What's causing the sudden increase in false positive rates for Snyk's Container scans over the past two weeks?

Introduction

The sudden increase in false positive rates for Snyk's Container scans over the past two weeks is a critical issue that demands immediate attention. This analysis will systematically identify, validate, and address the root cause while considering both short-term fixes and long-term implications for our container security scanning feature.

I'll approach this problem by first clarifying the context, then ruling out external factors before diving deep into our product ecosystem, metric breakdown, and data analysis. From there, I'll form hypotheses, conduct root cause analysis, and propose a validation and resolution plan.

Step 1

Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)

• Looking at the timing, I'm thinking there might have been a recent update to our scanning engine. Has there been any change to the Container scanning algorithm or ruleset in the last month?

Why it matters: Recent changes could directly impact false positive rates. Expected answer: Yes, there was an update two weeks ago. Impact on approach: If confirmed, we'd focus on the changes made in that update.

• Considering user segments, I'm curious if this increase is uniform across all customers. Are we seeing this issue more prominently in any particular customer segment or container type?

Why it matters: Helps narrow down if it's a global issue or specific to certain use cases. Expected answer: The issue is more prevalent in customers using microservices architectures. Impact on approach: We'd investigate how our scanning interacts with complex, multi-container setups.

• Given the nature of false positives, I'm wondering about our current definition and measurement process. Has there been any change in how we define or measure false positives recently?

Why it matters: Ensures we're not dealing with a measurement issue rather than an actual increase. Expected answer: No changes in definition or measurement process. Impact on approach: If confirmed, we'd focus on the scanning process itself rather than metrics.

• Thinking about external factors, have there been any significant changes in the container ecosystem, like major updates to popular base images or container runtimes?

Why it matters: External changes could be triggering our scans differently. Expected answer: Docker released a new version of their runtime two weeks ago. Impact on approach: We'd investigate how our scans interact with the new Docker runtime.