Container data offline and online scan in a cloud environment

A system, comprising:

• a host computer configured to execute a hypervisor that is configured to manage execution of a virtual machine (VM);
• a storage device configured to store a plurality of virtual machine disk files;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• receive a request to perform a scan for security threats within a container executing within the VM, wherein the container operates as an isolated process in userspace on a guest operating system of the VM;
• identify a container disk file stored in the storage device and associated with the container, wherein the container disk file is not included within a virtual machine disk file that is associated with the VM, that is included within the plurality of virtual machine disk files, and that is separate from other container disk files associated with other containers executing within the VM, wherein the container disk file comprises a file that stores virtualized disk data for the container and that is stored separately from the virtual machine disk file;
• perform the scan on the container disk file for at least one of a virus and malware to detect security threats;
• attempt to clean a detected security threat within the container disk file;
• and
• update a container scan catalog to include an indication that the container has no threats when the detected security threat is cleaned and to include an indication that the container has a threat when the detected security threat is not cleaned.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving a request to perform a scan for security threats within a container executing within a virtual machine (VM), wherein the container operates as an isolated process in userspace on a guest operating system of the VM;
• identifying a container disk file associated with the container, wherein the container disk file is not included within a virtual machine disk file associated with the VM and is separate from other container disk files associated with other containers executing within the VM, wherein the container disk file comprises a file that stores virtualized disk data for the container and that is stored separately from the virtual machine disk file;
• performing the scan on the container disk file to detect security threats;
• attempting to clean a detected security threat within the container disk file;
• and
• updating a container scan catalog to include an indication that the container has no threats when the detected security threat is cleaned and to include an indication that the container has a threat when the detected security threat is not cleaned.