---
vid: KHV050
title: Read access to Pod service account token
categories: [Access Risk]
---

# {{ page.vid }} - {{ page.title }}

## Issue description

Every Pod in Kubernetes is associated with a Service Account which by default has access to the Kubernetes API. This access is made available to Pods by an auto-generated token that is made available to the Pod by Kubernetes. An attacker with access to a Pod can read the token and access the Kubernetes API.

## Remediation

It is recommended to explicitly specify a Service Account for all of your workloads (`serviceAccountName` in `Pod.Spec`), and manage their permissions according to the least privilege principle.

Consider opting out automatic mounting of SA token using `automountServiceAccountToken: false` on `ServiceAccount` resource or `Pod.spec`.


## References

- [Configure Service Accounts for Pods](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-service-account/)