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AWS ECR scanner reference for STO

You can scan your container images using Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

Important notes for running AWS ECR scans in STO

Docker-in-Docker requirements

note

Docker-in-Docker is not required for ingestion workflows where the scan data has already been generated.

You need to include a Docker-in-Docker background service in your stage if either of these conditions apply:

  • You configured your scanner using a generic Security step rather than a scanner-specific template such as Aqua Trivy, Bandit, Mend, Snyk, etc.
  • You’re scanning a container image using an Orchestration or Extraction workflow.
Set up a Docker-in-Docker background step
  1. Go to the stage where you want to run the scan.

  2. In Overview, add the shared path /var/run.

  3. In Execution, do the following:

    1. Click Add Step and then choose Background.

    2. Configure the Background step as follows:

      1. Dependency Name = dind

      2. Container Registry = The Docker connector to download the DinD image. If you don't have one defined, go to Docker connector settings reference.

      3. Image = docker:dind

      4. Under Entry Point, add the following: dockerd

        In most cases, using dockerd is a faster and more secure way to set up the background step. For more information, go to the TLS section in the Docker quick reference.

        If the DinD service doesn't start with dockerd, clear the Entry Point field and then run the pipeline again. This starts the service with the default entry point.

      5. Under Optional Configuration, select the Privileged checkbox.

Configure the background step

Root access requirements

You need to run the scan step with root access if either of the following apply:

  • You need to run a Docker-in-Docker background service. This is required in the following scenarios only:

    • You're using a generic Security step to run an Orchestrated or Extraction scan, rather than a scanner-specific step such as Aqua Trivy, Bandit, etc. (not required for Ingestion scans).

    • You're scanning a container image using an Orchestrated or Extraction scan (not required for Ingestion scans).

  • You need to add trusted certificates to your scan images at runtime.

note

You can set up your STO scan images and pipelines to run scans as non-root and establish trust for your own proxies using self-signed certificates. For more information, go to Configure STO to Download Images from a Private Registry.

AWS ECR step settings for STO scans

The recommended workflow is add an AWS ECR step to a Security Tests or CI Build stage and then configure it as described below. You can also configure scans programmatically by copying, pasting, and editing the YAML definition.

Scan settings

Scan Mode

This integration supports the following orchestration modes.

  • Extraction A partially-orchestrated scan. The Security step pulls scan results from an external SaaS service and then normalizes and compresses the data.
  • Ingestion Ingestion scans are not orchestrated. The Security step ingest results from a previous scan (for a scan run in an previous step) and then normallizes and compresses the results.

Scan Configuration

The predefined configuration to use for the scan. All scan steps have at least one configuration.

Target Settings

Type

  • Container Image Scan the layers, libraries, and packages in a container image.

Name

The Identifier that you want to assign to the target you’re scanning in the pipeline. Use a unique, descriptive name such as codebaseAlpha or jsmith/myalphaservice. Using descriptive target names will make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.

Variant

An identifier for a specific variant to scan, such as the branch name or image tag. This identifier is used to differentiate or group results for a target. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

Container Image settings

Type (orchestration)

The registry type where the image is stored:

Domain (extraction)

The URL of the artifact repository that contains the image to scan. Examples include:

  • docker.io
  • app.harness.io/registry
  • us-east1-docker.pkg.dev
  • us.gcr.io

Name

The image name. For non-local images, you also need to specify the image repository. Example: jsmith/myalphaservice

Tag

The image tag. Examples: latest, 1.2.3

Region

The region where the image to scan is located, as defined by the cloud provider such as AWS.

Authentication settings

Access ID (orchestration)

The username to log in to the scanner.

Access Token

The access token to log in to the scanner. In most cases this is a password or an API key.

You should create a Harness text secret with your encrypted token and reference the secret using the format <+secrets.getValue("project.container-access-id")>. For more information, go to Add and Reference Text Secrets.

Access Region

The AWS region of the image to scan.

Ingestion settings

Ingestion File

The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan.

Generally an Ingestion scan consists of a scan step (to generate the data file) and an ingestion step (to ingest the data file).

In addition to ingesting scan data in the external scanner's native format, STO steps can also ingest data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format.

For more information, go to Ingest Scan Results into an STO Pipeline.

Log Level, CLI flags, and Fail on Severity

Log Level

The minimum severity of the messages you want to include in your scan logs. You can specify one of the following:

  • DEBUG
  • INFO
  • WARNING
  • ERROR

Fail on Severity

Every Security step has a Fail on Severity setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified severity level or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:

  • CRITICAL
  • HIGH
  • MEDIUM
  • LOW
  • INFO
  • NONE — Do not fail on severity

The YAML definition looks like this: fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none

Additional Configuration

In the Additional Configuration settings, you can use the following options:

Advanced settings

In the Advanced settings, you can use the following options:

Security step settings for Amazon ECR scans in STO (legacy)

  • product_name = aws-ecr
  • scan_type =containerImage
  • policy_type= dataLoad, ingestionOnly
  • product_config_name =default
  • container_project = The name of the scanned ECR container with the results you want to ingest.
  • container_tag = The container tag for the given container project.
  • configuration_access_id = Your AWS Access ID secret
  • configuration_access_token = Your AWS Access Token secret
  • configuration_region = The AWS region where the container is located. For example, us-east-1
  • container_domain = URI of the ECR container with the scan results you want to load.
  • fail_on_severity - See Fail on Severity.

Target and variant

The following settings are required for every Security step:

  • target_name A user-defined label for the code repository, container, application, or configuration to scan.
  • variant A user-defined label for the branch, tag, or other target variant to scan.
note

Make sure that you give unique, descriptive names for the target and variant. This makes navigating your scan results in the STO UI much easier.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

For more information, go to Targets, baselines, and variants in STO.

Container settings

The following settings apply to all scanners where the scan_type is containerImage.

  • container_type
    • accepted value(s): local_image, docker_v2, jfrog_artifactory, aws_ecr
      • for container_type set to local
        • None
      • for container_type set to docker_v2
        • container_access_id: Username
        • container_access_token: Password/Token
      • for container_type set to jfrog_artifactory
        • container_access_id: Username
        • container_access_token: Password/Token
      • for container_type set to aws_ecr
        • container_access_id: Username
        • container_access_token: Password/Token
        • container_region: AWS default region
  • container_domain

Ingestion file

The following setting is required for Security steps where the policy_type is ingestionOnly.

  • ingestion_file The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan. You should specify the full path to the data file in your workspace, such as /shared/customer_artifacts/my_scan_results.json.

    In addition to ingesting scan data in the external scanner's native format, STO steps can also ingest data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format.

    The following steps outline the general workflow for ingesting scan data into your pipeline. For a complete workflow description and example, go to Ingest Scan Results into an STO Pipeline.

    1. Specify a shared folder for your scan results, such as /shared/customer_artifacts. You can do this in the Overview tab of the Security stage where you're ingesting your data.

    2. Create a Run step that copies your scan results to the shared folder. You can run your scan externally, before you run the build, or set up the Run step to run the scan and then copy the results.

    3. Add a Security step after the Run step and add the target name, variant, and ingestion_file settings as described above.

Fail on Severity

Every Security step has a Fail on Severity setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified severity level or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:

  • CRITICAL
  • HIGH
  • MEDIUM
  • LOW
  • INFO
  • NONE — Do not fail on severity

The YAML definition looks like this: fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none