V-254801—Kubernetes must enable PodSecurity admission controller on static pods and Kubelets.

CAT I - High

CNTR-K8-002001

>Control Description

PodSecurity admission controller is a component that validates and enforces security policies for pods running within a Kubernetes cluster. It is responsible for evaluating the security context and configuration of pods against defined policies. To enable PodSecurity admission controller on Static Pods (kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager, or kube-schedule), the argument "--feature-gates=PodSecurity=true" must be set. To enable PodSecurity admission controller on Kubelets, the featureGates PodSecurity=true argument must be set. (Note: The PodSecurity feature gate is GA as of v1.25.)

>Check Content

On the Control Plane, change to the manifests' directory at /etc/kubernetes/manifests and

$grep -i feature-gates * For each manifest file, if the "--feature-gates" setting does not exist, does not contain the "--PodSecurity" flag, or sets the flag to "false", this is a finding. On each Control Plane and Worker Node,

$ps -ef | grep kubelet

If the "--feature-gates" option exists, this is a finding. Note the path to the config file (identified by --config). Inspect the content of the config file: If the "featureGates" setting is not present, does not contain the "PodSecurity" flag, or sets the flag to "false", this is a finding.

>Remediation

On the Control Plane, change to the manifests' directory at /etc/kubernetes/manifests and

$grep -i feature-gates * Ensure the argument "--feature-gates=PodSecurity=true" is present in each manifest file. On each Control Plane and Worker Node,

$ps -ef | grep kubelet

Remove the "--feature-gates" option if present. Note the path to the config file (identified by --config). Edit the Kubernetes Kubelet config file: Add a "featureGates" setting if one does not yet exist. Add the feature gate "PodSecurity=true". Restart the kubelet service

$systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart kubelet

>CCI References

CCI-002263

Control Correlation Identifiers (CCIs) map STIG findings to NIST 800-53 controls.

>Cross-Framework Mappings

NIST SP 800-53 r5

via DISA CCI List

AC-17(9)

Compare

Ask AI

Configure your API key to use AI features.