DevSecOps Practice Hub

Runtime Security

Detect and respond to malicious behaviour in running workloads using kernel-level telemetry.

AdvancedRuntime SecurityContainerOperations

Where it fits in the lifecycle

  1. Plan
  2. Code
  3. Build
  4. Test
  5. Release
  6. Deploy
  7. Operate
  8. Monitor
  • Operate Runtime security, secrets rotation and configuration reconciliation.
  • Monitor Detection engineering, SIEM, compliance evidence and incident response.

Overview

Runtime sensors observe syscalls and kernel events, matching them against rules for unexpected process execution, sensitive file access, or outbound connections from workloads that should not make them.

Why it matters

Build-time controls cannot detect exploitation of an unknown vulnerability. Runtime detection is the layer that notices when something already got in.

How it works

  1. 01An eBPF or kernel-module sensor streams events per node.
  2. 02Rules evaluate events with Kubernetes metadata attached.
  3. 03Alerts are forwarded to a SIEM and can trigger automated response.

Common tools

FalcoTetragonTraceeKubernetesLinuxOpenShift

Implementation examples

yamlFalco rule: shell in a container
- rule: Terminal shell in container  desc: A shell was spawned inside a container  condition: >    spawned_process and container    and shell_procs and proc.tty != 0  output: >    Shell in container (user=%user.name container=%container.name    image=%container.image.repository cmd=%proc.cmdline)  priority: WARNING
Tune exclusions for legitimate debug workflows before enabling paging on this rule.

Best practices

  • Baseline normal behaviour before alerting.
  • Attach workload metadata to every alert.
  • Define response runbooks per rule.

Common mistakes

  • Deploying default rules unfiltered and drowning the on-call rotation.

Hands-on labs