KubernetesOverview
Do not generally permit containers to be run with the allowPrivilegeEscalation flag set
to true. Allowing this right can lead to a process running a container getting more rights
than it started with.
It's important to note that these rights are still constrained by the overall container sandbox, and this setting does not relate to the use of privileged containers.
Rationale
A container running with the allowPrivilegeEscalation flag set to true may have
processes that can gain more privileges than their parent.
There should be at least one admission control policy defined which does not permit containers to allow privilege escalation. The option exists (and is defaulted to true) to permit setuid binaries to run.
If you have need to run containers which use setuid binaries or require privilege escalation, 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.
Impact
Pods defined with spec.allowPrivilegeEscalation: true will not be permitted unless
they are run under a specific policy.
Audit
List the policies in use for each namespace in the cluster, ensure that each policy disallows the admission of containers which allow privilege escalation.
Remediation guidance
Add policies to each namespace in the cluster which has user workloads to restrict the
admission of conatiners with .spec.allowPrivilegeEscalationset to true.
Default Value
By default, there are no restrictions on contained process ability to escalate privileges, within the context of the container.
References
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.
Minimize the admission of containers with allowPrivilegeEscalation (Pod)
Connectors
Covered asset types
Expected check: eq []
{
pods(where:{containers_SOME:{securityContext:{allowPrivilegeEscalation: true }}}){
...AssetFragment
}
}
