DeSFAM: An Adaptive eBPF and AI-Driven Framework for Securing Cloud Containers in Real Time

Containerized applications offer lightweight and scalable deployment but remain exposed to security risks due to a shared kernel. We present DeSFAM (Dynamic eBPF-driven Syscall Filtering and Anomaly Mitigation), a real-time security framework that enforces least-privilege syscall usage and detects b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sehar Zehra, Hassan Jamil Syed, Fahad Samad, Ummay Faseeha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11095719/
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Summary:Containerized applications offer lightweight and scalable deployment but remain exposed to security risks due to a shared kernel. We present DeSFAM (Dynamic eBPF-driven Syscall Filtering and Anomaly Mitigation), a real-time security framework that enforces least-privilege syscall usage and detects behavioral anomalies. DeSFAM integrates: 1) hybrid syscall profiling through static analysis and dynamic eBPF tracing; 2) SyscallAD (System call Anomaly Detection), a low-latency anomaly detector combining Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and Isolation Forest (iForest); 3) contextual risk scoring based on MITRE ATT&CK mappings and CVE correlations; and 4) adaptive syscall enforcement using eBPF maps and LSM hooks. Evaluations using the DongTing dataset and real-world CVE attack scenarios show DeSFAM achieves 94% precision, 90% recall, sub-millisecond enforcement latency, and less than 1% performance overhead. DeSFAM effectively blocks privilege escalation, container escape attempts, and syscall injection attacks in modern container environments.
ISSN:2169-3536