions are emphasized. Trivy has been proven to find the most vulnerabilities among the scanners tested. Snyk and Xray give similar results, but Xray also checks for encryption of important data such as passwords. Docker Scout turned out to be the weakest representative, the only advantage of which is open access to results that can be analyzed without uploading an image to the server or personal developers’ computer. Particular attention is paid to static analysis due to its broader coverage of vulnerabilities, including operating packages and application dependencies. The difference in the assessment of the criticality of vulnerabilities by different scanners is demonstrated, and it is also discussed how many vulnerabilities found do not always mean a high level of risk. Based on the analysis, criteria for choosing a scanner are proposed to avoid information leakage due to unnoticed vulnerabilities.