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CAS-004 Practice Question: A company runs a containerized application in a…
A company runs a containerized application in a Kubernetes cluster. After a penetration test, the security team found that several containers are running with root privileges and have unnecessary packages installed. To reduce the attack surface, the team wants to enforce least privilege and minimize the software footprint. Which action should be taken first to address these findings?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Rebuild the container images using minimal base images and remove unnecessary packages
The first step to reduce the attack surface is to rebuild the container images using minimal base images (e.g., Alpine or distroless) and remove unnecessary packages. This directly addresses the findings of unnecessary packages and reduces the software footprint. While running containers as non-root and using read-only filesystems (Option C) improves security, it does not eliminate unnecessary packages. SELinux labels (Option A) and network policies (Option D) are additional hardening measures but do not address the core issue of container image bloat and privileged containers. Therefore, rebuilding images is the foundational action.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Apply SELinux labels to restrict container capabilities
Why it's wrong here
SELinux adds mandatory access control but does not remove packages.
- ✓
Rebuild the container images using minimal base images and remove unnecessary packages
Why this is correct
Minimal images reduce attack surface by eliminating unnecessary components.
- ✗
Configure the containers to run as non-root user and use read-only filesystems
Why it's wrong here
This addresses privilege escalation but not the unnecessary packages.
- ✗
Implement network policies to limit lateral movement between pods
Why it's wrong here
Network policies are important but do not reduce the software footprint of containers.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CAS-005 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CAS-005 exam.