performing-container-escape-detection

name	performing-container-escape-detection
description	Detects container escape attempts by analyzing namespace configurations, privileged container checks, dangerous capability assignments, and host path mounts using the kubernetes Python client. Identifies CVE-2022-0492 style escapes via cgroup abuse. Use when auditing container security posture or investigating escape attempts.
domain	cybersecurity
subdomain	container-security
tags	["performing","container","escape","detection"]
version	1.0
author	mahipal
license	Apache-2.0

Performing Container Escape Detection

Instructions

Audit Kubernetes pods for container escape vectors including privileged mode, dangerous capabilities, host namespace sharing, and writable hostPath mounts.

from kubernetes import client, config
config.load_kube_config()
v1 = client.CoreV1Api()

pods = v1.list_pod_for_all_namespaces()
for pod in pods.items:
    for container in pod.spec.containers:
        sc = container.security_context
        if sc and sc.privileged:
            print(f"PRIVILEGED: {pod.metadata.namespace}/{pod.metadata.name}")

Key escape vectors:

1. Privileged containers (full host access)
2. CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability
3. Host PID/Network/IPC namespace sharing
4. Writable hostPath mounts to / or /etc
5. Docker socket mount (/var/run/docker.sock)

Examples

# Check for docker socket mounts
for vol in pod.spec.volumes or []:
    if vol.host_path and "docker.sock" in (vol.host_path.path or ""):
        print(f"Docker socket exposed: {pod.metadata.name}")