The Path Less Traveled: Abusing Kubernetes Defaults

The presentation discusses the vulnerabilities of Kubernetes default configurations and how to better secure them.

• Kubernetes is a container orchestration framework that is increasingly widely used in enterprise and elsewhere.
• Kubernetes defaults vary widely depending on public clouds, distributions, and configurations.
• Kubernetes is powerful, but insecure by design.
• The presentation demonstrates the attack surface exposed by a default configuration of Kubernetes, including cluster takeovers and host escapes.
• Mitigations are discussed, and ways to better secure Kubernetes are presented.

The presenters emphasize the importance of checking assumptions about Kubernetes security, as it is not secure by default. They recommend putting admission control on clusters and getting involved in the project to better understand the system and make it more secure. The presentation also highlights the need for understanding how the system works on a deep level, both as an operator and as an attacker.

Kubernetes is a container orchestration framework that is increasingly widely used in enterprise and elsewhere. While the industry is starting to pay some attention to Kubernetes security, there are many attack paths that aren’t well-documented, and are rarely discussed. This lack of information can make your clusters vulnerable.In this live demonstration-filled talk, we are going to walk through the Kubernetes control plane before using sigs.k8s.io/kind to show some of the attack surface exposed by a default configuration of Kubernetes. There will be multiple exploits involving various moving parts, including cluster takeovers and host escapes. We’ll show you mitigations, and then show you how to get around those.Everything in this talk exploits features, not bugs! Kubernetes is powerful, and it’s insecure by design. Let’s see what it can do, and then let us show you how to better secure it.The audience will walk away from this talk with a better understanding of Kubernetes’ default attack surface, how it can be exploited, and how to keep their clusters safer.