AWS container security is more important than ever as organizations increasingly rely on containerized applications in the cloud. In environments like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) where speed, scale and automation are critical, containers offer flexibility and efficiency. To run containers securely, you must address multiple concerns, including image vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and dynamic workloads — challenges that traditional security models weren’t designed to handle.

That’s where Amazon Web Services (AWS) steps in with a comprehensive set of tools and best practices to secure containers throughout their entire lifecycle, from development to deployment and beyond. Securing containers on AWS isn’t just about compliance. It’s about creating a layered defense that helps you protect sensitive data, reduce risk and maintain confidence in your cloud-native applications. In this blog, we’ll explore the basics of AWS container services and best practices and tools to keep your containers safe. 

Understanding Container Services in AWS

Understanding container service capabilities in AWS is essential to getting the full value out of them and avoiding misconfigurations. Here’s the essential background you need to know about AWS container services. 

This article will be focusing on Amazon EKS, AWS’s managed Kuberntes solution. We’ll still mention Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) and some others, but keep in mind that Amazon EKS is the foundation of this article. 

What is AWS?

AWS is a cloud computing service offered by Amazon. It provides on-demand access to a wide range of computing resources and services (e.g., servers, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning, etc.) over the internet. Instead of buying and maintaining physical hardware, businesses and developers can use AWS to build, host and scale applications quickly and cost-effectively.

AWS provides resizable computing capacity in the cloud. Using AWS eliminates the need to invest in hardware upfront, so developers can deploy applications faster. AWS offers a broad set of services including compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, and machine learning that is accessible on-demand over the internet. This helps businesses and developers reduce costs, increase agility, and accelerate innovation.

What container services does AWS offer?

AWS offers several container services designed to help you run, manage and scale containerized applications in the cloud, whether you’re using Docker, Kubernetes or a serverless approach.

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) is a managed Kubernetes service that simplifies deploying and operating Kubernetes clusters at scale. It offers native Kubernetes compatibility, allowing teams to use standard tools and configurations while offloading the heavy lifting of cluster management to AWS.

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service that allows you to run and scale Docker containers on a cluster of virtual machines. It integrates seamlessly with other AWS services and is ideal for teams looking for a straightforward container management solution.

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine that works with both Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS. It lets you run containers without managing the underlying infrastructure — no need to provision or scale servers. This makes it ideal for teams that want to focus purely on their applications.

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) is a fully managed Docker container registry that lets you store, manage and deploy container images. It integrates with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS and AWS Fargate, making it easy to push and pull container images securely and at scale.

AWS shared responsibility

AWS Shared Responsibility Model defines how security responsibilities are split between AWS and you. AWS secures the underlying infrastructure, including compute, storage, and networking services that support container services like Amazon EKS. You are responsible for securing your containerized applications, including configuring AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles, scanning container images, managing secrets, and enforcing container runtime security policies. This model lets you build and run containers while maintaining control over workload security. While AWS provides security tools, you must configure and manage them to ensure comprehensive protection.

SUSE strengthens this shared responsibility model with integrated Kubernetes and container security solutions. SUSE Rancher Prime provides full lifecycle management of Kubernetes environments across AWS and hybrid infrastructure, while SUSE Security (NeuVector) delivers deep, zero-trust container runtime protection, threat detection, and automated policy enforcement. Together, they help organizations meet their security obligations without operational overhead.

Container services security risks in AWS: A shared responsibility perspective

While AWS provides secure infrastructure, customers need to understand their security responsibilities when using container services in AWS. Here are seven important container security risks to consider:

#1 Insufficient logging

Without proper logging configuration, detecting or investigating security incidents in a containerized environment becomes challenging. When logs are missing or incomplete, unauthorized access or suspicious activity can go undetected. Not enabling AWS CloudTrail or container-level logging can create significant visibility gaps.

#2 Inadequate monitoring, logging and reporting

Even when logs are captured, failing to monitor and analyze them in real time increases the risk of delayed detection and response. Security teams require continuous visibility into container behavior, including metrics, anomalies and access patterns. Without robust monitoring and alerting tools in place, threats may linger in the system undetected.

#3 Shadow IT

Containers make it easy for developers to spin up resources quickly, but when done outside of IT governance, it can result in shadow IT. These unauthorized deployments may lack security controls, bypass compliance standards or expose data unintentionally. In AWS, unmanaged container clusters or personal Amazon ECR registries can become hidden vulnerabilities.

#4 Unencrypted data storage

Storing container data (e.g., volumes, logs, backups, etc.) without encryption leaves it vulnerable to unauthorized access. AWS provides built-in encryption options for services like Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon ECR, but these features must be properly configured. Unencrypted data at rest or in transit can expose sensitive information to potential breaches.

#5 Misconfiguration

Misconfigured containers, clusters, or IAM roles present significant risks in AWS environments. Inadequate network policies, open ports, excessive permissions, or improperly defined security groups can create security gaps. With container orchestration tools like Amazon EKS, configuration errors can multiply across deployments.

#6 Improper credential management

Using hardcoded credentials, sharing access keys or failing to rotate secrets all increase the risk of credential compromise. Containers should use short-lived, scoped credentials and integrate with AWS Secrets Manager or IAM roles for fine-grained access control. Improper credential management compromises workload security and violates operational best practices.

Many of these risks can be proactively addressed with SUSE’s container platform stack. SUSE Security enforces runtime firewalling, detects anomalies across traffic layers, and prevents zero-day exploits, while SUSE Rancher Prime ensures centralized RBAC, cluster policy enforcement, and fleet-level governance — all essential for secure AWS operations.

#7 Image Security

Container image security plays a critical role in protecting production environments. Compromised images can introduce security risks through malware, backdoors, or vulnerabilities. Since containers deploy repeatedly across environments, a single compromised image can affect multiple parts of an application.

Best practices for securing Kubernetes on Amazon EKS

Container security on AWS requires more than just running workloads behind a firewall. Because containers are dynamic, interconnected and often short-lived, they need to be protected at every stage from image creation to runtime. AWS provides the tools and services, but following best practices is key to minimizing risk and ensuring your environment stays secure, compliant and resilient. These include:

• Using image scanning and trusted registries
• Applying the principle of least privilege.
• Encrypting data at rest and in transit.
• Monitoring container activity and enable logging
• Defining network boundaries and isolate workloads
• Rotating credentials and manage secrets securely
• Using mutual TLS (mTLS) for inter-pod communications

Container security tools available from AWS

AWS offers a range of container security tools that support Amazon EKS across the lifecycle of containerized applications. From scanning images to managing secrets and monitoring activity, these tools help teams build and run secure containers in the cloud. Some of the AWS security services include:  

• Image security with Amazon ECR image scanning – Automatically scans container images stored in Amazon Elastic Container Registry for known vulnerabilities
• Identity and access management with IAM – Manages user and service permissions, allowing you to enforce least-privilege access for containers and resources
• Secrets protection with AWS Secrets Manager – Safely stores and rotates sensitive information like API keys, passwords and tokens used by containers
• Security monitoring with Amazon GuardDuty – Continuously monitors for suspicious behavior and potential threats across your AWS environment, including container workloads
• Activity logging with AWS CloudTrail – Records API calls and activity across AWS services, giving visibility into who did what and when within containerized environments
• Performance monitoring with AWS CloudWatch – Collects logs and metrics from containers, enabling monitoring, alerting and performance insights in real time
• Network protection with Amazon VPC – Provides network-level security by isolating containers, controlling inbound and outbound traffic, and defining secure communication paths

Enhancing container security with SUSE and AWS Services

SUSE solutions are designed to seamlessly integrate with AWS-native security tools, helping organizations strengthen their container security posture while simplifying operations. SUSE’s enterprise container management platform, SUSE Rancher Prime , works natively with Amazon EKS, allowing teams to enforce consistent security policies across any supported SUSE Rancher Prime target which includes AWS, on-premises, and hybrid environments. By centralizing access control and automating Kubernetes management, SUSE enhances manageability of container services while streamlining compliance and governance.

SUSE also complements tools like AWS CloudTrail, AWS CloudWatch and Amazon GuardDuty by enabling real-time monitoring, alerting and auditing of workloads managed through Rancher. For example, SUSE can help surface and act on insights from AWS CloudWatch metrics and logs, automate security remediation workflows and ensure IAM roles and AWS Secrets Manager integrations are correctly configured across clusters. 

Amazon container security: Final thoughts

While AWS provides robust native security services for Kubernetes workloads, a complete security strategy can be enhanced by incorporating additional capabilities for integrated visibility, lifecycle management, and real-time runtime protection. AWS’s foundation of security services, combined with complementary tools, helps create a comprehensive defense-in-depth approach.

SUSE and AWS deliver this together. With SUSE Rancher Prime, SUSE Security, and SUSE Cloud Observability, teams gain the visibility, automation, and layered security they need to operate with confidence.

According to IDC, organizations using SUSE Rancher Prime when compared to virtualization alone achieve an average of $3.4M in annual benefits, reduce unplanned downtime by 61%, and gain 258% ROI over three years.

To learn more about how SUSE can protect your AWS containers, schedule a demo today. 

AWS container security FAQs

What security do Amazon ECS or Amazon EKS environments offer?

Both Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS are secure by design and offer robust security features, but the level of security depends on how each is configured. Amazon ECS is simpler and tightly integrated with AWS, which can make it easier to manage securely out of the box. Amazon EKS offers more flexibility and control through Kubernetes, but it also requires more hands-on security management.

Which compliance programs is Amazon ECS part of?

Amazon ECS is included in several AWS compliance programs, including HIPAA, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, GDPR and PCI DSS. You can verify current certifications through the AWS Services in Scope page or AWS Artifact.

Can I add additional security software components to Amazon ECS?

Yes, you can integrate third-party or custom security tools with Amazon ECS to enhance protection. This includes components like intrusion detection systems, runtime security agents, vulnerability scanners and external secrets managers — many of which are available through the AWS Marketplace or can be deployed directly in your Amazon ECS environment.