Book Image

Learn Kubernetes Security

By : Kaizhe Huang, Pranjal Jumde
5 (1)
Book Image

Learn Kubernetes Security

5 (1)
By: Kaizhe Huang, Pranjal Jumde

Overview of this book

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration platform for managing containerized applications. Despite widespread adoption of the technology, DevOps engineers might be unaware of the pitfalls of containerized environments. With this comprehensive book, you'll learn how to use the different security integrations available on the Kubernetes platform to safeguard your deployments in a variety of scenarios. Learn Kubernetes Security starts by taking you through the Kubernetes architecture and the networking model. You'll then learn about the Kubernetes threat model and get to grips with securing clusters. Throughout the book, you'll cover various security aspects such as authentication, authorization, image scanning, and resource monitoring. As you advance, you'll learn about securing cluster components (the kube-apiserver, CoreDNS, and kubelet) and pods (hardening image, security context, and PodSecurityPolicy). With the help of hands-on examples, you'll also learn how to use open source tools such as Anchore, Prometheus, OPA, and Falco to protect your deployments. By the end of this Kubernetes book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of container security and be able to protect your clusters from cyberattacks and mitigate cybersecurity threats.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Kubernetes
7
Section 2: Securing Kubernetes Deployments and Clusters
14
Section 3: Learning from Mistakes and Pitfalls

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Kubernetes Architecture, introduces the basics of Kubernetes components and Kubernetes objects.

Chapter 2, Kubernetes Networking, introduces Kubernetes' networking model and dives deep into the communication among microservices.

Chapter 3, Threat Modeling, discusses important assets, threat actors in Kubernetes, and how to conduct threat modeling for applications deployed in Kubernetes.

Chapter 4, Applying the Principle of Least Privilege in Kubernetes, discusses the security control mechanisms in Kubernetes that help in implementing the principle of least privilege in two areas: the least privilege of Kubernetes subjects and the least privilege of Kubernetes workloads.

Chapter 5, Configuring Kubernetes Security Boundaries, discusses the security domains and security boundaries in Kubernetes clusters. Also, it introduces security control mechanisms to strengthen security boundaries.

Chapter 6, Securing Cluster Components, discusses the sensitive configurations in Kubernetes components, such as kube-apiserver, kubelet, and so on. It introduces the use of kube-bench to help identify misconfigurations in Kubernetes clusters.

Chapter 7, Authentication, Authorization, and Admission Control, discusses the authentication and authorization mechanisms in Kubernetes. It also introduces popular admission controllers in Kubernetes.

Chapter 8, Securing Kubernetes Pods, discusses hardening images with CIS Docker Benchmark. It introduces Kubernetes security contexts, Pod Security Policies, and kube-psp-advisor, which helps to generate Pod security policies.

Chapter 9, Image Scanning in DevOps Pipelines, introduces the basic concepts of container images and vulnerabilities. It also introduces the image scanning tool Anchore Engine and how it can be integrated into DevOps pipelines.

Chapter 10, Real-Time Monitoring and Resource Management of a Kubernetes Cluster, introduces built-in mechanisms such as resource request/limits and LimitRanger. It also introduces built-in tools like Kubernetes Dashboard and metrics server, and third-party monitoring tools, such as Prometheus and a data visualization tool called Grafana.

Chapter 11, Defense in Depth, discusses various topics related to defense in depth: Kubernetes auditing, high availability in Kubernetes, secret management, anomaly detection, and forensics.

Chapter 12, Analyzing and Detecting Crypto-Mining Attacks, introduces the basic concepts of cryptocurrency and crypto mining attacks. It then discusses a few ways to detect crypto mining attacks with open source tools such as Prometheus and Falco.

Chapter 13, Learning from Kubernetes CVEs, discusses four well-known Kubernetes CVEs and some corresponding mitigation strategies. It also introduces the open source tool kube-hunter, which helps identify known vulnerabilities in Kubernetes.