Container Image Scanning: Finding and Managing Vulnerabilities

February 22, 2026

Kubernetes

Vulnerability-Scanning, Ci-Cd-Security, Policy-Enforcement

Image-Scanning, Trivy, Grype, Cve, Vulnerability-Management, Admission-Controllers

Trivy, Grype, Snyk, Kyverno, Opa-Gatekeeper

Container Image Scanning#

Every container image you deploy carries an operating system, libraries, and application dependencies. Each of those components can have known vulnerabilities. Image scanning compares the packages in your image against databases of CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and tells you what is exploitable.

Scanning is not optional. It is a baseline hygiene practice that belongs in every CI pipeline.

How CVE Databases Work#

Scanners pull vulnerability data from multiple sources: the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), vendor-specific feeds (Red Hat, Debian, Alpine, Ubuntu security trackers), and language-specific advisory databases (GitHub Advisory Database for npm/pip/go). Each CVE has a severity rating based on CVSS scores:

Security Hardening a Kubernetes Cluster: End-to-End Operational Sequence

February 22, 2026

Kubernetes

Intermediate

Cluster-Hardening, Security-Assessment, Policy-Enforcement, Runtime-Security

Security, Hardening, Rbac, Pod-Security, Network-Policies, Audit-Logging, Falco, Kyverno, Image-Scanning, Etcd-Encryption

Kubectl, Kube-Bench, Trivy, Kyverno, Falco, Etcdctl

Security Hardening a Kubernetes Cluster#

This operational sequence takes a default Kubernetes cluster and locks it down. Phases are ordered by impact and dependency: assessment first, then RBAC, pod security, networking, images, auditing, and finally data protection. Each phase includes the commands, policy YAML, and verification steps.

Do not skip the assessment phase. You need to know what you are fixing before you start fixing it.

Phase 1 – Assessment#

Before changing anything, establish a baseline. This phase produces a prioritized list of findings that drives the order of remediation in later phases.