PIDs cgroup limits must be used in Docker Enterprise.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
Use --pids-limit flag at container runtime. Attackers could launch a fork bomb with a single command inside the container. This fork bomb can crash the entire system and requires a restart of the host to make the system functional again. PIDs cgroup --pids-limit will prevent this kind of attacks by restricting the number of forks that can happen inside a container at a given time. The Default value for --pids-limit is 0 which means there is no restriction on the number of forks. Also, note that PIDs cgroup limit works only for the kernel versions 4.3+.
- ID
- SV-235828r627611_rule
- Version
- DKER-EE-002780
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation Templates
A Manual Procedure
This fix only applies to the use of Docker Engine - Enterprise on a Linux host operating system.
Use --pids-limit flag while launching the container with an appropriate value.
Example:
docker run -it --pids-limit 100 <Image_ID>
In the above example, the number of processes allowed to run at any given time is set to 100. After a limit of 100 concurrently running processes is reached, docker would restrict any new process creation.