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Container Image Vulnerability Scanning for EKS Workloads: Build-Time and Runtime

  • Monday, Oct 26, 2026

Customer Snapshot

AttributeDetails
IndustryGig-economy / Workforce SaaS Platform
Cloud EnvironmentAWS
WorkloadsEKS (multiple clusters) and EC2
Code & CIBitbucket for SCM, Jenkins for CI
Prior ToolingA cloud-first tool that included Docker image vulnerability scanning
Focus AreaContainer image vulnerability scanning

The Situation: The Old Tool Scanned Docker Images — The Team Noticed When It Was Gone

When this team was comparing Cloudanix against the cloud-security tool they were moving off, one capability they explicitly valued in the incumbent was vulnerability scanning for Docker images. They run EKS clusters and EC2 workloads on AWS, and their platform ships as container images — so image vulnerability scanning was not a nice-to-have, it was part of how they understood their runtime risk. A team that has had image scanning and then loses it feels the gap immediately: the images running in production become an unscanned layer between their code and their cloud.

The deeper issue is that code scanning and cloud posture, on their own, leave the container in the middle unexamined. An SCA scan tells you about dependencies declared in the repo. A CSPM scan tells you about the EKS cluster configuration. Neither tells you what is actually baked into the image that is running right now — the base-image CVEs, the secrets accidentally layered in, the packages added during the build that never appear in a manifest.

The Core Tension

The container image is where code becomes a running artifact, and it is precisely the layer that pure code scanning and pure cloud scanning both miss. A vulnerability can enter through the base image or a build step without ever touching the repo’s dependency manifest — so a team that scans only source and only cloud configuration has an unexamined gap exactly where their workloads actually run. Image scanning, tied to the running workload, is what closes it.

Where the Gaps Were

Base-Image and Build-Time CVEs Invisible to SCA

SCA reads manifests and lockfiles — the dependencies the team declared. But a container image also carries its base image, OS packages, and anything added during the build. CVEs in those layers never show up in a repo-level dependency scan, so they are invisible until something scans the image itself.

Secrets Baked Into Image Layers

A credential can be layered into an image during the build — copied in, set as a build arg, left in an intermediate layer — and never appear in the source the team reviews. Only scanning the image catches secrets that live in the artifact rather than the repo.

No Link Between the Image and the Running Workload

Even an image scan in isolation leaves a question: which of these images is actually running, where, and how exposed is it? A list of image CVEs with no connection to the EKS workloads and EC2 services running them is just another queue to guess at.

How Cloudanix Addresses This

Build-Time and Runtime Image Scanning

Cloudanix scans container images at both build time and runtime for EKS workloads — producing SBOMs for each image, detecting CVEs, secrets, and license issues, and flagging fixability and exploitability. The image, the layer the team was missing, becomes a scanned surface rather than a trusted black box.

Cloudanix Code Security — Container image findings with SBOM and CVEs

Workload Inventory and Runtime-Activity Correlation

Beyond scanning images in a vacuum, Cloudanix builds a workload inventory and correlates image findings with runtime activity — so the team sees which images are actually running in their EKS clusters, not just which exist in a registry. A CVE in an image that is deployed and internet-facing is distinguished from one in an image that is built but idle.

Cloudanix — Correlated findings across code, image, and runtime

Severity From Fixability and Exploitability, Not Raw Count

Image scans are notorious for returning hundreds of base-image CVEs, most of which have no available fix or no real-world exploit. Cloudanix weights findings by fixability and exploitability so the team acts on the image CVEs that are both patchable and dangerous, rather than drowning in the inherited noise of a base image. (See how to prioritize which CVEs to fix.)

The Image as the Link Between Code and Cloud

Because image scanning sits on the same asset graph as Bitbucket code findings and AWS posture, the container becomes the connective tissue it is supposed to be: a dependency CVE in a repo, the image built from it, the EKS workload running that image, and the role that workload assumes are one connected path. The layer that pure code and pure cloud scanning both skipped is now the bridge between them. (Code-to-runtime context applies when the code, image, and runtime layers are connected for a given workload.)

Cloudanix — Unified view across code, image, and workload

Platform Impact

DimensionCode + Cloud OnlyWith Image Scanning
Base-image / build CVEsInvisibleScanned in each image
Secrets in layersMissedDetected in the artifact
Running vs idleUnknownRuntime-correlated workload inventory
SeverityRaw CVE countFixability + exploitability weighted
Code-to-cloud linkGap at the containerImage bridges repo to workload

Why the Image Is the Layer You Cannot Skip

Teams often assume that scanning source and scanning cloud configuration brackets their risk — but the running artifact sits between those two, and it is assembled from more than the source. Base images carry their own CVEs, build steps add packages and sometimes secrets, and none of that is visible to a manifest scan or a cluster-config scan. The container image is simultaneously the thing attackers actually run against and the natural join between code and cloud. Scanning it — at build time to catch issues before deploy, and at runtime to know what is truly exposed — is what makes a code-to-cloud story complete rather than a story with a hole in the middle.

Key Outcomes

  • ✅ Build-Time + Runtime Scanning: CVEs, secrets, and licenses across EKS images.
  • ✅ Workload Inventory: Which images are actually running, correlated to runtime activity.
  • ✅ Exploitability-Weighted Severity: Act on patchable, dangerous CVEs, not base-image noise.
  • ✅ The Missing Layer: The container surface that code and cloud scanning both skip.
  • ✅ Bridges Code to Cloud: The image connects a Bitbucket repo to its EKS workload.

Lost Image Scanning in a Tooling Switch — or Never Had It?

If your platform ships as containers on EKS and your code and cloud scanning leave the image in the middle unexamined, Cloudanix scans images at build and runtime and ties them to the workloads actually running them.

Book a Free Assessment to see container image scanning across your EKS workloads, or explore the interactive demo on the Code Security page.

Related Resources

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The snooze feature and responsible alerts have helped us save time and prioritize what to tackle first.

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Implementing Cloudanix JIT internally allowed us to practice what we preach. By eliminating permanent access to our own clouds and databases, we've neutralized the risk of standing privileges, ensuring our own 'keys to the kingdom' are never left exposed.

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The problem with permissions is a lot of times, the gaps are left open due to oversights from inside the organization itself. With Cloudanix's CIEM, we get a complete view of user permissions and access. This enables us to update the permissions, reducing the attack surface.

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In the world of Fintech, trust is our currency. Cloudanix provided the frictionless visibility we needed to secure our EKS workloads across AWS, ensuring we stay audit-ready for SOC2 and GDPR without slowing down our engineering velocity.

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Cloudanix delivered value within 5 minutes of onboarding. Continuous monitoring, timely detection, and excellent documentation helped us attain a great cloud security posture.

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Technology strategies and business strategies are in a state of constant change which includes centralization and decentralization of responsibilities. Regardless of strategic shift, we still have intellectual property to protect. Cloudanix are critical partners for us in our public cloud security posture across our three cloud providers.

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Satish Mohan
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Beyond just access management, Cloudanix CSPM has given us a unified view of our AWS environment. The real-time alerting and anomaly detection allow us to prevent any untoward activity before it happens, which is critical for a marketplace connecting 50+ financial institutions.

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Managing Partner, Tech Inspira

Cloudanix is always on my team's lips because of its exceptional support. Be it a small or big query, Cloudanix has gone above and beyond to resolve them. This one's a keeper for us.

Sujit Karpe
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CTO, iMocha

For a long-lasting partnership, great support goes a long way. Cloudanix has delivered exceptional support whenever required. Their edge is their team is always ready to go beyond to solve any issues that we have. This speaks volumes about the culture at Cloudanix.

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The real-time notifications that Cloudanix provides are a real lifesaver. Their adaptive notifications ensure that my team stays productive and doesn't get interrupted all the time.

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The whole point in technological evolution is to help improve the world we live in. We must protect that and to do so requires an effective and efficient security strategy. The Cloudanix team helped make our public cloud security posture management strategy a reality. The symbiotic relationship we have allows for a continuous feedback loop which is how business should operate.

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