Kali Linux

Kubeaudit : Tool To Audit Your Kubernetes Clusters Against Common Security Controls

Kubeaudit no longer supports APIs deprecated as of Kubernetes v.1.16 release. So, it is now a requirement for clusters to run Kubernetes >=1.16

kubeaudit is a command line tool and a Go package to audit Kubernetes clusters for various different security concerns, such as:

  • run as non-root
  • use a read-only root filesystem
  • drop scary capabilities, don’t add new ones
  • don’t run privileged
  • and more!

tldr. kubeaudit makes sure you deploy secure containers!

Package

To use kubeaudit as a Go package, see the package docs.

The rest of this README will focus on how to use kubeaudit as a command line tool.

Command Line Interface (CLI)

  • Installation
  • Quick Start
  • Audit Results
  • Commands
  • Configuration File
  • Override Errors
  • Contributing

Installation

Brew

brew install kubeaudit

Download a binary

Kubeaudit has official releases that are blessed and stable: Official releases

DIY build

Master may have newer features than the stable releases. If you need a newer feature not yet included in a release, make sure you’re using Go 1.17+ and run the following:

go get -v github.com/Shopify/kubeaudit

Start using kubeaudit with the Quick Start or view all the supported commands.

Kubectl Plugin

Prerequisite: kubectl v1.12.0 or later

With kubectl v1.12.0 introducing easy pluggability of external functions, kubeaudit can be invoked as kubectl audit by

  • running make plugin and having $GOPATH/bin available in your path.

or

  • renaming the binary to kubectl-audit and having it available in your path.

Docker

We also release a Docker image: shopify/kubeaudit. To run kubeaudit as a job in your cluster see Running kubeaudit in a cluster.

Quick Start

kubeaudit has three modes:

  1. Manifest mode
  2. Local mode
  3. Cluster mode

Manifest Mode

If a Kubernetes manifest file is provided using the -f/--manifest flag, kubeaudit will audit the manifest file.

Example command:

kubeaudit all -f “/path/to/manifest.yml”

Example output:

$ kubeaudit all -f “internal/test/fixtures/all_resources/deployment-apps-v1.yml”
—————- Results for —————
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: deployment
namespace: deployment-apps-v1——————————————–
— [error] AppArmorAnnotationMissing
Message: AppArmor annotation missing. The annotation ‘container.apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io/container’ should be added.
Metadata:
Container: container
MissingAnnotation: container.apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io/container
— [error] AutomountServiceAccountTokenTrueAndDefaultSA
Message: Default service account with token mounted. automountServiceAccountToken should be set to ‘false’ or a non-default service account should be used.
— [error] CapabilityShouldDropAll
Message: Capability not set to ALL. Ideally, you should drop ALL capabilities and add the specific ones you need to the add list.
Metadata:
Container: container
Capability: AUDIT_WRITE…

If no errors with a given minimum severity are found, the following is returned:

All checks completed. 0 high-risk vulnerabilities found

Audit Results

Kubeaudit produces results with three levels of severity:

  • Error: A security issue or invalid kubernetes configuration
  • Warning: A best practice recommendation
  • Info: Informational, no action required. This includes results that are overridden

The minimum severity level can be set using the --minSeverity/-m flag.

By default kubeaudit will output results in a human-readable way. If the output is intended to be further processed, it can be set to output JSON using the --format json flag. To output results as logs (the previous default) use --format logrus. Some output formats include colors to make results easier to read in a terminal. To disable colors (for example, if you are sending output to a text file), you can use the --no-color flag.

If there are results of severity level error, kubeaudit will exit with exit code 2. This can be changed using the --exitcode/-e flag.

For all the ways kubeaudit can be customized, see Global Flags.

Commands

CommandDescriptionDocumentation
allRuns all available auditors, or those specified using a kubeaudit config.docs
autofixAutomatically fixes security issues.docs
versionPrints the current kubeaudit version.

Auditors

Auditors can also be run individually.

CommandDescriptionDocumentation
apparmorFinds containers running without AppArmor.docs
asatFinds pods using an automatically mounted default service accountdocs
capabilitiesFinds containers that do not drop the recommended capabilities or add new ones.docs
deprecatedapisFinds any resource defined with a deprecated API version.docs
hostnsFinds containers that have HostPID, HostIPC or HostNetwork enabled.docs
imageFinds containers which do not use the desired version of an image (via the tag) or use an image without a tag.docs
limitsFinds containers which exceed the specified CPU and memory limits or do not specify any.docs
mountsFinds containers that have sensitive host paths mounted.docs
netpolsFinds namespaces that do not have a default-deny network policy.docs
nonrootFinds containers running as root.docs
privescFinds containers that allow privilege escalation.docs
privilegedFinds containers running as privileged.docs
rootfsFinds containers which do not have a read-only filesystem.docs
seccompFinds containers running without Seccomp.docs

Global Flags

ShortLongDescription
–formatThe output format to use (one of “pretty”, “logrus”, “json”) (default is “pretty”)
–kubeconfigPath to local Kubernetes config file. Only used in local mode (default is $HOME/.kube/config)
-c–contextThe name of the kubeconfig context to use
-f–manifestPath to the yaml configuration to audit. Only used in manifest mode. You may use - to read from stdin.
-n–namespaceOnly audit resources in the specified namespace. Not currently supported in manifest mode.
-g–includegeneratedInclude generated resources in scan (such as Pods generated by deployments). If you would like kubeaudit to produce results for generated resources (for example if you have custom resources or want to catch orphaned resources where the owner resource no longer exists) you can use this flag.
-m–minseveritySet the lowest severity level to report (one of “error”, “warning”, “info”) (default is “info”)
-e–exitcodeExit code to use if there are results with severity of “error”. Conventionally, 0 is used for success and all non-zero codes for an error. (default is 2)
–no-colorDon’t use colors in the output (default is false)

Configuration File

The kubeaudit config can be used for two things:

  1. Enabling only some auditors
  2. Specifying configuration for auditors

Any configuration that can be specified using flags for the individual auditors can be represented using the config.

The config has the following format:

enabledAuditors:
# Auditors are enabled by default if they are not explicitly set to “false”
apparmor: false
asat: false
capabilities: true
deprecatedapis: true
hostns: true
image: true
limits: true
mounts: true
netpols: true
nonroot: true
privesc: true
privileged: true
rootfs: true
seccomp: true
auditors:
capabilities:
# add capabilities needed to the add list, so kubeaudit won’t report errors
allowAddList: [‘AUDIT_WRITE’, ‘CHOWN’]
deprecatedapis:
# If no versions are specified and the’deprecatedapis’ auditor is enabled, WARN
# results will be genereted for the resources defined with a deprecated API.
currentVersion: ‘1.22’
targetedVersion: ‘1.25’
image:
# If no image is specified and the ‘image’ auditor is enabled, WARN results
# will be generated for containers which use an image without a tag
image: ‘myimage:mytag’
limits:
# If no limits are specified and the ‘limits’ auditor is enabled, WARN results
# will be generated for containers which have no cpu or memory limits specified
cpu: ‘750m’
memory: ‘500m’

For more details about each auditor, including a description of the auditor-specific configuration in the config, see the Auditor Docs.

Note: The kubeaudit config is not the same as the kubeconfig file specified with the --kubeconfig flag, which refers to the Kubernetes config file (see Local Mode). Also note that only the all and autofix commands support using a kubeaudit config. It will not work with other commands.

Note: If flags are used in combination with the config file, flags will take precedence.

Override Errors

Security issues can be ignored for specific containers or pods by adding override labels. This means the auditor will produce info results instead of error results and the audit result name will have Allowed appended to it. The labels are documented in each auditor’s documentation, but the general format for auditors that support overrides is as follows:

An override label consists of a key and a value.

The key is a combination of the override type (container or pod) and an override identifier which is unique to each auditor (see the docs for the specific auditor). The key can take one of two forms depending on the override type:

  1. Container overrides, which override the auditor for that specific container, are formatted as follows:

container.audit.kubernetes.io/[container name].[override identifier]

As per Kubernetes spec, value must be 63 characters or less and must be empty or begin and end with an alphanumeric character ([a-z0-9A-Z]) with dashes (-), underscores (_), dots (.), and alphanumerics between.

Multiple override labels (for multiple auditors) can be added to the same resource.

See the specific auditor docs for the auditor you wish to override for examples.

To learn more about labels, see https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/labels/

R K

Recent Posts

Shadow-rs : Harnessing Rust’s Power For Kernel-Level Security Research

shadow-rs is a Windows kernel rootkit written in Rust, demonstrating advanced techniques for kernel manipulation…

1 week ago

ExecutePeFromPngViaLNK – Advanced Execution Of Embedded PE Files via PNG And LNK

Extract and execute a PE embedded within a PNG file using an LNK file. The…

2 weeks ago

Red Team Certification – A Comprehensive Guide To Advancing In Cybersecurity Operations

Embark on the journey of becoming a certified Red Team professional with our definitive guide.…

3 weeks ago

CVE-2024-5836 / CVE-2024-6778 : Chromium Sandbox Escape via Extension Exploits

This repository contains proof of concept exploits for CVE-2024-5836 and CVE-2024-6778, which are vulnerabilities within…

3 weeks ago

Rust BOFs – Unlocking New Potentials In Cobalt Strike

This took me like 4 days (+2 days for an update), but I got it…

3 weeks ago

MaLDAPtive – Pioneering LDAP SearchFilter Parsing And Security Framework

MaLDAPtive is a framework for LDAP SearchFilter parsing, obfuscation, deobfuscation and detection. Its foundation is…

3 weeks ago