AWS ECR scanner reference for STO
You can scan your container images using Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).
Important notes for running AWS ECR scans in STO
Docker-in-Docker requirements
The following use cases require a Docker-in-Docker background step in your pipeline:
- Container image scans on Kubernetes and Docker build infrastructures
- Required for Orchestration and Dataload scan modes
- Security steps (not step palettes) on Kubernetes and Docker build infrastructures
- Required for all target types and Orchestration/DataLoad modes
The following use cases do not require Docker-in-Docker:
- Harness Cloud AMD64 build infrastructures
- SAST/DAST/configuration scans that use scanner templates (not Security steps)
- Ingestion scans where the data file has already been generated
Set up a Docker-in-Docker background step
-
Go to the stage where you want to run the scan.
-
In Overview, add the shared path
/var/run
. -
In Execution, do the following:
-
Click Add Step and then choose Background.
-
Configure the Background step as follows:
-
Dependency Name =
dind
-
Container Registry = The Docker connector to download the DinD image. If you don't have one defined, go to Docker connector settings reference.
-
Image =
docker:dind
-
Under Entry Point, add the following:
dockerd
In most cases, using
dockerd
is a faster and more secure way to set up the background step. For more information, go to the TLS section in the Docker quick reference.
If the DinD service doesn't start with
dockerd
, clear the Entry Point field and then run the pipeline again. This starts the service with the default entry point.- Under Optional Configuration, select the Privileged checkbox.
-
-
- Visual setup
- YAML setup

Add a Background step to your pipeline and set it up as follows:
- step:
type: Background
name: background-dind-service
identifier: Background_1
spec:
connectorRef: CONTAINER_IMAGE_REGISTRY_CONNECTOR
image: docker:dind
shell: Sh
entrypoint:
- dockerd
privileged: true
Root access requirements
You need to run the scan step with root access if either of the following apply:
-
You need to run a Docker-in-Docker background service.
-
You need to add trusted certificates to your scan images at runtime.
You can set up your STO scan images and pipelines to run scans as non-root and establish trust for your own proxies using custom certificates. For more information, go to Configure STO to Download Images from a Private Registry.
For more information
The following topics contain useful information for setting up scanner integrations in STO:
AWS ECR step settings for STO scans
The recommended workflow is add an AWS ECR step to a Security Tests or CI Build stage and then configure it as described below.
Scan
Scan Mode
- Extraction Configure the step to extract scan results from an external SaaS service and then ingest, normalize, and deduplicate the data.
Scan Configuration
The predefined configuration to use for the scan. All scan steps have at least one configuration.
Target
Type
- Container Image Scan the layers, libraries, and packages in a container image.
Detect target and variant
When auto-detect is enabled for container images, the step detects the target and variant using the Container Image Name and Tag defined in the step or runtime input.
Note the following:
- Auto-detection is not available when the Scan Mode is Ingestion.
- Auto-detect is the default selection for new pipelines. Manual is the default for old pipelines, but you might find that neither radio button is selected in the UI.
Name
The identifier for the target, such as codebaseAlpha
or jsmith/myalphaservice
. Descriptive target names make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.
It is good practice to specify a baseline for every target.
Variant
The identifier for the specific variant to scan. This is usually the branch name, image tag, or product version. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.
Container image
Type (orchestration)
The registry type where the image is stored:
-
Docker v2 A registry that uses the Docker Registry v2 API such as Docker Hub, Google Container Registry, or Google Artifact Registry.
-
Local Image
Domain (extraction)
The URL of the registry that contains the image to scan. Examples include:
docker.io
app.harness.io/registry
us-east1-docker.pkg.dev
us.gcr.io
Name
The image name. For non-local images, you also need to specify the image repository. Example: jsmith/myalphaservice
Tag
The image tag. Examples: latest
, 1.2.3
Region
The region where the image to scan is located, as defined by the cloud provider such as AWS.
Authentication
Access ID (orchestration)
The username to log in to the scanner.
Access Token
The access token to log in to the scanner. In most cases this is a password or an API key.
You should create a Harness text secret with your encrypted token and reference the secret using the format <+secrets.getValue("project.my-access-token")>
. For more information, go to Add and Reference Text Secrets.
Session Token
If you need to specify a session token, add it using the key AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
under Settings.
Access Region
The AWS region of the image to scan.
Log Level
The minimum severity of the messages you want to include in your scan logs. You can specify one of the following:
- DEBUG
- INFO
- WARNING
- ERROR
Fail on Severity
Every Security step has a Fail on Severity setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified severity level or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:
CRITICAL
HIGH
MEDIUM
LOW
INFO
NONE
— Do not fail on severity
The YAML definition looks like this: fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none
Additional Configuration
In the Additional Configuration settings, you can use the following options:
Advanced settings
In the Advanced settings, you can use the following options: