API server:
Ensure the --authorization-mode argument includes RBAC
Turn on Role Based Access Control. Role Based Access Control (RBAC) allows fine-grained control over the operations that different entities can perform on different objects in the cluster. It is recommended to use the RBAC authorization mode.
Fix - Buildtime
Kubernetes
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
creationTimestamp: null
labels:
component: kube-apiserver
tier: control-plane
name: kube-apiserver
namespace: kube-system
spec:
containers:
- command:
+ - kube-apiserver
+ - --authorization-mode=RBAC,Node
image: gcr.io/google_containers/kube-apiserver-amd64:v1.6.0
livenessProbe:
failureThreshold: 8
httpGet:
host: 127.0.0.1
path: /healthz
port: 6443
scheme: HTTPS
initialDelaySeconds: 15
timeoutSeconds: 15
name: kube-apiserver-should-pass
resources:
requests:
cpu: 250m
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /etc/kubernetes/
name: k8s
readOnly: true
- mountPath: /etc/ssl/certs
name: certs
- mountPath: /etc/pki
name: pki
hostNetwork: true
volumes:
- hostPath:
path: /etc/kubernetes
name: k8s
- hostPath:
path: /etc/ssl/certs
name: certs
- hostPath:
path: /etc/pki
name: pki
Ensure the --authorization-mode argument includes Node
Remediation: Edit the API server pod specification file /etc/kubernetes/manifests/kube-apiserver.yaml on the master node and set the --authorization-mode parameter to a value that includes Node.
--authorization-mode=Node,RBAC
Audit:
/bin/ps -ef | grep kube-apiserver | grep -v grep
Expected result:
'Node,RBAC' has 'Node'
Ensure that the --profiling argument is set to false
Remediation: Edit the API server pod specification file /etc/kubernetes/manifests/kube-apiserver.yaml on the master node and set the below parameter.
--profiling=false
Audit:
/bin/ps -ef | grep kube-apiserver | grep -v grep
Expected result:
'false' is equal to 'false'
Fix all of the following violations that were found against the Kubelet:- Ensure the --anonymous-auth argument is set to false.
Remediation: If using a Kubelet config file, edit the file to set authentication: anonymous: enabled to false. If using executable arguments, edit the kubelet service file /etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service.d/10-kubeadm.conf on each worker node and set the below parameter in KUBELET_SYSTEM_PODS_ARGS variable.
--anonymous-auth=false
Based on your system, restart the kubelet service. For example:
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl restart kubelet.service
Audit:
/bin/ps -fC kubelet
Audit Config:
/bin/cat /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml
Expected result:
'false' is equal to 'false'
2) Ensure that the --authorization-mode argument is set to Webhook.
Audit
docker inspect kubelet | jq -e '.[0].Args[] | match("--authorization-mode=Webhook").string' Returned Value: --authorization-mode=Webhook Fix all of the following violations that were found against the ETCD:- a. Ensure that the --auto-tls argument is not set to true Do not use self-signed certificates for TLS. etcd is a highly-available key value store used by Kubernetes deployments for persistent storage of all of its REST API objects. These objects are sensitive in nature and should not be available to unauthenticated clients. You should enable the client authentication via valid certificates to secure the access to the etcd service.
Fix - Buildtime
Kubernetes
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
annotations:
scheduler.alpha.kubernetes.io/critical-pod: ""
creationTimestamp: null
labels:
component: etcd
tier: control-plane
name: etcd
namespace: kube-system
spec:
containers:
- command:
+ - etcd
+ - --auto-tls=true
image: k8s.gcr.io/etcd-amd64:3.2.18
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
livenessProbe:
exec:
command:
- /bin/sh
- -ec
- ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl --endpoints=https://[192.168.22.9]:2379 --cacert=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt
--cert=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/healthcheck-client.crt --key=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/healthcheck-client.key get foo failureThreshold: 8 initialDelaySeconds: 15 timeoutSeconds: 15 name: etcd-should-fail resources: {} volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /var/lib/etcd
name: etcd-data
- mountPath: /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd
name: etcd-certs
hostNetwork: true
priorityClassName: system-cluster-critical
volumes:
- hostPath:
path: /var/lib/etcd
type: DirectoryOrCreate
name: etcd-data
- hostPath:
path: /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd
type: DirectoryOrCreate
name: etcd-certs
status: {}
Explanation:

2. k8s.gcr.io/kube-controller-manager:v1.18.6
Look for images with HIGH or CRITICAL severity vulnerabilities and store the output of the same in /opt/trivy-vulnerable.txt

Create a PSP that will prevent the creation of privileged pods in the namespace.
$ cat clusterrole-use-privileged.yaml
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
name: use-privileged-psp
rules:
- apiGroups: ['policy']
resources: ['podsecuritypolicies']
verbs: ['use']
resourceNames:
- default-psp
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
name: privileged-role-bind
namespace: psp-test
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: ClusterRole
name: use-privileged-psp
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: privileged-sa
$ kubectl -n psp-test apply -f clusterrole-use-privileged.yaml
After a few moments, the privileged Pod should be created.
Create a new PodSecurityPolicy named prevent-privileged-policy which prevents the creation of privileged pods.
apiVersion: policy/v1beta1
kind: PodSecurityPolicy
metadata:
name: example
spec:
privileged: false # Don't allow privileged pods!
# The rest fills in some required fields.
seLinux:
rule: RunAsAny
supplementalGroups:
rule: RunAsAny
runAsUser:
rule: RunAsAny
fsGroup:
rule: RunAsAny
volumes:
- '*'
And create it with kubectl:
kubectl-admin create -f example-psp.yaml
Now, as the unprivileged user, try to create a simple pod:
kubectl-user create -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: pause
spec:
containers:
- name: pause
image: k8s.gcr.io/pause
EOF
The output is similar to this:
Error from server (Forbidden): error when creating "STDIN": pods "pause" is forbidden: unable to validate against any pod security policy: [] Create a new ServiceAccount named psp-sa in the namespace default.
$ cat clusterrole-use-privileged.yaml
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
name: use-privileged-psp
rules:
- apiGroups: ['policy']
resources: ['podsecuritypolicies']
verbs: ['use']
resourceNames:
- default-psp
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
name: privileged-role-bind
namespace: psp-test
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: ClusterRole
name: use-privileged-psp
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: privileged-sa
$ kubectl -n psp-test apply -f clusterrole-use-privileged.yaml
After a few moments, the privileged Pod should be created.
Create a new ClusterRole named prevent-role, which uses the newly created Pod Security Policy prevent-privileged-policy.
apiVersion: policy/v1beta1
kind: PodSecurityPolicy
metadata:
name: example
spec:
privileged: false # Don't allow privileged pods!
# The rest fills in some required fields.
seLinux:
rule: RunAsAny
supplementalGroups:
rule: RunAsAny
runAsUser:
rule: RunAsAny
fsGroup:
rule: RunAsAny
volumes:
- '*'
And create it with kubectl:
kubectl-admin create -f example-psp.yaml
Now, as the unprivileged user, try to create a simple pod:
kubectl-user create -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: pause
spec:
containers:
- name: pause
image: k8s.gcr.io/pause
EOF
The output is similar to this:
Error from server (Forbidden): error when creating "STDIN": pods "pause" is forbidden: unable to validate against any pod security policy: [] Create a new ClusterRoleBinding named prevent-role-binding, which binds the created ClusterRole prevent-role to the created SA psp-sa.
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
# This role binding allows "jane" to read pods in the "default" namespace.
# You need to already have a Role named "pod-reader" in that namespace.
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
name: read-pods
namespace: default
subjects:
# You can specify more than one "subject"
- kind: User
name: jane # "name" is case sensitive
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
roleRef:
# "roleRef" specifies the binding to a Role / ClusterRole
kind: Role #this must be Role or ClusterRole
name: pod-reader # this must match the name of the Role or ClusterRole you wish to bind to apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata:
namespace: default
name: pod-reader
rules:
- apiGroups: [""] # "" indicates the core API group
resources: ["pods"]
verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]

Fix all of the following violations that were found against the API server:- a. Ensure that the RotateKubeletServerCertificate argument is set to true.
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
creationTimestamp: null
labels:
component: kubelet
tier: control-plane
name: kubelet
namespace: kube-system
spec:
containers:
- command:
- kube-controller-manager
+ - --feature-gates=RotateKubeletServerCertificate=true
image: gcr.io/google_containers/kubelet-amd64:v1.6.0
livenessProbe:
failureThreshold: 8
httpGet:
host: 127.0.0.1
path: /healthz
port: 6443
scheme: HTTPS
initialDelaySeconds: 15
timeoutSeconds: 15
name: kubelet
resources:
requests:
cpu: 250m
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /etc/kubernetes/
name: k8s
readOnly: true
- mountPath: /etc/ssl/certs
name: certs
- mountPath: /etc/pki
name: pki
hostNetwork: true
volumes:
- hostPath:
path: /etc/kubernetes
name: k8s
- hostPath:
path: /etc/ssl/certs
name: certs
- hostPath:
path: /etc/pki
name: pki
b. Ensure that the admission control plugin PodSecurityPolicy is set.
audit: "/bin/ps -ef | grep $apiserverbin | grep -v grep"
tests:
test_items:
- flag: "--enable-admission-plugins"
compare:
op: has
value: "PodSecurityPolicy"
set: true
remediation: |
Follow the documentation and create Pod Security Policy objects as per your environment.
Then, edit the API server pod specification file $apiserverconf
on the master node and set the --enable-admission-plugins parameter to a value that includes PodSecurityPolicy :
--enable-admission-plugins=...,PodSecurityPolicy,...
Then restart the API Server.
scored: true
c. Ensure that the --kubelet-certificate-authority argument is set as appropriate.
audit: "/bin/ps -ef | grep $apiserverbin | grep -v grep"
tests:
test_items:
- flag: "--kubelet-certificate-authority"
set: true
remediation: |
Follow the Kubernetes documentation and setup the TLS connection between the apiserver and kubelets. Then, edit the API server pod specification file
$apiserverconf on the master node and set the --kubelet-certificate-authority parameter to the path to the cert file for the certificate authority.
--kubelet-certificate-authority=<ca-string>
scored: true
Fix all of the following violations that were found against the ETCD:-
a. Ensure that the --auto-tls argument is not set to true
Edit the etcd pod specification file $etcdconf on the master
node and either remove the --auto-tls parameter or set it to false.
--auto-tls=false
b. Ensure that the --peer-auto-tls argument is not set to true
Edit the etcd pod specification file $etcdconf on the master
node and either remove the --peer-auto-tls parameter or set it to false.
--peer-auto-tls=false