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    Windows

    Prisma Cloud can secure Windows containers running on Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 hosts. A single instance of Prisma Cloud Console can simultaneously protect both Windows and Linux containers on both Windows and Linux hosts. Prisma Cloud’s Intelligence Stream includes vulnerability data from Microsoft, so as new CVEs are reported, Prisma Cloud can detect them in your Windows images.
    The architecture for Defender on Windows is different than Defender on Linux. Rather than running as a Docker container (as it does on Linux), Defender runs as a Windows service. And rather than implementing runtime protection in userspace (as it does on Linux), Windows drivers are used. This is because there is no concept of capabilities in Windows Docker containers like there is on Linux. Defender on Windows runs as service so it can acquire the permissions it needs to secure the containers on your host. When you deploy the Defender, it appears as a service. The Defender type "Container Defender - Windows" means that Defender is capable of securing your containers, not that it’s deployed as a container.
    To deploy Defender on Windows, you’ll copy a PowerShell script from the Prisma Cloud Console and run it on the host where you want to install Defender.

    Feature matrix

    Full feature parity on both Windows and Linux is a key objective. With every release, Prisma Cloud expands Defender’s capabilities on Windows.
    The following table shows the current state of Prisma Cloud’s Windows support:
    Platform
    Vulnerability
    Compliance
    Runtime defense
    Firewalls
    >Process
    >Network
    >File sys
    >Syscalls
    >CNAF
    >CNNF
    Linux
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Windows 2016
    Yes
    Yes
    No
    No
    No
    No
    No
    No
    Windows 2019
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    Yes
    No
    No
    Yes
    As a quick review, Prisma Cloud runtime defense builds a model of allowed activity for each container image during a so-called learning period. After the learning period has completed, any violation of the model triggers an action as defined by your policy (alert, prevent, block).
    As Prisma Cloud builds the model, any interactive tasks that are run are logged. These interactive tasks can be viewed in the History tab of each model. On Windows, Prisma Cloud cannot currently detect when interactive tasks are run with the docker exec command, although Prisma Cloud does correctly record interactive tasks run from a shell inside a container with the docker run -it <IMAGE> sh command. No matter how the interactive task is run, however, the model will correctly allow a process if it’s in learning mode, and it will take action if the model is violated when in enforcement mode.

    Deploying Defender on Windows

    Prisma Cloud Console must be first installed on a Linux host. Prisma Cloud Defenders are then installed on each Windows host you want to protect. For more information about installing Console, see Getting Started. The Onebox install is the fastest way to get Console running on a stand-alone Linux machine.
    Defenders are deployed with with a PowerShell 64-bit script, defender.ps1, which downloads the necessary files from Console. Defender is registered as a Windows service.
    Run the Prisma Cloud Defender deployment PowerShell script from a Windows PowerShell 64-bit shell.
    After the install is completed, Prisma Cloud files can be found in the following locations:
    Prerequisites:
    • Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. Prisma Cloud is not supported on Windows 10 or Hyper-V.
    • Docker for Windows (1.12.2-cs2-ws-beta) or higher. For more information about installing Docker on Windows, see Windows Containers on Windows Server.
    1. Log into Console.
    2. Go to
      Manage > Defenders > Deploy
      .
    3. In
      Choose the Defender type
      , select
      Docker on Windows
      .
    4. Copy the curl script and run it on your host to install Windows Defender.
      If you install Windows locally on your laptop, the 'netsh' commands are not needed. They are only applicable to the GCE environment.

    Registry scanning

    To scan Windows images in your registry, you must install at least one Windows Defender. Prisma Cloud automatically distributes the scan job across available Defenders. To scan registries that hold both Windows and Linux images, install at least one Linux Defender and one Windows Defender in your environment.

    Uninstalling Defender

    You can uninstall Defender directly from the Console UI.
    You can also manually uninstall Defender from the command line by running:
    C:\Program files\twistlock\scripts\defender.ps1 -uninstall
    Since Defender runs as a Windows service, decommissioning it will stop the service. Some remnant files might need to be deleted manually.
    1. Go to
      Manage > Defenders > Manage
      .
      This page shows a list of Defenders deployed in your environment and connected to Console.
    2. Click the
      Decommission
       button.

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