9 lessons

Network, OS & Container Security

Segmentation, firewall rules, egress control, process isolation, privilege separation, sandboxing — and why a container is not a security boundary you can lean on.

Asset→Threat→Attack Surface→Trust Boundary→Vulnerability→Exploit Path→Impact→Mitigation→Defense in Depth→Residual Risk

Every lesson below identifies the asset, attacker capability and boundary before naming the vulnerability. Controls are split into prevention, detection and recovery; residual risk is explicit.

Network Security Boundaries
▶ lab

Network design controls reachability and blast radius; it does not turn an internal caller into a trusted identity.

Boundary · Public, application, database and management networks
Network Segmentation
▶ lab

Internet → public layer → application network → database network → management network: crossings are explicit and narrow.

Boundary · One network zone → a more privileged zone
Firewalls and Security Groups
▶ lab

A rule is source, destination, port, protocol and action; every broad wildcard is an explicit expansion of attack surface.

Boundary · Network source → destination socket
Egress Security
▶ lab

Security also asks what a compromised service can call outward; unrestricted egress enables SSRF, command-and-control and exfiltration.

Boundary · Workload → internal services and internet destinations
Operating System Security

Processes, users, file permissions, privileges, patching and resource limits decide what a compromised application can do next.

Boundary · Process identity → kernel-mediated resources
Privilege Separation

A web server should run as a restricted user; administrative setup and runtime request handling should not share one authority.

Boundary · Restricted runtime identity → host administration
Unix-Style File Permissions

Owner, group and others each receive read, write and execute; the effective service identity determines which boundary actually exists.

Boundary · Process user/group → filesystem object
Sandboxing Untrusted Workloads
▶ lab

A sandbox constrains files, network, CPU, memory, syscalls and credentials so untrusted computation cannot spend or reach everything.

Boundary · Untrusted workload → host and network capabilities
Container Security and Its Limits
▶ lab

Containers package and isolate processes but share a host kernel; privileged mode, host mounts and broad capabilities erase much of the boundary.

Boundary · Container namespace/cgroup → shared host kernel