EKS security and compliance assessment — 7-layer hardening stack, CIS/HIPAA/PCI/FedRAMP/SOC2/GDPR audit prep, and 30/60/90 roadmap. Covers OS/AMI selection (Bottlerocket, AL2023, RHEL, Ubuntu), identity (EKS Pod Identity vs IRSA, Access Entries vs aws-auth), workload security (Pod Security Admission, Kyverno/OPA, NetworkPolicy, Security Groups for Pods), image supply chain (ECR scanning, Cosign/Notation signing), runtime detection (GuardDuty, Falco), audit logging, etcd / secrets encryption, and compliance accelerators (Config conformance packs, Security Hub, Audit Manager maintenance-mode status). Triggers on CIS Benchmark, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP, SOC 2, GDPR compliance, cluster hardening, audit-prep, or any regulated-workload assessment. Does not cover non-EKS platforms (ECS/ROSA), account-level security with no EKS angle, or GenAI-workload security.
EKS Security & Compliance
Execution model — fully autonomous. This skill runs autonomously with no
interactive prompts. If the request provides sufficient context (compliance regime,
workload sensitivity, cluster topology), proceed through the full 7-layer analysis.
If critical context is missing, infer from cluster state or apply documented defaults,
noting all assumptions in the report output.
End-to-end, opinionated security and compliance guidance for Amazon EKS, structured as a 7-layer stack plus a compliance-regime cross-cutting view. This skill is discovery-driven — the right hardening stack is a function of (compliance regime x OS-standardization mandate x team skill x audit timeline x workload sensitivity x air-gap requirement x scale x operational-overhead tolerance). Skipping the discovery context makes the recommendation wrong about half the time.
The accuracy bar (non-negotiable for this skill). Compliance is the one domain where customers validate every claim against an auditor. Compliance status changes over time — always defer to the live AWS Services in Scope page before quoting program coverage in any customer-facing document. Never state a cryptographic-module status, FedRAMP boundary, or certification you cannot cite to an AWS-published source. When you can't ground a claim, say so — do not synthesize.
Prerequisites — Agent Space IAM Permissions
A ready-to-use IAM policy document is available at references/iam-policy.json — attach it directly to your Agent Space execution role.
Read access to namespaces, pods, networkpolicies, podsecuritypolicies, clusterroles, clusterrolebindings
Workload security posture assessment
Note: This skill operates primarily as advisory guidance. When API access is available, it enriches recommendations with live cluster state. When API access is unavailable, it provides full guidance based on the context provided in the request.
When to Use This Skill
Activate when the goal involves:
Harden an EKS cluster or prepare for a first-time compliance audit (HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HITRUST, NIST 800-53/171)
Choose an OS / AMI strategy for security (Bottlerocket vs AL2023-with-CIS vs Ubuntu Pro vs RHEL vs Auto Mode)
Decide identity & access (EKS Pod Identity vs IRSA; Access Entries vs aws-auth)
Apply workload security (Pod Security Admission, Kyverno/OPA, NetworkPolicy, Security Groups for Pods)
Generic EKS architecture/cost/upgrade decisions with no security driver
Generating Terraform/Helm or auditing a live cluster's operational posture
Discovery First — Context Gates
Do NOT recommend a hardening stack without the following context. The single most common mistake is reflexively saying "use Bottlerocket" or "use AL2023 with CIS hardening" without confirming the customer's context. The first four items alone determine ~80% of the recommendation.
Autonomous Context Resolution
If the request does not specify the following three items, infer from cluster context (tags, labels, namespace naming, existing policies) or apply the stated defaults. Note all assumptions in the report output.
Compliance regime(s) — If not determinable from cluster context (e.g., tags like compliance:hipaa, namespace names, existing admission policies), assume SOC 2 as the baseline and note the assumption. Available regimes: None / SOC 2 / HIPAA / PCI-DSS / FedRAMP Moderate / FedRAMP High / GDPR / ISO 27001 / HITRUST / NIST 800-53/171 / CJIS / DISA IL5
Workload sensitivity — If not determinable from cluster context (e.g., namespace labels, network policies, encryption settings), assume internal and note the assumption. Levels: Public / internal / PII / PHI (HIPAA) / cardholder data (PCI) / federal
OS / AMI preference — If not determinable from node AMI IDs or launch templates, assume Open to AWS defaults and note the assumption. Options: Open to AWS defaults / Bottlerocket-first / AL2023+CIS / Ubuntu mandate / RHEL mandate / EKS Auto Mode
Context Already Provided When
The request already provides sufficient context — for example:
"Harden my HIPAA cluster running Bottlerocket on EKS 1.31 in us-east-1"
"What's the FedRAMP Moderate security stack for EKS with AL2023?"
"We need SOC 2 compliance for our PII workloads on EKS Auto Mode"
Additional Context (gather when depth allows, use defaults if unavailable)
Audit timeline? None / <3 mo (urgent) / 3-6 mo / 6-12 mo / continuous.
Cluster topology? Single vs multi-cluster, single vs multi-account, multi-region, EKS Anywhere, Hybrid Nodes, GovCloud.
Team K8s/security skill? Low / moderate / high / mixed.
Operational-overhead tolerance? Zero (managed-only) / low / moderate / high.
Full required + recommended question set, the 5 adoption-challenge archetypes, and the 8-step response framework: references/engagement-and-response.md.
The 7-Layer Security & Compliance Stack
Walk the layers bottom-up on a first engagement; each layer's controls compound on the previous.
Layer
Focus
AWS-canonical default
Reference
1 — Compute / OS / AMI
Node hardening
Bottlerocket (immutable, SELinux-enforcing, minimal); else CIS-hardened AL2023 via Image Builder; respect vendor-OS mandates (Ubuntu Pro / RHEL)
The AWS-canonical reference stack for a new commercial cluster: Bottlerocket (L1) + Pod Identity + Access Entries (L2) + PSA restricted + Kyverno + VPC CNI NetworkPolicy + Security Groups for Pods (L3) + ECR Enhanced Scanning + Cosign signing (L4) + GuardDuty for EKS (L5) + control-plane audit+authenticator logging + CloudTrail (L6) + Config conformance packs + Security Hub (L7; Audit Manager for existing setups only — maintenance mode). The vendor-OS path applies the same stack with a Layer-1 substitution only.
Cross-cutting concerns (span every layer, aligned to the AWS Best Practices security areas): data encryption & secrets management (default envelope encryption on K8s 1.28+, CMK, Secrets Manager/CSI/ESO) → encryption-and-secrets.md; multi-tenancy & multi-account isolation (soft vs hard, namespaces→cluster-/account-per-tenant) → multi-tenancy.md; incident response & forensics (the runbook when a detection fires) → incident-response-and-forensics.md; and the shared-responsibility model — AWS secures the control plane (control-plane nodes + etcd) and assumes more as you move self-managed → MNG → Fargate; you secure the data plane, node OS, workloads, and the controls in this skill. Each reference includes its per-layer shared-responsibility split.
Compliance-Regime Scope (cross-cutting)
EKS is natively in scope for PCI-DSS L1, HIPAA-eligible (BAA required), SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001/27017/27018/9001, FedRAMP Moderate (commercial) and High (GovCloud only), HITRUST CSF, IRAP, C5, K-ISMS, ENS High, OSPAR, DISA IL4/IL5 (GovCloud only — commercial reaches IL2). AWS provides alignment / framework support (not independent attestation) for GDPR, NIST SP 800-53/800-171, and CJIS — the customer owns workload-level controls. Per-regime nuance, the scope table, and the worked HIPAA/PCI/FedRAMP/GDPR/Auto-Mode scenarios: references/compliance-regimes.md. Dedicated per-regime quick-starts for the three most common regimes: HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2.
Always include the disclaimer in customer-facing output: "Compliance status changes over time — verify on the live AWS Services in Scope page before quoting program coverage." And precision matters: EKS is HIPAA-eligible (with a signed BAA), not "HIPAA-compliant"; FedRAMP High = GovCloud only, Moderate = commercial regions.
Securing an EKS Auto Mode Cluster
When the assessed cluster runs Auto Mode (detectable via eks:DescribeCluster — computeConfig.enabled), adjust the report: Auto Mode shifts Layer 1 (and the NetworkPolicy enforcement engine) to AWS — it is not "security handled." Facts verified 2026-07-17 against Auto Mode security considerations:
AWS handles: node lifecycle + patching (21-day max node lifetime, weekly AMI security releases), immutable Bottlerocket-variant node OS (SELinux enforcing, read-only root, no SSH/SSM), IMDSv2 hop-limit-1, and the managed CNI / NetworkPolicy engine / EBS CSI / LB controller / pre-installed Pod Identity agent. Do not flag these as customer findings.
The customer still owns: PSA restricted + Kyverno/OPA, NetworkPolicy content (default-deny), GuardDuty enablement, control-plane logging + CloudTrail + Security Hub, secrets management and the envelope-encryption CMK decision, Access Entries/IAM, image scanning/signing, workload security, and StorageClass-level EBS encryption for persistent volumes. Assess and report each of these.
Avoid Auto Mode for security when (as of 2026-07-17): a custom-AMI / baked-in-hardening mandate exists; Cilium or another alternate CNI is required; per-Pod security groups via the classic SGPP CRD are mandated (NodeClass-level Pod SGs do work on Auto Mode); host-level agents or forensic node access are mandated; or Windows nodes are needed. FIPS is not a blocker — Auto Mode offers FIPS-compatible AMIs (NodeClass advancedSecurity.fips, US regions).
ECR Enhanced Scanning on all production repositories
Pod Security Admission restricted on production namespaces
NetworkPolicy default-deny on production namespaces (VPC CNI native, or Calico/Cilium on self-managed)
Encryption at rest — EKS provides default envelope encryption of all Kubernetes API data (KMS provider v2, AWS-owned key) on K8s 1.28+ with no action required; bring a customer-managed KMS key (CMK) for control over rotation/audit, and use CMKs for EBS/S3/EFS under compliance regimes (etcd EBS volumes are also EBS-encrypted independently)
Encryption in transit — TLS in-cluster; mTLS via service mesh for high-sensitivity workloads
Secrets via Secrets Manager + Secrets Store CSI Driver + ASCP (or External Secrets Operator) — never plain Kubernetes Secrets in production; never baked into images
CloudTrail for EKS API audit; private API endpoint (or restricted public CIDR allowlist) for production
Preventive governance (multi-account): enforce the above with EKS IAM condition keys in SCPs/IAM (private endpoint, CMK encryption, approved K8s version, deletion protection) so non-compliant clusters can't be created — see identity-and-access.md
Hardening Roadmap (30 / 60 / 90)
Days 1-30 (baseline, non-disruptive): enable control-plane audit+authenticator logging; enable GuardDuty for EKS; enable Security Hub (CIS AWS Foundations + AWS FSBP); enable ECR Enhanced Scanning; run kube-bench for the current CIS posture. Change nothing yet — establish the baseline.
Days 61-90 (OS + image + accelerators): migrate to Bottlerocket (or build CIS-hardened AL2023 via Image Builder); enable ECR image signing; enable the applicable AWS Config conformance pack (HIPAA/PCI/NIST/FedRAMP) + validate Security Hub against the compliance standard (Audit Manager existing setups only — maintenance mode; see references/compliance-accelerators.md); download attestations from AWS Artifact.
Greenfield: deploy the full 7-layer stack at cluster creation, not retrofitted — and get the Day 0 settings below right first.
Day 0 checklist (greenfield — settings that are one-way or costly to retrofit)
Facts verified 2026-07-17 against the linked AWS docs. Only cluster name and VPC are truly immutable; the rest are changeable later but leave gaps or one-way ratchets — misstating which is which is an audit-refutable claim.
Upgrade-only below creation version — no downgrade past the version the cluster was created at; post-upgrade rollback to the previous minor version exists (7-day window, one minor version); an old start burns support runway or forces extended support
Yes — but events before enablement are unrecoverable; auditors ask for history
Enforce all of the above org-wide with EKS IAM condition keys in SCPs — see identity-and-access.md.
Quick-Reference Decision Trees
Routing aids for the three most common either/or questions (details in the linked references). Pod Identity support matrix verified 2026-07-17 against pod-identities.html.
New cluster → Access Entries, always (create in API mode; never configure aws-auth)
Existing cluster on aws-auth → migrate at the next change window (API_AND_CONFIG_MAP transition, break-glass principal pre-validated)
Top Guardrails (the high-cost mistakes)
Don't recommend a stack before the discovery context is confirmed — the #1 mistake.
Don't call IRSA "legacy" — AWS docs say Pod Identity is recommended for new workloads while IRSA remains a fully supported alternative (and is the right choice on Fargate, Windows nodes, unsupported SDKs, or cross-account OIDC federation). "Legacy" applies to the aws-auth ConfigMap, not IRSA.
Don't use aws-auth ConfigMap on new clusters — it's deprecated; use Access Entries (auditable in CloudTrail).
Don't recommend PodSecurityPolicy (PSP) — removed in Kubernetes 1.25+; use PSA + Kyverno/OPA.
Don't recommend AWS App Mesh for new work — AWS set its end-of-support date as September 30, 2026 (new sign-ups already closed; verify current status on the App Mesh page); use Istio/Linkerd/Cilium mesh or VPC Lattice.
Don't recommend EKS Auto Mode when a hard CIS-hardened-custom-AMI requirement exists — Auto Mode doesn't support custom AMIs (as of 2026-07-17); use Bottlerocket on self-managed Karpenter NodePools. Cilium CNI is also not supported on Auto Mode. See auto-mode-security.md.
Don't promise "HIPAA-compliant" — EKS is HIPAA-eligible; a signed BAA is required and the customer owns workload-level controls.
Don't conflate FedRAMP Moderate (commercial) with High (GovCloud); FIPS 140-3 (Bottlerocket FIPS AMIs) with 140-2; or CIS AL2 with CIS AL2023 benchmarks (distinct documents).
Don't treat a CMK as free of operational risk — once a CMK is the envelope-encryption key, disabling it degrades the cluster (the API server can't boot on restart; ~30-day window to re-enable before forced auto-upgrade) and deleting it makes the cluster unrecoverable. Guard the CMK with least-privilege IAM + a CloudWatch alarm.
Don't synthesize compliance claims — cite an AWS-published source or recommend escalation.
Escalation
Recommend engaging AWS Professional Services or an AWS Solutions Architect for:
First-time certification on a mission-critical regulated workload (highest stakes).
FedRAMP High / GovCloud → federal partner engagement.
Top Secret / Secret classified → AWS Top Secret/Secret region partner (out of scope here — commercial + GovCloud only).
EKS Anywhere (air-gapped) or Hybrid Nodes inside a FedRAMP boundary → shared-responsibility boundary mapping (AWS manages no control plane in air-gapped EKS Anywhere; Hybrid on-prem nodes are outside the FedRAMP boundary).
Multi-tenant SaaS with cross-tenant PHI / cardholder / federal isolation.
Customer vs auditor disagreement on AWS-managed-control acceptability (e.g., AWS-managed AMI patching vs documented patch cycle) → joint review with the auditor.
