Environments

Administrators can monitor the packages installed in user environments, view any Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) associated with them and, if necessary, enforce security standards by blocking the environment from use. IT administrators can also provide a custom message to guide users through environment remediation. This telemetric data assists your IT administrators with auditing tasks by ensuring users are compliant with your security requirements and providing historical tracking for infrastructure audits.

Members can use these tools to ensure their local environments are in compliance with organizational security requirements and avoid machine quarantines or losing access to an environment due to administrator intervention.

In order to utilize the Environments feature, organization members (including administrators) must first complete the required setup steps to enable environment management. For more information and instructions for enabling environment management, see the Quickstart guide.

​

Logging environments

With anaconda-env-log installed, all newly created environments are automatically logged within conda, and existing environments are automatically logged whenever you perform certain conda actions (install, remove, rename, or update) in them. Existing environments can also be logged manually by running the following command:

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of the environment you want to log to your organization
conda env-log log --name <ENV_NAME>

​

Viewing logged environments

Environments logged with an organization can be viewed at any time from the Environments page. Members can view the environments they’ve logged, while administrators have access to view every environment logged with the organization.

1. Navigate to your Organizations page.

2. Select your organization.

3. Under Org Management, select Environments.

The Environments page shows you:

• Environment names and locations
• The number of packages in the environments
• The number of CVEs associated with the packages in the environments
• The environment’s creator
• The last time the environments were updated

​

Exploring logged environments

Environments that are logged with an organization can be browsed to gain insights into the packages that they contain. You can see which packages are present in the environment as well as any CVEs associated with them.

​

Viewing environment packages

The environment’s Packages page shows you which packages are in an environment and what channels they were sourced from.

1. Navigate to your Organizations page.

2. Select your organization.

3. Under Org Management, select Environments.

4. Select the package count displayed under the PACKAGES column.

   Use the navigation controls at the bottom to browse the environment’s packages.

​

Viewing environment CVEs

​

Scanning environments

Scanning an environment checks the most recently saved conda environment log for CVEs associated with the packages it contains.

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of the environment you want to scan
anaconda audit scan --name <ENV_NAME>

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME>

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
# Replace <CVE_NAME> with the name of the CVE you want to check for
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME> | findstr "<CVE_NAME>" 

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
# Replace <CVE_NAME> with the name of the CVE you want to check for
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME> | findstr "<CVE_NAME>" 

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
# Replace <CVE_NAME> with the name of the CVE you want to check for
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME> | grep <CVE_NAME>

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of the environment you want to scan
anaconda audit scan --name <ENV_NAME>

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME>

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
# Replace <CVE_NAME> with the name of the CVE you want to check for
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME> | findstr "<CVE_NAME>" 

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
# Replace <CVE_NAME> with the name of the CVE you want to check for
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME> | findstr "<CVE_NAME>" 

# Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of your environment
# Replace <CVE_NAME> with the name of the CVE you want to check for
anaconda audit scan --prefix /path/to/env/<ENV_NAME> | grep <CVE_NAME>

The audit scan returns a list of environment packages, and displays the following information for each package:

• Version number
• Build number
• Source channel
• CVE curation status
• CVSS score
• CVE status

A summary of the scan results is displayed at the end of the scan that shows a matrix of the number of CVEs and their statuses by severity level.

Scan results are color coded to help you identify the CVE severity, and a checkmark is displayed beside a CVE name to indicate that it has undergone Anaconda curation. CVEs that are stricken through have a status of cleared and are safe to use in your environment.

​

Blocking environments

Administrators can take action on environments that don’t meet security standards by utilizing organizational environment security status controls, which allow them to place a warning on an environment or block access to it completely. In both cases, administrators can enter a personalized message with guidance on what actions must be taken to restore access. Organization members who have had their environment blocked will receive the administrator’s message next time they try to activate the environment.

1. Navigate to your Organizations page.

2. Select your organization.

3. Under Org Management, select Environments.

4. Select the environment you want to take action on.

5. Click Update Status.

6. Select a status to apply to the environment and enter a custom message, if necessary.

7. Click Save.

​

Archiving environments

Archiving environments allows administrators to maintain an organized workspace by moving inactive or obsolete environments to a dedicated tab. This separation reduces clutter in the active environment list, making it easier to manage.

1. Navigate to your Organizations page.

2. Select your organization.

3. Under Org Management, select Environments.

4. Select the environment you want to take action on.

5. Click Archive.