4.1Why Container Scanning Is Non-Negotiable

Container images accumulate vulnerabilities through three vectors: base images ship with OS-level CVEs, installed packages introduce application-level vulnerabilities, and application dependencies pull in transitive risks. A single unscanned image can contain dozens of known exploits.

The critical insight is that scanning must happen at build time, not after deployment. A vulnerability discovered in production means your attack surface was already exposed. A vulnerability caught in CI means it never reached a cluster.