How Azure Security Center helps you protect your environment from new vulnerabilities

Recently the disclosure of a vulnerability (CVE-2019-5736) was announced in the open-source software (OSS) container runtime, runc. This vulnerability can allow an attacker to gain root-level code execution on a host. Runc is the underlying container runtime underneath many popular containers.

Azure Security Center can help you detect vulnerable resources in your environment within Microsoft Azure, on-premises, or other clouds. Azure Security Center can also detect that an exploitation has occurred and alert you.

Azure Security Center offers several methods that can be applied to mitigate or detect malicious behavior:

• Strengthen security posture – Azure Security Center periodically analyzes the security state of your resources. When it identifies potential security vulnerabilities it creates recommendations. The recommendations guide you through the process of configuring the necessary controls. We have plans to add recommendations when unpatched resources are detected. You can find more information about strengthening security posture by visiting our documentation, “Managing security recommendations in Azure Security Center.”
• File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) – This method examines files and registry keys of operating systems, application software, and more, for changes that might indicate an attack. By enabling FIM, Azure Security Center will be able detect changes in the directory which can indicate malicious activity. Guidance on how to enable FIM and add file tracking on Linux machines can be found in our documentation, “File Integrity Monitoring in Azure Security Center.”
• Security alerts – Azure Security Center detects suspicious activities on Linux machines using auditd framework. Collected records flow into a threat detection pipeline and surface as an alert when malicious activity is detected. Security alerts coverage will soon include new analytics to identify compromised machines by runc vulnerability. You can find more information about security alerts by visiting our documentation, “Azure Security Center detection capabilities.”

To apply the best security hygiene practices, it is recommended to have your environment configured so that it posses the latest updates from your distribution provider. System updates can be performed through Azure Security Center, for more guidance visit our documentation, “Apply system updates in Azure Security Center.”