How to detect the containers' escape capabilities with Falco

Container escape techniques pose significant security threats as attackers exploit misconfigurations to gain elevated privileges within containerized environments. The article discusses how tools like Falco can detect such threats, emphasizing the importance of understanding Linux capabilities, which divide root privileges into smaller parts to enhance security. However, capabilities such as CAP_SYS_ADMIN and CAP_NET_ADMIN are often misused, leading to vulnerabilities like CVE-2022-0847 and CVE-2022-0492. Falco, particularly with its latest version, allows monitoring of thread capabilities and detection of excessive privileges to prevent container escapes. By implementing specific rules, Falco can alert users to potential exploits, such as those involving the release_agent file in cgroup v1, thereby offering a robust defense against privilege escalation and container isolation breaches.