Aqua Container Security vs Harbor

Aqua Container Security protects container applications from build through runtime across platforms and clouds. Its image scanner checks for vulnerabilities, malware, secrets, misconfigurations, and open-source issues. Findings are prioritized using factors such as exploitability, severity, risk score, and whether workloads are running. Aqua can run images in a secure virtual sandbox to look for threats including fileless malware, supply chain attacks, and zero-day attacks. Assurance policies can prevent unapproved images from advancing to deployment, while runtime policies help prevent drift, detect attacks, and block threats in production. The product audits application security posture against NIST, PCI DSS, GDPR, and CIS Benchmarks. Listed environments include Kubernetes, OpenShift, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, VMware Tanzu, Docker, and IBM Z. Integrations include AWS Fargate, Azure Container Apps, Google Artifact Registry, Harbor, ServiceNow, and AWS Secrets Manager. Hybrid deployment, registry and CI pipeline scanning, Kubernetes admission, SBOM generation, and fix recommendations are listed. Pricing is on request; trials are available.

Harbor is an open-source registry for managing artifacts across cloud-native platforms such as Kubernetes and Docker. It offers a web UI and extensible API, and can be installed on Kubernetes or a system with Docker support. Security features include policies, role-based access control, vulnerability scanning, and image signing and validation. Image scanning uses Trivy when enabled during installation, and Harbor can connect to additional scanners. It replicates images and charts to or from other registries in pull or push mode; listed adapters include Docker Hub, Amazon ECR, Google Container Registry, Azure Container Registry, and GitLab Registry. Authentication options are database, LDAP/Active Directory, and OIDC, though choosing database authentication and adding local users prevents a later switch to another mode. Project storage quotas are unlimited by default but can be set globally or per project. Robot account secrets are not stored by Harbor, so they must be saved when created; robot accounts cannot log into the user interface. Harbor is a CNCF Graduated project. HTTPS is recommended for production use.