container.training/slides/k8s/pod-security-admission.md

Pod Security Admission

• "New" policies

  (available in alpha since Kubernetes 1.22, and GA since Kubernetes 1.25)

• Easier to use

  (doesn't require complex interaction between policies and RBAC)

---

PSA in theory

• Leans on PSS (Pod Security Standards)

• Defines three policies:

  • privileged (can do everything; for system components)

  • restricted (no root user; almost no capabilities)

  • baseline (in-between with reasonable defaults)

• Label namespaces to indicate which policies are allowed there

• Also supports setting global defaults

• Supports enforce, audit, and warn modes

---

Pod Security Standards

• privileged

  • can do everything

• baseline

  • disables hostNetwork, hostPID, hostIPC, hostPorts, hostPath volumes
  • limits which SELinux/AppArmor profiles can be used
  • containers can still run as root and use most capabilities

• restricted

  • limits volumes to configMap, emptyDir, ephemeral, secret, PVC
  • containers can't run as root, only capability is NET_BIND_SERVICE
  • baseline (can't do privileged pods, hostPath, hostNetwork...)

---

class: extra-details

Why baseline ≠ restricted ?

• baseline = should work for that vast majority of images

• restricted = better, but might break / require adaptation

• Many images run as root by default

• Some images use CAP_CHOWN (to chown files)

• Some programs use CAP_NET_RAW (e.g. ping)

---

Namespace labels

• Three optional labels can be added to namespaces:

  pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce

  pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit

  pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn

• The values can be: baseline, restricted, privileged

  (setting it to privileged doesn't really do anything)

---

enforce, audit, warn

• enforce = prevents creation of pods

• warn = allow creation but include a warning in the API response

  (will be visible e.g. in kubectl output)

• audit = allow creation but generate an API audit event

  (will be visible if API auditing has been enabled and configured)

---

Blocking privileged pods

• Let's block privileged pods everywhere

• And issue warnings and audit for anything above the restricted level

.lab[

• Set up the default policy for all namespaces:

  kubectl label namespaces \
      pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=baseline \
      pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit=restricted \
      pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn=restricted \
      --all
  

]

Note: warnings will be issued for infringing pods, but they won't be affected yet.

---

class: extra-details

Check before you apply

• When adding an enforce policy, we see warnings

  (for the pods that would infringe that policy)

• It's possible to do a --dry-run=server to see these warnings

  (without applying the label)

• It will only show warnings for enforce policies

  (not warn or audit)

---

Relaxing kube-system

• We have many system components in kube-system

• These pods aren't affected yet, but if there is a rolling update or something like that, the new pods won't be able to come up

.lab[

• Let's allow privileged pods in kube-system:

  kubectl label namespace kube-system \
      pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=privileged \
      pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit=privileged \
      pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn=privileged \
      --overwrite
  

]

---

What about new namespaces?

• If new namespaces are created, they will get default permissions

• We can change that by using an admission configuration

• Step 1: write an "admission configuration file"

• Step 2: make sure that file is readable by the API server

• Step 3: add a flag to the API server to read that file

---

Admission Configuration

Let's use @@LINK[k8s/admission-configuration.yaml]:

@@INCLUDE[k8s/admission-configuration.yaml]

---

Copy the file to the API server

• We need the file to be available from the API server pod

• For convenience, let's copy it do /etc/kubernetes/pki

  (it's definitely not where it should be, but that'll do!)

.lab[

• Copy the file:

    sudo cp ~/container.training/k8s/admission-configuration.yaml \
            /etc/kubernetes/pki
  

]

---

Reconfigure the API server

• We need to add a flag to the API server to use that file

.lab[

• Edit /etc/kubernetes/manifests/kube-apiserver.yaml

• In the list of command parameters, add:

  --admission-control-config-file=/etc/kubernetes/pki/admission-configuration.yaml

• Wait until the API server comes back online

]

---

Test the new default policy

• Create a new Namespace

• Try to create the "hacktheplanet" DaemonSet in the new namespace

• We get a warning when creating the DaemonSet

• The DaemonSet is created

• But the Pods don't get created

???

:EN:- Preventing privilege escalation with Pod Security Admission :FR:- Limiter les droits des conteneurs avec Pod Security Admission