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Docker Security Best Practices in 2026: Hardening Containers from Build to Runtime

Containers are not sandboxes. A misconfigured Docker container gives attackers the same access as a root shell on the host. This comprehensive guide covers image security, build hardening, runtime protection, secrets management, network isolation, and monitoring β€” everything you need to run Docker securely in production.

S

Sarah Chen

Senior Cybersecurity Engineer with 12+ years of experience in penetration testing and security architecture.

March 3, 2026
38 min read

Docker transformed how we build, ship, and run software. But Docker's default configuration prioritizes convenience over security. Out of the box, Docker containers run as root, share the host kernel, have unrestricted network access, and can mount any host directory. A single misconfigured container can compromise your entire infrastructure.

In 2025, container-related security incidents increased 47% year-over-year (Sysdig Cloud-Native Security Report). The most common attack vectors: vulnerable base images (32%), misconfigured containers running as root (28%), exposed Docker sockets (18%), hardcoded secrets in images (12%), and excessive container privileges (10%). Every one of these is preventable with proper configuration.

This guide covers Docker security from the ground up β€” image selection, build process hardening, runtime security configuration, secrets management, network isolation, and monitoring. Whether you're running a single Docker host or orchestrating thousands of containers, these practices apply.

Chapter 1: Image Security β€” The Foundation of Container Security

Your container is only as secure as the image it's built from. If your base image contains known vulnerabilities, every container you launch inherits those vulnerabilities. Image security starts with choosing the right base image and continues through your entire build pipeline.

Choosing Secure Base Images

The first decision in any Dockerfile is the base image. This decision has more security impact than any other choice you'll make.

Alpine Linux (5MB): The most popular minimal base image. Alpine uses musl libc instead of glibc, which means a smaller attack surface but occasional compatibility issues with software compiled against glibc. Alpine's package manager (apk) provides regularly updated packages. Best for: Go binaries, Node.js applications, and any workload that doesn't require glibc-specific libraries.

Google Distroless (2-15MB): Distroless images contain only your application and its runtime dependencies β€” no shell, no package manager, no utilities. An attacker who compromises a distroless container can't spawn a shell, can't install tools, and can't easily exfiltrate data. This makes post-exploitation significantly harder. Best for: Java, Python, Node.js, and Go applications in production. Not suitable for development or debugging (you can't exec into the container).

Chainguard Images (varies): A newer option that provides hardened, FIPS-compliant, vulnerability-free base images. Chainguard rebuilds images daily with the latest security patches and provides SBOMs (Software Bills of Materials) for every image. Best for: regulated environments that require compliance certifications.

Ubuntu/Debian (75-125MB): Full-featured base images with comprehensive package repositories. These images contain hundreds of packages, many of which your application doesn't need β€” each one is a potential vulnerability. Only use these if your application specifically requires packages not available in minimal distributions, and even then, consider a multi-stage build that copies only the needed binaries into a minimal final image.

Images to avoid in production: latest tags (mutable, unpredictable), images from unknown publishers on Docker Hub, images without regular security updates, and images based on end-of-life operating systems.

Image Scanning: Finding Vulnerabilities Before Deployment

Every image should be scanned for known vulnerabilities before it reaches production. Image scanning tools compare the packages in your image against vulnerability databases (CVE, NVD) and report findings by severity.

# Trivy β€” the most popular open-source scanner
# Scan a local image
trivy image myapp:v1.2.3

# Scan with severity filter (only critical and high)
trivy image --severity CRITICAL,HIGH myapp:v1.2.3

# Scan and fail CI if critical vulnerabilities found
trivy image --exit-code 1 --severity CRITICAL myapp:v1.2.3

# Scan a Dockerfile for misconfigurations
trivy config Dockerfile

# Scan a running container's filesystem
trivy rootfs /path/to/container/rootfs

# Generate SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)
trivy image --format spdx-json --output sbom.json myapp:v1.2.3

Integrate scanning into your CI/CD pipeline. The scan should run after the image is built but before it's pushed to the registry. If critical or high-severity vulnerabilities are found, the pipeline should fail and the image should not be deployed.

But scanning alone isn't enough. Scanners only detect known vulnerabilities β€” they can't find zero-days, logic flaws, or misconfigurations specific to your application. Scanning is one layer of a defense-in-depth strategy.

Image Digests: Immutable References

Docker tags are mutable. nginx:1.25 today might be a different image than nginx:1.25 tomorrow. If someone pushes a compromised image with the same tag, you'll pull the compromised version without knowing.

Image digests are immutable SHA256 hashes that uniquely identify an image. Use digests in production to guarantee you're running the exact image you tested:

# Bad: tag is mutable
FROM nginx:1.25

# Good: digest is immutable
FROM nginx@sha256:6db391d1c0cfb30588ba0bf72ea999404f2764e...

# Find the digest of an image
docker inspect --format='{{index .RepoDigests 0}}' nginx:1.25

# Pin images in docker-compose.yml
services:
  web:
    image: nginx@sha256:6db391d1c0cfb30588ba0bf72ea999404f2764e...

Multi-Stage Builds: Minimizing Attack Surface

Multi-stage builds are the single most impactful technique for reducing image size and attack surface. The idea: use a full-featured image for building your application, then copy only the compiled artifact into a minimal runtime image.

# Multi-stage build example for a Go application
# Stage 1: Build (uses full Go SDK β€” 800MB)
FROM golang:1.22-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY go.mod go.sum ./
RUN go mod download
COPY . .
# Build a statically linked binary
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -ldflags='-w -s' -o /app/server ./cmd/server

# Stage 2: Runtime (uses distroless β€” 2MB)
FROM gcr.io/distroless/static-debian12:nonroot
COPY --from=builder /app/server /server
USER nonroot:nonroot
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["/server"]

# Result: ~10MB image with only your binary
# No shell, no package manager, no utilities for attackers

For Node.js applications, the multi-stage approach copies only the production node_modules and compiled assets:

# Multi-stage build for Next.js
FROM node:20-alpine AS deps
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production

FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine AS runner
WORKDIR /app
ENV NODE_ENV=production
RUN addgroup --system --gid 1001 nodejs
RUN adduser --system --uid 1001 nextjs

COPY --from=builder /app/public ./public
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/.next/standalone ./
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/.next/static ./.next/static

USER nextjs
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Chapter 2: Dockerfile Hardening β€” Secure Build Practices

Never Run as Root

By default, Docker containers run as root (UID 0). If an attacker exploits a vulnerability in your application, they have root access inside the container. Combined with a kernel vulnerability or misconfiguration, this can escalate to root access on the host.

Always create a non-root user and switch to it:

# Create a non-root user
RUN groupadd --system --gid 1001 appgroup &&     useradd --system --uid 1001 --gid appgroup appuser

# Set ownership of application files
COPY --chown=appuser:appgroup . /app

# Switch to non-root user
USER appuser

# Verify: container should not run as root
# docker run myapp whoami  β†’  should output "appuser"

Some applications require root during setup (e.g., installing packages) but not during runtime. Use multi-stage builds to install as root in the build stage, then run as non-root in the runtime stage.

Read-Only Filesystem

If your application doesn't need to write to the filesystem, make it read-only. This prevents attackers from writing malware, backdoors, or configuration changes to the container filesystem:

# Run with read-only filesystem
docker run --read-only myapp

# If your app needs temporary write access, use tmpfs
docker run --read-only --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid myapp

# In docker-compose.yml
services:
  app:
    image: myapp:v1.2.3
    read_only: true
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid
      - /var/run:rw,noexec,nosuid

Drop All Capabilities

Linux capabilities grant specific privileges to processes. Docker containers start with a subset of capabilities (including NET_RAW, which allows packet sniffing, and SYS_CHROOT). Most applications don't need any capabilities.

# Drop all capabilities, add back only what's needed
docker run --cap-drop=ALL --cap-add=NET_BIND_SERVICE myapp

# In docker-compose.yml
services:
  app:
    image: myapp:v1.2.3
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - NET_BIND_SERVICE  # Only if binding to ports below 1024
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true  # Prevent privilege escalation

The no-new-privileges security option prevents processes inside the container from gaining additional privileges through setuid/setgid binaries or capability escalation. Always enable this.

Minimize Layers and Clean Up

Each Dockerfile instruction creates a layer. Files deleted in a later layer still exist in the previous layer β€” they're just hidden. If you install packages, copy secrets, or download files and then delete them in a separate RUN instruction, they're still in the image.

# Bad: secret exists in layer 2 even though it's deleted in layer 3
COPY secret.key /app/secret.key
RUN /app/setup.sh
RUN rm /app/secret.key

# Good: single layer, file never persists
RUN --mount=type=secret,id=mykey,target=/tmp/secret.key     /app/setup.sh

# Good: combine commands to reduce layers and clean up
RUN apt-get update &&     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl ca-certificates &&     curl -fsSL https://example.com/install.sh | sh &&     apt-get purge -y curl &&     apt-get autoremove -y &&     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

Use .dockerignore

The .dockerignore file prevents sensitive files from being copied into the image. Without it, COPY . . copies everything β€” including .env files, .git directories, private keys, and other sensitive data.

# .dockerignore
.git
.gitignore
.env
.env.*
*.md
docker-compose*.yml
Dockerfile*
node_modules
.next
coverage
tests
__tests__
*.pem
*.key
id_rsa*

Chapter 3: Runtime Security β€” Protecting Running Containers

Resource Limits: Preventing Resource Exhaustion

A container without resource limits can consume all available CPU, memory, and disk I/O on the host, affecting every other container. This is both a stability concern (a memory leak crashes the host) and a security concern (denial-of-service attacks are trivial without limits).

# Set memory and CPU limits
docker run --memory=512m --memory-swap=512m --cpus=0.5 myapp

# In docker-compose.yml
services:
  app:
    image: myapp:v1.2.3
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '0.50'
          memory: 512M
        reservations:
          cpus: '0.25'
          memory: 256M
    # Prevent fork bombs
    ulimits:
      nproc: 100
      nofile:
        soft: 1024
        hard: 2048
    # Limit container restarts (prevents restart loops)
    restart: on-failure:5

Setting --memory-swap equal to --memory disables swap, which prevents the container from using disk as virtual memory (slower, and can exhaust disk space).

Network Isolation

By default, all containers on the same Docker network can communicate with each other. In production, containers should only communicate with the services they need.

# docker-compose.yml with network isolation
services:
  frontend:
    image: frontend:v1.0
    networks:
      - frontend-net
    ports:
      - "443:3000"

  backend:
    image: backend:v1.0
    networks:
      - frontend-net  # Can talk to frontend
      - backend-net   # Can talk to database
    # No ports exposed to host β€” only accessible via frontend-net

  database:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    networks:
      - backend-net   # Only accessible from backend
    # No ports exposed to host
    # Frontend cannot reach database directly

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    networks:
      - backend-net
    # Only backend can access Redis

networks:
  frontend-net:
    driver: bridge
  backend-net:
    driver: bridge
    internal: true  # No external access at all

The internal: true flag on the backend-net network prevents any container on that network from accessing the internet. The database and Redis have no route to the outside world β€” they can only communicate with the backend.

Protect the Docker Socket

The Docker socket (/var/run/docker.sock) is the API endpoint that controls Docker. Any container with access to the socket has full control over the Docker daemon β€” it can create new containers, read secrets from other containers, mount the host filesystem, and effectively has root access to the host.

Never mount the Docker socket into a container unless absolutely necessary (e.g., for CI/CD runners or monitoring tools). If you must mount it, use a Docker socket proxy (like Tecnativa's docker-socket-proxy) that filters API calls and only allows specific operations.

# NEVER do this in production:
docker run -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock myapp

# If you must (e.g., for Portainer, monitoring):
# Use a socket proxy that restricts API access
services:
  socket-proxy:
    image: tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    environment:
      CONTAINERS: 1    # Allow listing containers
      IMAGES: 0        # Deny image operations
      EXEC: 0          # Deny exec into containers
      VOLUMES: 0       # Deny volume operations
      POST: 0          # Deny all POST requests (read-only)
    networks:
      - proxy-net

  monitoring:
    image: monitoring-tool
    environment:
      DOCKER_HOST: tcp://socket-proxy:2375
    networks:
      - proxy-net
    # No direct access to Docker socket

Seccomp Profiles: Restricting System Calls

Seccomp (Secure Computing Mode) restricts which Linux system calls a container can make. Docker's default seccomp profile blocks about 44 dangerous syscalls (including reboot, mount, keyctl), but you can create a more restrictive custom profile tailored to your application.

# Generate a seccomp profile by tracing your application
# 1. Run your app and record which syscalls it actually uses
docker run --security-opt seccomp=unconfined strace -f -c myapp

# 2. Create a custom profile that only allows those syscalls
# custom-seccomp.json
{
  "defaultAction": "SCMP_ACT_ERRNO",
  "architectures": ["SCMP_ARCH_X86_64"],
  "syscalls": [
    {
      "names": ["read", "write", "open", "close", "stat", "fstat",
                "mmap", "mprotect", "munmap", "brk", "rt_sigaction",
                "rt_sigprocmask", "ioctl", "access", "pipe", "select",
                "sched_yield", "clone", "execve", "exit", "wait4",
                "fcntl", "getdents64", "getcwd", "chdir", "rename",
                "mkdir", "link", "unlink", "readlink", "chmod",
                "getuid", "getgid", "geteuid", "getegid",
                "epoll_create1", "epoll_ctl", "epoll_wait",
                "socket", "connect", "accept", "bind", "listen",
                "sendto", "recvfrom", "setsockopt", "getsockopt",
                "futex", "set_robust_list", "clock_gettime",
                "exit_group", "openat", "newfstatat"],
      "action": "SCMP_ACT_ALLOW"
    }
  ]
}

# 3. Apply the custom profile
docker run --security-opt seccomp=custom-seccomp.json myapp

Chapter 4: Secrets Management β€” Keeping Credentials Out of Images

The Problem with Environment Variables

The most common way to pass secrets to containers is environment variables. While better than hardcoding secrets in images, environment variables have security issues: they're visible in docker inspect, they appear in process listings (/proc/*/environ), they're included in crash dumps and error reports, and they persist in the container's metadata.

Docker Secrets (Swarm Mode)

Docker Swarm provides built-in secrets management. Secrets are encrypted at rest, encrypted in transit, and mounted as files in the container's filesystem (at /run/secrets/). They're only available to services that explicitly request them.

# Create a secret
echo "my_database_password" | docker secret create db_password -

# Use in docker-compose.yml (Swarm mode)
services:
  app:
    image: myapp:v1.2.3
    secrets:
      - db_password
      - api_key
    environment:
      DB_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/db_password
      API_KEY_FILE: /run/secrets/api_key

secrets:
  db_password:
    external: true
  api_key:
    external: true

Your application reads from the file instead of an environment variable:

// Read secret from file (Node.js)
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

function getSecret(name: string): string {
  const filePath = process.env[`${name}_FILE`];
  if (filePath) {
    return readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8').trim();
  }
  // Fallback to environment variable for development
  return process.env[name] || '';
}

const dbPassword = getSecret('DB_PASSWORD');
const apiKey = getSecret('API_KEY');

External Secret Managers

For production environments, use a dedicated secret manager: HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or Google Secret Manager. These provide: encryption at rest and in transit, access control and audit logging, automatic rotation, versioning, and dynamic secrets (credentials generated on demand with automatic expiration).

The pattern is: your container starts, authenticates with the secret manager (using a short-lived token, IAM role, or service account), retrieves the secrets it needs, and uses them. The secrets never appear in environment variables, Docker metadata, or image layers.

Build-Time Secrets with BuildKit

Sometimes you need secrets during the build process (e.g., to pull private packages). Docker BuildKit provides a secure way to pass secrets that are never stored in image layers:

# Dockerfile using BuildKit secrets
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./

# Mount npm token as a secret during npm install
# The secret is available during this RUN instruction only
# It is NOT stored in any layer
RUN --mount=type=secret,id=npmrc,target=/root/.npmrc     npm ci --only=production

COPY . .
USER node
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

# Build with the secret
DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build   --secret id=npmrc,src=.npmrc   -t myapp:v1.2.3 .

Chapter 5: Docker Compose Security for Production

Most production Docker deployments use Docker Compose. Here's a hardened docker-compose.yml that implements all the security practices covered in this guide:

version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    image: myapp@sha256:abc123...  # Pinned by digest
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.production
    read_only: true                # Read-only filesystem
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,size=100m
    cap_drop:
      - ALL                        # Drop all capabilities
    cap_add:
      - NET_BIND_SERVICE           # Only if needed
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true     # Prevent privilege escalation
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '1.0'
          memory: 1G
        reservations:
          cpus: '0.25'
          memory: 256M
    ulimits:
      nproc: 200
      nofile:
        soft: 1024
        hard: 4096
    networks:
      - frontend
      - backend
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8080:8080"     # Bind to localhost only
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "wget", "--no-verbose", "--tries=1", "--spider", "http://localhost:8080/health"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 40s
    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"
    restart: on-failure:5

  database:
    image: postgres:16-alpine@sha256:def456...
    read_only: true
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid
      - /run/postgresql:rw,noexec,nosuid
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '2.0'
          memory: 2G
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data:rw
    networks:
      - backend               # Only accessible from backend network
    # No ports exposed to host
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/db_password
    secrets:
      - db_password
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "5"

networks:
  frontend:
    driver: bridge
  backend:
    driver: bridge
    internal: true             # No internet access

volumes:
  pgdata:
    driver: local

secrets:
  db_password:
    file: ./secrets/db_password.txt  # Or use external secrets

Chapter 6: Monitoring and Incident Response

Container Monitoring

Monitoring running containers is essential for detecting security incidents. Key signals to monitor:

Process monitoring: Alert on unexpected processes running inside containers. If a container running a Node.js application suddenly spawns a Python process or a shell, that's suspicious. Tools like Falco (open-source, CNCF) monitor syscalls in real-time and alert on anomalous behavior.

Network monitoring: Alert on unexpected network connections. If your backend container suddenly connects to an IP in a known-malicious range, or makes DNS requests to unusual domains, that could indicate compromise. Monitor both ingress (who's connecting to your containers) and egress (what your containers connect to).

File integrity monitoring: In read-only containers, any filesystem write attempt is suspicious. In writable containers, monitor for changes to configuration files, new executable files, and modifications to application code.

Resource usage anomalies: A container suddenly consuming 100% CPU might be running a cryptominer. A container with unusual memory growth might be exfiltrating data. Baseline normal resource usage and alert on deviations.

# Falco rule examples for Docker monitoring

# Alert when a shell is spawned in a container
- rule: Shell Spawned in Container
  desc: Detect shell spawned in a container
  condition: >
    spawned_process and container and
    proc.name in (bash, sh, zsh, dash, ash, csh, ksh, fish)
  output: >
    Shell spawned in container
    (user=%user.name container=%container.name
     shell=%proc.name parent=%proc.pname)
  priority: WARNING

# Alert when a container makes an outbound connection
# to an unusual port
- rule: Unexpected Outbound Connection
  desc: Detect outbound connections on non-standard ports
  condition: >
    outbound and container and
    fd.sport not in (80, 443, 53, 5432, 6379, 3306)
  output: >
    Unexpected outbound connection from container
    (container=%container.name port=%fd.sport ip=%fd.sip)
  priority: NOTICE

# Alert when sensitive files are read
- rule: Sensitive File Read
  desc: Detect reads of sensitive files in containers
  condition: >
    open_read and container and
    (fd.name startswith /etc/shadow or
     fd.name startswith /etc/passwd or
     fd.name startswith /proc/self/environ)
  output: >
    Sensitive file read in container
    (file=%fd.name container=%container.name user=%user.name)
  priority: WARNING

Docker Logging Best Practices

Container logs are essential for security investigations. Configure centralized logging to ensure logs survive container restarts and are searchable during incidents.

Use the json-file logging driver with size limits to prevent disk exhaustion. For production, forward logs to a centralized logging system (ELK Stack, Loki, Datadog) using the syslog, fluentd, or GELF driver.

What to log from a security perspective: all authentication events (successful and failed), authorization decisions (who accessed what), data access patterns (which records were read or modified), configuration changes, error events (especially unexpected errors that could indicate attacks), and API request metadata (source IP, user agent, request path).

Chapter 7: Docker Host Security

The Docker host (the machine running the Docker daemon) is the last line of defense. If the host is compromised, every container on it is compromised.

Host Hardening

Keep Docker updated. Docker releases include security patches. Run the latest stable version and apply updates promptly. Subscribe to Docker security advisories.

Restrict Docker daemon access. The Docker daemon runs as root. Only trusted users should be in the docker group. Membership in the docker group is effectively equivalent to root access on the host.

Enable user namespaces. User namespaces remap the root user inside the container to a non-root user on the host. Even if a container runs as root internally, it maps to an unprivileged user on the host, significantly limiting the impact of container escapes.

Use a minimal host OS. Consider Container-Optimized OS (Google), Bottlerocket (AWS), or Flatcar Container Linux instead of a general-purpose Linux distribution. These operating systems are designed specifically for running containers and have minimal attack surface.

Enable audit logging. Configure auditd to log Docker-related activities: daemon configuration changes, container creation and deletion, image pulls, and volume mounts. These logs are invaluable during security investigations.

Docker Bench Security

Docker Bench for Security is an open-source script that checks your Docker installation against dozens of security best practices from the CIS Docker Benchmark:

# Run Docker Bench Security
docker run --rm --net host --pid host   --userns host --cap-add audit_control   -e DOCKER_CONTENT_TRUST=1   -v /etc:/etc:ro   -v /usr/bin/containerd:/usr/bin/containerd:ro   -v /usr/bin/runc:/usr/bin/runc:ro   -v /usr/lib/systemd:/usr/lib/systemd:ro   -v /var/lib:/var/lib:ro   -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro   docker/docker-bench-security

# Review the output and address WARN findings

Chapter 8: The Complete Docker Security Checklist

Use this checklist for every Docker deployment. Items are ordered by impact β€” address top items first.

Image Security: ☐ Use minimal base images (Alpine, distroless, or Chainguard). ☐ Pin images by digest, not tag. ☐ Scan all images for vulnerabilities in CI/CD. ☐ Use multi-stage builds to minimize final image size. ☐ Never include secrets, credentials, or private keys in images. ☐ Use .dockerignore to exclude sensitive files from build context. ☐ Rebuild images regularly to pick up base image security patches.

Runtime Security: ☐ Run containers as non-root (USER directive in Dockerfile). ☐ Use read-only filesystem where possible. ☐ Drop all capabilities, add back only what's needed. ☐ Enable no-new-privileges security option. ☐ Set memory and CPU limits. ☐ Never mount the Docker socket into containers. ☐ Use custom seccomp profiles to restrict system calls.

Network Security: ☐ Isolate containers using Docker networks. ☐ Use internal: true for backend networks that don't need internet. ☐ Bind ports to 127.0.0.1 unless external access is needed. ☐ Don't use --net=host unless absolutely necessary.

Secrets: ☐ Never hardcode secrets in Dockerfiles or images. ☐ Use Docker secrets, mounted files, or external secret managers. ☐ Use BuildKit secrets for build-time credentials. ☐ Rotate secrets regularly.

Monitoring: ☐ Configure centralized logging with size limits. ☐ Monitor for unexpected processes, network connections, and file changes. ☐ Run Docker Bench Security regularly. ☐ Set up alerts for security-relevant events.

Docker security isn't a one-time configuration β€” it's an ongoing practice. New vulnerabilities are discovered daily, attack techniques evolve, and your application changes over time. Review your security posture quarterly, stay updated on Docker security advisories, and continuously improve your defenses.

ZeonEdge provides Docker security assessments, hardening implementation, and ongoing container security monitoring. From image scanning pipeline setup to runtime protection with Falco, we secure your containerized infrastructure. Contact our security team for a container security audit.

S

Sarah Chen

Senior Cybersecurity Engineer with 12+ years of experience in penetration testing and security architecture.

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Why pay monthly SaaS fees when you can run the same (or better) services on your own hardware? This comprehensive guide covers self-hosting everything from email and file storage to Git repositories, project management, analytics, and monitoring. Learn about hardware selection, Docker Compose configurations, reverse proxy setup with Nginx, SSL certificates, backup strategies, and maintaining uptime.

Alex Thompsonβ€’42 min read
Best Practices

Data Privacy Engineering and GDPR Compliance in 2026: A Developer's Complete Guide

Data privacy regulations are becoming stricter and more widespread. GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, and India's DPDPA create a complex web of requirements for any application that handles personal data. This technical guide covers privacy-by-design architecture, data classification, consent management, right-to-erasure implementation, data minimization, pseudonymization, encryption strategies, breach notification workflows, and audit logging.

Emily Watsonβ€’38 min read

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