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Rule Reference

SEC748lintai-ai-securitystabledocker-composewarn

Docker Compose: privileged service runtime

Docker Compose service enables privileged container runtime or host namespace access

Provider
lintai-ai-security
Surface
docker-compose
Scope
per_file
Tier
stable
Severity
warn
Confidence
high
Detection
structural
Remediation
message_only

Activation Model

Preset Membership

This rule is part of the builtin activation graph through these preset memberships.

supply-chainmembership

Lifecycle

Stable Lifecycle Contract

State

stable_gated

Graduation rationale

Checks committed Docker Compose service definitions for privileged runtime, dangerous capability grants, or host namespace access.

Deterministic signal basis

DockerComposeSignals combines semantic confirmation of a Compose `services` map with indentation-aware line matching for `privileged: true`, `cap_add: [ALL|SYS_ADMIN]`, and `network_mode`/`pid`/`ipc: host` inside service blocks.

Malicious corpus
docker-compose-privileged-runtime
Benign corpus
docker-compose-safe-runtime
structured evidence required remediation reviewed
Canonical note

Structural stable rule intended as a high-precision check with deterministic evidence.

Nearby Signals

Related Rules

SEC750Docker Compose: mutable service imageDocker Compose service image uses a mutable registry reference without a digest pindocker-composestable
SEC752Docker Compose: latest or implicit-latest service image tagDocker Compose service image uses a latest or implicit-latest tagdocker-composestable

Why It Matters ​

Committed Compose files can silently grant containers near-host-level authority through privileged mode, dangerous Linux capabilities, or host namespaces. Those flags materially increase the impact of any compromised process inside the service.

What Triggers ​

SEC748 matches Docker Compose service definitions when they enable runtime-dangerous settings such as:

  • privileged: true
  • cap_add containing ALL or SYS_ADMIN
  • network_mode: host
  • pid: host
  • ipc: host

False Positives ​

The rule is gated to semantic Compose files with a services map and only looks at explicit high-risk runtime controls inside service blocks. Ordinary capability additions like NET_BIND_SERVICE do not trigger it.

Remediation ​

Remove privileged mode, avoid SYS_ADMIN or ALL, and keep services isolated from host namespaces unless the configuration has been separately reviewed as a deliberate host-integrated workload.