STIGhubSTIGhub
STIGsRMF ControlsCompare
STIGhub— A free STIG search and compliance tool·STIGs updated 3 days ago
Powered by Pylon·Privacy·Terms·© 2026 Beacon Cloud Solutions, Inc.
← Back to Docker Enterprise 2.x Linux/UNIX Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-235802

CAT II (Medium)

Privileged Linux containers must not be used for Docker Enterprise.

Rule ID

SV-235802r960963_rule

STIG

Docker Enterprise 2.x Linux/UNIX Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R2

CCIs

CCI-000381

Discussion

Using the --privileged flag gives all Linux Kernel Capabilities to the container thus overwriting the --cap-add and --cap-drop flags. Ensure that it is not used. The --privileged flag gives all capabilities to the container, and it also lifts all the limitations enforced by the device cgroup controller. In other words, the container can then do almost everything that the host can do. This flag exists to allow special use-cases, like running Docker within Docker.

Check Content

This check only applies to the use of Docker Engine - Enterprise on a Linux host operating system and should be executed on all nodes in a Docker Enterprise cluster.

Verify that no containers are running with the --privileged flag. The --privileged flag provides full kernel capabilities. Capabilities must be specified in the System Security Plan (SSP) rather than allowing full privileges.

via CLI:

Linux: Execute the following command as a trusted user on the host operating system:

docker ps --quiet --all | grep -iv "ucp\|kube\|dtr" | awk '{print $1}' | xargs docker inspect --format '{{ .Id }}: Privileged={{ .HostConfig.Privileged }}'

Verify in the output that no containers are running with the --privileged flag. If there are, then this is a finding.

Fix Text

This fix only applies to the use of Docker Engine - Enterprise on a Linux host operating system and should be executed on all nodes in a Docker Enterprise cluster.

Do not run containers with the --privileged flag.

For example, do not start a container as below:

docker run --interactive --tty --privileged centos /bin/bash