Exploring Live Payload Migrations for MTD in Microservices Architecture
Anthony Mamaril, Rinchen Kolodziejczyk, Wissem Soussi, Gürkan Gür · 2024
This paper explores the implementation of live migrations within microservices architecture, with a focus on Moving Target Defense (MTD) in the context of cybersecurity. MTD aims to improve system security by introducing changes across multiple dimensions, increasing uncertainty for attackers. Our work dives into container migration techniques within Kubernetes, utilizing two clusters for a redundant deployment. Two payload migration approaches, “kill-first” and “replicate-first,” are proposed, implemented and investigated leading to some preliminary measurement results. The paper assesses the impact of these techniques on microservice applications, specifically their downtime during migrations. Additionally, it discusses security aspects related to container migration.