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Minimize the admission of containers wishing to share the host network namespace

A container running in the host's network namespace could access the local loopback device, and could access network traffic to and from other pods.

Category

Controls

Medium

Applies to

Kubernetes

Coverage

null controls, 1 queries

Asset types

1 covered

Overview

A container running in the host's network namespace could access the local loopback device, and could access network traffic to and from other pods.

There should be at least one admission control policy defined which does not permit containers to share the host network namespace.

If you need to run containers which require access to the host's network namespaces, this should be defined in a separate policy and you should carefully check to ensure that only limited service accounts and users are given permission to use that policy.

Remediation guidance

Add policies to each namespace in the cluster which has user workloads to restrict the admission of hostNetwork containers.

Multiple Remediation Paths

SERVICE-WIDE (RECOMMENDED when many resources are affected): Apply organization/tenant-level guardrails and baseline policies for the entire platform.

ASSET-LEVEL: Fix only the affected resources identified by this control.

PREVENTIVE: Add preventive policy checks to CI/CD and periodic posture scans.

References for Service-Wide Patterns

  • Platform policy/governance and preventive control patterns should be applied tenant-wide where supported.

Query logic

These are the stored checks tied to this control.

Check there are restrictions on the creation of hostNetwork containers

Connectors

Kubernetes

Covered asset types

Pod

Expected check: eq []

{
  pods(where: { hostNetwork: true NOT: { namespace: "kube-system" } }) {
    ...AssetFragment
  }
}
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