Kubernetes Security

Kubernetes Security Best Practices

Learn about some of the most important best Kubernetes security practices:

How Can You Protect Your Kubernetes Deployment?

Kubernetes is a complex platform that requires a great deal of configuration and management. Applying best security practices to Kubernetes workloads, particularly in production, will help you address major design weaknesses and platform concerns.
These Kubernetes security best practices are described here;

Turn on Role-Based Access Control.
Utilize Third-Party Authorization for API Server.
TLS and a firewall protect ETCD.
Separate Kubernetes Nodes
Install the most recent Kubernetes version
Utilize Process Whitelisting.
Enable Audit Logging.
Monitor Network traffic to keep communication
Kubelet locking
Aqua for Kubernetes safety

Top 7 Kubernetes security practices

Check out these 7 Kubernetes security best practices, based on customer reviews, to help protect your infrastructure.

1. Enable Role-Based Access Control in Kubernetes

If you want to know who has access to the Kubernetes API and their rights, you can use the RBAC system. As a result of the fact that Kubernetes mixes the authorization controllers
When employing RBAC, namespace-specific rights should be prioritized above cluster-wide permissions. Even if you’re troubleshooting, don’t give cluster admins access. Providing access only when essential is safer.

2. Use Third-Party Authorization for the API Server.

Kubernetes should be linked to a third-party authentication service such as “GitHub.” This contains extra authentication methods such as multi-factor authentication and verifies that when users are added or withdrawn, the Kube-API-server does not update.
Users should not be managed on the API server. Dex and other OAuth 2.0 connectors should be used if at all possible.

3. Separate the Kubernetes nodes

Kubernetes nodes must be on their own network and must not be directly connected to public networks. Avoid making direct links to the workplace network if at all feasible.
This is only possible if the control panel and data interactions in Kubernetes are separated. Otherwise, they use the same pipe, and open source to the data plane entails open access to the control plane.
Nodes should preferably have an access controller set to allow links only from the master node on the specified port via the network access control list.

4. Install the most recent Kubernetes version.

Use the latest Kubernetes version at all times. The following is a list of known Kubernetes vulnerabilities, as well as their severity ratings.
Always prepare to upgrade your Kubernetes version to the latest versions that are available. Updating Kubernetes can be a challenging procedure; check your hosted Kubernetes supplier to see whether automatic updates are available.

5. Make use of Process Whitelisting.

Process whitelisting is an effective method for detecting processes that are running unexpectedly. Begin by monitoring the application over time to identify all programs that are active during regular user activity. Then, for future application data, use this list as your whitelist.
Process-level runtime analysis is challenging. There are various commercial security solutions available to help monitor and identify irregularities in programs running across clusters.

6. Enable Audit logging.

Check that audit logging is enabled and unexpected or undesired API calls, especially authentication failures, are tracked. In these log entries, the status statement “Forbidden” appears. Failure to approve may indicate that an attacker is attempting to use compromised passwords.
When providing files to the Kube-API server, should use –audit-policy-file flag to enable audit logging and indicate which actions should be recorded. There are four levels of logging to choose from: none, metadata alone, request (which logs metadata and requests but not responses), and request-response (which logs all three).
The documentation contains an audit policy file. Professional Kubernetes providers can make this data available via their console and trigger updates if authorization fails.

7. Monitor network traffic to keep communications

Containerized apps make considerable use of cluster networks in general.
Containerized applications frequently employ cluster networks. Monitor live network traffic and compare it to the traffic permitted by Kubernetes network policy to understand better how your application interacts and detect abnormal communications.
At the same time, analyzing active traffic to authorized traffic identifies network policies that are not being employed by cluster workloads. This data can enhance the approved network policy by deleting superfluous links and reducing attack vectors.

Kubernetes Security