kubescape/docs/getting-started.md

Getting started with Kubescape

Kubescape can run as a command line tool on a client, as an operator inside a cluster, as part of your CI/CD process, or more.

The best way to get started with Kubescape is to download it to the machine you use to manage your Kubernetes cluster.

Table of Contents

• Install Kubescape
• Run your first scan
• Usage
  • Misconfigurations Scanning
  • Image Scanning
  • Auto-Fix Misconfigurations
  • Image Patching
  • Validating Admission Policies (VAP)
  • MCP Server (AI Integration)
  • Configuration Management
• Offline/Air-gapped Support
• Other Ways to Use Kubescape
• Tutorial Videos

Install Kubescape

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubescape/kubescape/master/install.sh | /bin/bash

(We're a security product; please read the file before you run it!)

You can also check other installation methods

Run your first scan

kubescape scan

You will see output like this:

Kubescape security posture overview for cluster: minikube

In this overview, Kubescape shows you a summary of your cluster security posture, including the number of users who can perform administrative actions. For each result greater than 0, you should evaluate its need, and then define an exception to allow it. This baseline can be used to detect drift in future.

Control plane
╭────┬─────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│    │ Control Name                        │ Docs                                         │
├────┼─────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ✅ │ API server insecure port is enabled │ https://kubescape.io/docs/controls/c-0005/   │
│ ❌ │ Anonymous access enabled            │ https://kubescape.io/docs/controls/c-0262/   │
│ ❌ │ Audit logs enabled                  │ https://kubescape.io/docs/controls/c-0067/   │
│ ✅ │ RBAC enabled                        │ https://kubescape.io/docs/controls/c-0088/   │
│ ❌ │ Secret/etcd encryption enabled      │ https://kubescape.io/docs/controls/c-0066/   │
╰────┴─────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Access control
╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────┬────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Control Name                                    │ Resources │ View Details                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Cluster-admin binding                           │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0035 -v │
│ Data Destruction                                │     6     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0007 -v │
│ Exec into container                             │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0002 -v │
│ List Kubernetes secrets                         │     6     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0015 -v │
│ Minimize access to create pods                  │     2     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0188 -v │
│ Minimize wildcard use in Roles and ClusterRoles │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0187 -v │
│ Portforwarding privileges                       │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0063 -v │
│ Validate admission controller (mutating)        │     0     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0039 -v │
│ Validate admission controller (validating)      │     0     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0036 -v │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────┴────────────────────────────────────╯

Secrets
╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────┬────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Control Name                                    │ Resources │ View Details                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Applications credentials in configuration files │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0012 -v │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────┴────────────────────────────────────╯

Network
╭────────────────────────┬───────────┬────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Control Name           │ Resources │ View Details                       │
├────────────────────────┼───────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Missing network policy │    13     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0260 -v │
╰────────────────────────┴───────────┴────────────────────────────────────╯

Workload
╭─────────────────────────┬───────────┬────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Control Name            │ Resources │ View Details                       │
├─────────────────────────┼───────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Host PID/IPC privileges │     2     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0038 -v │
│ HostNetwork access      │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0041 -v │
│ HostPath mount          │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0048 -v │
│ Non-root containers     │     6     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0013 -v │
│ Privileged container    │     1     │ $ kubescape scan control C-0057 -v │
╰─────────────────────────┴───────────┴────────────────────────────────────╯

Highest-stake workloads
────────────────────────
High-stakes workloads are defined as those which Kubescape estimates would have the highest impact if they were to be exploited.

1. namespace: gadget, name: gadget, kind: DaemonSet
   '$ kubescape scan workload DaemonSet/gadget --namespace gadget'
2. namespace: kafka, name: my-cluster-kafka-0, kind: Pod
   '$ kubescape scan workload Pod/my-cluster-kafka-0 --namespace kafka'
3. namespace: kafka, name: my-cluster-zookeeper-0, kind: Pod
   '$ kubescape scan workload Pod/my-cluster-zookeeper-0 --namespace kafka'

Compliance Score
────────────────
The compliance score is calculated by multiplying control failures by the number of failures against supported compliance frameworks. Remediate controls, or configure your cluster baseline with exceptions, to improve this score.

* MITRE: 77.39%
* NSA: 69.97%

View a full compliance report by running '$ kubescape scan framework nsa' or '$ kubescape scan framework mitre'

What now?
─────────
* Run one of the suggested commands to learn more about a failed control failure
* Scan a workload with '$ kubescape scan workload' to see vulnerability information
* Install Kubescape in your cluster for continuous monitoring and a full vulnerability report: https://github.com/kubescape/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/kubescape-operator

Usage

Capabilities

• Scan Kubernetes clusters for misconfigurations
• Scan Kubernetes YAML files/Helm charts for misconfigurations
• Scan container images for vulnerabilities

Misconfigurations Scanning

Scan Kubernetes clusters, YAML files, Helm charts for misconfigurations. Kubescape will highlight the misconfigurations and provide remediation steps. The misconfigurations are based on multiple frameworks (including NSA-CISA, MITRE ATT&CK® and the CIS Benchmark).

Examples

Scan a running Kubernetes cluster:

kubescape scan

Note

Read more about host scanning.

Scan NSA framework

Scan a running Kubernetes cluster with the NSA framework:

kubescape scan framework nsa

Scan MITRE framework

Scan a running Kubernetes cluster with the MITRE ATT&CK® framework:

kubescape scan framework mitre

Scan a control

Scan for a specific control, using the control name or control ID. See the list of controls.

kubescape scan control c-0005 -v

Use an alternative kubeconfig file

kubescape scan --kubeconfig cluster.conf

Scan specific namespaces

kubescape scan --include-namespaces development,staging,production

Exclude certain namespaces

kubescape scan --exclude-namespaces kube-system,kube-public

Scan local YAML files

kubescape scan /path/to/directory-or-file

Take a look at the example.

Scan git repository

Scan Kubernetes manifest files from a Git repository:

kubescape scan https://github.com/kubescape/kubescape

Scan with exceptions

kubescape scan --exceptions examples/exceptions/exclude-kube-namespaces.json

Objects with exceptions will be presented as exclude and not fail.

See more examples about exceptions.

Scan Helm charts

kubescape scan </path/to/directory>

Note

Kubescape will load the default VALUES file.

Scan a Kustomize directory

kubescape scan </path/to/directory>

Note

Kubescape will generate Kubernetes YAML objects using a kustomize file and scan them for security.

Trigger in cluster components for scanning your cluster

If the kubescape-operator is installed in your cluster, you can trigger scanning of the in cluster components from the kubescape CLI.

Trigger configuration scanning:

kubescape operator scan configurations

Trigger vulnerabilities scanning:

kubescape operator scan vulnerabilities

Compliance Score

We offer two important metrics to assess compliance:

• Control Compliance Score: This score measures the compliance of individual controls within a framework. It is calculated by evaluating the ratio of resources that passed to the total number of resources evaluated against that control.

  kubescape scan --compliance-threshold <SCORE_VALUE[float32]>
  

• Framework Compliance Score: This score provides an overall assessment of your cluster's compliance with a specific framework. It is calculated by averaging the Control Compliance Scores of all controls within the framework.

  kubescape scan framework <FRAMEWORK_NAME> --compliance-threshold <SCORE_VALUE[float32]>
  

Output formats

JSON:

kubescape scan --format json --output results.json

junit XML:

kubescape scan --format junit --output results.xml

SARIF:

SARIF is a standard format for the output of static analysis tools. It is supported by many tools, including GitHub Code Scanning and Azure DevOps. Read more about SARIF.

kubescape scan --format sarif --output results.sarif

Note

SARIF format is supported only when scanning local files or git repositories, but not when scanning a running cluster.

HTML

kubescape scan --format html --output results.html

Offline/air-gapped environment support

It is possible to run Kubescape offline! Check out our video tutorial.

Download all artifacts

1. Download the controls and save them in the local directory. If no path is specified, they will be saved in ~/.kubescape.

   kubescape download artifacts --output path/to/local/dir
   

2. Copy the downloaded artifacts to the offline system.

3. Scan using the downloaded artifacts:

   kubescape scan --use-artifacts-from path/to/local/dir
   

Download a single artifact

You can also download a single artifact, and scan with the --use-from flag:

1. Download and save in a file. If no file name is specified, the artifact will be saved as ~/.kubescape/<framework name>.json.

   kubescape download framework nsa --output /path/nsa.json
   

2. Copy the downloaded artifacts to the offline system.

3. Scan using the downloaded framework:

   kubescape scan framework nsa --use-from /path/nsa.json
   

Image scanning

Kubescape can scan container images for vulnerabilities. It uses Grype to scan the images.

Examples

Scan image

kubescape scan image nginx:1.19.6

Scan image from a private registry

kubescape scan image --username myuser --password mypassword myregistry/nginx:1.19.6

Scan image and see full report

kubescape scan image nginx:1.19.6 -v

Other ways to use Kubescape

Scan periodically using Helm

We publish a Helm chart for our in-cluster components. Please follow the instructions here

VS Code Extension

Scan your YAML files while writing them using our VS Code extension.

Lens Extension

View Kubescape scan results directly in the Lens IDE using the Kubescape Lens extension.

Playground

Experiment with Kubescape in the Kubescape playground: this scenario will install a K3s cluster and Kubescape. You can start with any of the kubescape scan commands in the examples.

Auto-Fix Misconfigurations

Kubescape can automatically fix misconfigurations found in your Kubernetes manifest files.

Usage

# First, scan and save results to JSON
kubescape scan /path/to/manifests --format json --output results.json

# Then apply fixes based on the scan results
kubescape fix results.json

Options

Flag	Description
--dry-run	Preview changes without applying them
--no-confirm	Apply fixes without confirmation prompts
--skip-user-values	Skip changes that require user-defined values (default: true)

Example

# Preview fixes without applying
kubescape fix results.json --dry-run

# Apply fixes without prompts (useful for CI/CD)
kubescape fix results.json --no-confirm

Warning

The fix command modifies files in-place. Always review changes or use --dry-run first.

Image Patching

Kubescape can patch container images to fix OS-level vulnerabilities using Copacetic and BuildKit.

Prerequisites

• Docker daemon installed and running
• BuildKit daemon installed

Usage

# Start buildkitd (if not already running)
sudo buildkitd &

# Patch an image
sudo kubescape patch --image docker.io/library/nginx:1.22

Options

Flag	Description	Default
-i, --image	Image name to patch (required)	-
-t, --tag	Tag for the patched image	<image>-patched
-a, --addr	BuildKit daemon address	unix:///run/buildkit/buildkitd.sock
--timeout	Patching timeout	5m
-u, --username	Registry username	-
-p, --password	Registry password	-
-v, --verbose	Show detailed output	false

Example without sudo

export BUILDKIT_VERSION=v0.11.4
export BUILDKIT_PORT=8888

# Start BuildKit in Docker
docker run --detach --rm --privileged \
  -p 127.0.0.1:$BUILDKIT_PORT:$BUILDKIT_PORT/tcp \
  --name buildkitd \
  --entrypoint buildkitd \
  "moby/buildkit:$BUILDKIT_VERSION" \
  --addr tcp://0.0.0.0:$BUILDKIT_PORT

# Patch using TCP connection
kubescape patch -i nginx:1.22 -a tcp://0.0.0.0:$BUILDKIT_PORT

Note

Image patching can only fix OS-level vulnerabilities, not application-level ones.

For more details, see the Patch Command Documentation.

Validating Admission Policies (VAP)

Kubescape can help manage Kubernetes Validating Admission Policies using CEL (Common Expression Language).

Deploy the Policy Library

Install the Kubescape CEL admission policy library:

kubescape vap deploy-library | kubectl apply -f -

This deploys:

• Policy configuration CRD
• Basic control configurations
• Kubescape validating admission policies

Create Policy Bindings

Bind policies to specific resources:

kubescape vap create-policy-binding \
  --name my-policy-binding \
  --policy c-0016 \
  --namespace my-namespace | kubectl apply -f -

Options for create-policy-binding

Flag	Description	Required
-n, --name	Name of the policy binding	Yes
-p, --policy	Policy/control to bind	Yes
--namespace	Namespace selector (can be repeated)	No
--label	Label selector in key=value format	No
-a, --action	Action on failure: Deny, Audit, Warn	No (default: Deny)
-r, --parameter-reference	Parameter reference object name	No

Example

# Create a policy that denies non-compliant resources in production
kubescape vap create-policy-binding \
  --name deny-privileged-containers \
  --policy c-0057 \
  --namespace production \
  --action Deny | kubectl apply -f -

MCP Server (AI Integration)

Kubescape provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI assistant integration, allowing natural language queries about your cluster's security posture.

Prerequisites

• Kubescape operator installed in your cluster
• kubectl configured with cluster access

Start the Server

kubescape mcpserver

Available Tools

The MCP server exposes these tools to AI assistants:

Tool	Description
list_vulnerability_manifests	Discover vulnerability scan results
list_vulnerabilities_in_manifest	List CVEs in a specific manifest
list_vulnerability_matches_for_cve	Get details for a specific CVE
list_configuration_security_scan_manifests	List configuration scan results
get_configuration_security_scan_manifest	Get configuration scan details

Integration with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kubescape": {
      "command": "kubescape",
      "args": ["mcpserver"]
    }
  }
}

For more details, see the MCP Server Documentation.

Configuration Management

Manage Kubescape's cached configurations:

# View current configuration
kubescape config view

# Set account ID
kubescape config set accountID <your-account-id>

# Set cloud report URL
kubescape config set cloudReportURL <url>

# Delete cached configuration
kubescape config delete

Tutorial videos

• Kubescape overview
• How to secure Kubernetes clusters with Kubescape
• Scan Kubernetes YAML files
• Scan container image registry
• Scan Kubescape on an air-gapped environment (offline support)
• Managing exceptions in ARMO Platform
• Configure and run customized frameworks
• Customize control configurations:
  • Kubescape CLI
  • ARMO Platform