The cybersecurity landscape is undergoing a significant shift, moving from security tools monitoring applications running within userspace to advanced, real-time approaches that monitor system activity directly and safely within the kernel by using eBPF. This evolution in kernel introspection is particularly evident in the adoption of projects like Falco, Tetragon, and Tracee in Linux environments. These tools are especially prevalent in systems running containerized workloads under Kubernetes, where they play a crucial role in the real-time monitoring of dynamic and ephemeral workloads.
The open-source project Falco exemplifies this trend. It employs various instrumentation techniques to scrutinize system workload, relaying security events from the kernel to user space. These instrumentations are referred to as ‘drivers’ within Falco, reflecting their operation in kernel space. The driver is pivotal as it furnishes the syscall event source, which is integral for monitoring activities closely tied to the syscall context. When deploying Falco, the kernel module is typically installed via the Falco-driver-loader script included in the binary package. This process seamlessly integrates Falco’s monitoring capabilities into the system, enabling real-time detection and response to security threats at the kernel level.