AWSOverview
Scan images being deployed to Amazon EKS for vulnerabilities.
Rationale
Vulnerabilities in software packages can be exploited by hackers or malicious users to obtain unauthorized access to local cloud resources. Amazon ECR and other third party products allow images to be scanned for known vulnerabilities.
Impact
If you are utilizing AWS ECR The following are common image scan failures. You can view errors like this in the Amazon ECR console by displaying the image details or through the API or AWS CLI by using the DescribeImageScanFindings API. UnsupportedImageError You may get an UnsupportedImageError error when attempting to scan an image that was built using an operating system that Amazon ECR doesn't support image scanning for. Amazon ECR supports package vulnerability scanning for major versions of Amazon Linux, Amazon Linux 2, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Alpine, and RHEL Linux distributions. Amazon ECR does not support scanning images built from the Docker scratch image. An UNDEFINED severity level is returned You may receive a scan finding that has a severity level of UNDEFINED. The following are the common causes for this: The vulnerability was not assigned a priority by the CVE source. The vulnerability was assigned a priority that Amazon ECR did not recognize. To determine the severity and description of a vulnerability, you can view the CVE directly from the source.
Audit
Please follow AWS ECS or your 3rd party image scanning provider's guidelines for enabling Image Scanning
aws ecr describe-repositories --repository-names $REPO_NAME --region
$REGION_CODE
Remediation guidance
To utilize AWS ECR for Image scanning please follow the steps below:
To create a repository configured for scan on push (AWS CLI)
ws ecr create-repository --repository-name $REPO_NAME --image-scanning-configuration scanOnPush=true --region $REGION_CODE
To edit the settings of an existing repository (AWS CLI)
aws ecr put-image-scanning-configuration --repository-name $REPO_NAME --
image-scanning-configuration scanOnPush=true --region $REGION_CODE
Use the following steps to start a manual image scan using the AWS Management Console.
- Open the Amazon ECR console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecr/repositories.
- From the navigation bar, choose the Region to create your repository in.
- In the navigation pane, choose Repositories.
- On the Repositories page, choose the repository that contains the image to scan.
- On the Images page, select the image to scan and then choose Scan.
References
Multiple Remediation Paths
AWS
SERVICE-WIDE (RECOMMENDED when many resources are affected): Deploy centralized guardrails and remediation using AWS Config Conformance Packs and (if applicable) AWS Organizations SCPs.
aws configservice put-organization-conformance-pack --organization-conformance-pack-name <pack-name> --template-s3-uri s3://<bucket>/<template>.yaml
ASSET-LEVEL: Apply the resource-specific remediation steps above to only the affected assets.
PREVENTIVE: Add CI/CD policy checks (CloudFormation/Terraform validation) before deployment to prevent recurrence.
References for Service-Wide Patterns
- AWS Config Conformance Packs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/config/latest/developerguide/conformance-packs.html
- AWS Organizations SCP examples: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps_examples.html
Operational Rollout Workflow
Use this sequence to reduce risk and avoid repeated drift.
1. Contain at Service-Wide Scope First (Recommended)
- AWS: deploy/adjust organization conformance packs and policy guardrails.
aws configservice put-organization-conformance-pack --organization-conformance-pack-name <pack-name> --template-s3-uri s3://<bucket>/<template>.yaml
2. Remediate Existing Affected Assets
- Execute the control-specific Console/CLI steps documented above for each flagged resource.
- Prioritize internet-exposed and production assets first.
3. Validate and Prevent Recurrence
- Re-scan after each remediation batch.
- Track exceptions with owner and expiry date.
- Add preventive checks in IaC/CI pipelines.
Query logic
These are the stored checks tied to this control.
ECR Repositories without scan on push enabled
Connectors
Covered asset types
Expected check: eq []
{
ECRRepositoriesWithoutAutomaticScanning {
...AssetFragment
}
}
