Allowing process privilege escalations exposes the Pod to attacks that exploit setuid binaries.
This field directly controls whether the no_new_privs flag is set in the container process.
When this flag is enabled, binaries
configured with setuid or setgid bits cannot change their runtime uid or gid: Potential attackers must rely on other privilege escalation techniques
to successfully operate as root on the Pod.
Depending on how resilient the Kubernetes cluster and Pods are, attackers can extend their attack to the cluster by compromising the nodes from
which the cluster started the Pod.
The allowPrivilegeEscalation field should not be set to true unless the Pod’s risks related to setuid or setgid bits have been
mitigated.
Ask Yourself Whether
- This Pod is accessible to people who are not administrators of the Kubernetes cluster.
- This Pod contains binaries with setuid or setgid capabilities.
There is a risk if you answered yes to all of these questions.
Recommended Secure Coding Practices
Sensitive Code Example
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: example
spec:
containers:
- name: web
image: nginx
ports:
- name: web
containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
securityContext:
allowPrivilegeEscalation: true # Sensitive
Compliant Solution
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: example
spec:
containers:
- name: web
image: nginx
ports:
- name: web
containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
securityContext:
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
See
