@ -13,9 +13,10 @@ Please use [releases] instead of the `master` branch in order to get stable bina
Clair is an open source project for the static analysis of vulnerabilities in application containers (currently including [appc] and [docker]).
Vulnerability data is continuously imported from a known set of sources and correlated with the indexed contents of container images in order to produce lists of vulnerabilities that threaten a container.
When vulnerability data changes upstream, a notification can be delivered, and the API queried to provide the previous state and new state of the vulnerability along with the images affected by both.
All major components can be [extended programmatically] at compile-time without forking the project.
1. In regular intervals, Clair ingests vulnerability metadata from a configured set of sources and stores it in the database.
2. Clients use the Clair API to index their container images; this parses a list of installed _source packages_ stores them in the database.
3. Clients use the Clair API to query the database; combining this data is done in real time, rather than a cached result that needs re-scanning.
4. When updates to vulnerability metadata occur, a webhook can be configured to page or block deployments.
Our goal is to enable a more transparent view of the security of container-based infrastructure.
Thus, the project was named `Clair` after the French term which translates to *clear*, *bright*, *transparent*.
@ -25,34 +26,50 @@ Thus, the project was named `Clair` after the French term which translates to *c
* You've found an image by searching the internet and want to determine if it's safe enough for you to use in production.
* You're regularly deploying into a containerized production environment and want operations to alert or block deployments on insecure software.
You're building an application and want to depend on a third-party container image that you found by searching the internet.
To make sure that you do not knowingly introduce a new vulnerability into your production service, you decide to scan the container for vulnerabilities.
Run `docker pull` to put the image on your development machine and then start an instance of Clair.
Once it finishes updating, use the [local image analysis tool] to analyze the container.
You realize this container is vulnerable to many critical CVEs, so you decide to use another one.
## Documentation
The latest stable documentation can be found [on the CoreOS website].
Documentation for the current branch can be found [inside the Documentation directory][docs-dir] at the root of the project's source code.
[on the CoreOS website]: https://coreos.com/clair/docs/latest/
Clair is officially packaged and released as a container.
### Container Registry Integration
* Stable releases can be found at [quay.io/coreos/clair]
* Stable releases with an embedded instance of [jwtproxy] can be found at [quay.io/coreos/clair-jwt]
* Development releases can be found at [quay.io/coreos/clair-git]
Your company has a continuous-integration pipeline and you want to stop deployments if they introduce a dangerous vulnerability.
A developer merges some code into the master branch of your codebase.
The first step of your continuous-integration pipeline automates the testing and building of your container and pushes a new container to your container registry.
Your container registry notifies Clair which causes the download and indexing of the images for the new container.
Clair detects some vulnerabilities and sends a webhook to your continuous deployment tool to prevent this vulnerable build from seeing the light of day.
@ -108,35 +129,16 @@ $ $EDITOR config.yaml # Add the URI for your postgres database
$ ./$GOPATH/bin/clair -config=config.yaml
```
### Container images
While container images for every releases are available at [quay.io/repository/coreos/clair], container images built on the latest available source code are available at [quay.io/repository/coreos/clair-git].
### I just started up Clair and nothing appears to be working, what's the deal?
During the first run, Clair will bootstrap its database with vulnerability data from the configured data sources.
It can take several minutes before the database has been fully populated, but once this data is stored in the database, subsequent updates will take far less time.
### Customization
### What terminology do I need to understand to work with Clair internals?
- *Image* - a tarball of the contents of a container
- *Layer* - an *appc* or *Docker* image that may or maybe not be dependent on another image
- *Feature* - anything that when present could be an indication of a *vulnerability* (e.g. the presence of a file or an installed software package)
- *Feature Namespace* - a context around *features* and *vulnerabilities* (e.g. an operating system)
- *Vulnerability Updater* - a Go package that tracks upstream vulnerability data and imports them into Clair
- *Vulnerability Metadata Appender* - a Go package that tracks upstream vulnerability metadata and appends them into vulnerabilities managed by Clair
### How can I customize Clair?
The major components of Clair are all programmatically extensible in the same way Go's standard [database/sql] package is extensible.
Everything extendable is located in the `ext` directory.
@ -185,16 +207,9 @@ To expose the new behavior, unqualified imports to the package must be added in
- _Clair: The Container Image Security Analyzer @ ContainerDays Boston 2016_ - [Event](http://dynamicinfradays.org/events/2016-boston/) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kri67PtPv6s) [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ExQGZs-pQ56TpW_ifcUl2l_ml87fpCMY6-wdug87OFU)
- _Identifying Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures in Containers with Clair @ CoreOS Fest 2016_ - [Event](https://coreos.com/fest/) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDCa51BK2q0) [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pHSI_5LcjnZzZBPiL1cFTZ4LvhzKtzh86eE010XWNLY)
Jimmy Zelinskie
7 years ago