network-security

name	network-security
description	Configure Kubernetes network security including host access restrictions, network policies, port management, and connectivity requirements. Use when writing, reviewing, or auditing pod specs, Services, NetworkPolicies, or NetworkAttachmentDefinitions.
category	secure_development
subcategory	kubernetes

Network Security

Restrict host access, enforce network policies, declare all ports, and ensure connectivity across default and secondary networks.

Host Access Restrictions

Workload pods must not access host resources. All of the following must be disabled:

Required for: all profiles (mandatory)

Field	Required Value
spec.hostIPC	false
spec.hostNetwork	false (or not set)
spec.hostPID	false
spec.volumes[].hostPath	Not used
spec.containers[].ports[].hostPort	Not used

spec:
  hostIPC: false
  hostNetwork: false
  hostPID: false
  containers:
    - name: app
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080

Why: Host IPC exposes inter-process communication, host network removes network isolation, host PID exposes all host processes, host path mounts expose the host filesystem, and host ports create port conflicts and bypass network controls.

Network Policies

Workload namespaces should have a default deny-all NetworkPolicy for both ingress and egress traffic. After applying the default deny, add specific policies to allow only required traffic flows.

Required for: all profiles (optional, recommended best practice)

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: default-deny-all
  namespace: app-ns
spec:
  podSelector: {}
  policyTypes:
    - Ingress
    - Egress

Then allow specific traffic:

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: allow-app-ingress
  namespace: app-ns
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
      app: app
  policyTypes:
    - Ingress
  ingress:
    - from:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              name: frontend-ns
      ports:
        - port: 8080
          protocol: TCP

Port Management

Declare All Container Ports

All ports a container listens on must be declared in the container spec. Platforms may block undeclared ports.

Required for: Extended (mandatory), all others (optional)

containers:
  - name: app
    ports:
      - containerPort: 8080
        name: http
      - containerPort: 9090
        name: metrics

Reserved Ports

Containers must not listen on ports reserved by OpenShift: 22623 and 22624. These are used by the Machine Config Server.

Required for: all profiles (mandatory)

Containers must also not use ports reserved by partners.

Required for: Extended (mandatory), all others (optional)

No NodePort Services

Services must use ClusterIP (default) or LoadBalancer — not NodePort. See the pod-access-control skill for details.

Dual-Stack Services

Services should be configured as IPv6 single-stack or dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6). Avoid IPv4-only service configurations to support modern network architectures.

Required for: Extended (mandatory), all others (optional)

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: app-svc
spec:
  ipFamilyPolicy: PreferDualStack
  ipFamilies:
    - IPv6
    - IPv4
  selector:
    app: app
  ports:
    - port: 8080

Connectivity

Workload containers must be able to communicate via ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 on the default OpenShift network. If using Multus secondary networks, connectivity must also work on those networks.

Required for (default network): Telco/Far-Edge/Extended (mandatory), Non-Telco (mandatory for ICMPv4, optional for ICMPv6)

Required for (Multus networks): Telco/Far-Edge/Extended (mandatory), Non-Telco (optional)

To exclude a pod from connectivity tests, add the label redhat-best-practices-for-k8s.com/skip_connectivity_tests.

SR-IOV Configuration

NetworkAttachmentDefinition MTU

SR-IOV NetworkAttachmentDefinitions must have an explicit MTU value set to prevent packet fragmentation and performance issues.

Required for: all profiles (mandatory)

Restart-on-Reboot Label

Pods using SR-IOV network interfaces must have the restart-on-reboot label to ensure recovery from node reboots.

Required for: Extended/Far-Edge (mandatory), Telco (optional), Non-Telco (optional)

Implementation Checklist

• hostIPC: false on all pods
• hostNetwork: false (or not set) on all pods
• hostPID: false on all pods
• No hostPath volume mounts
• No hostPort on any container
• Default deny-all NetworkPolicy on workload namespaces
• All container ports declared in the pod spec
• No containers listen on OpenShift-reserved ports (22623, 22624)
• No containers listen on partner-reserved ports
• Services use dual-stack or IPv6 single-stack (not IPv4-only)
• Workloads pass ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 connectivity on default network
• Workloads pass ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 connectivity on Multus networks (if used)
• SR-IOV NetworkAttachmentDefinitions have explicit MTU
• SR-IOV pods have restart-on-reboot label

Certsuite Test Mapping

Guidance	Certsuite Test ID	Profiles
No host IPC	access-control-pod-host-ipc	All profiles: mandatory
No host network	access-control-pod-host-network	All profiles: mandatory
No host PID	access-control-pod-host-pid	All profiles: mandatory
No host path	access-control-pod-host-path	All profiles: mandatory
No host port	access-control-container-host-port	All profiles: mandatory
Default deny-all NetworkPolicy	networking-network-policy-deny-all	All profiles: optional (recommended)
Declare all ports	networking-undeclared-container-ports-usage	Extended: mandatory, all others: optional
No OCP-reserved ports	networking-ocp-reserved-ports-usage	All profiles: mandatory
No partner-reserved ports	networking-reserved-partner-ports	Extended: mandatory, all others: optional
Dual-stack services	networking-dual-stack-service	Extended: mandatory, all others: optional
ICMPv4 connectivity	networking-icmpv4-connectivity	All profiles: mandatory
ICMPv4 Multus connectivity	networking-icmpv4-connectivity-multus	Telco/Far-Edge/Extended: mandatory, Non-Telco: optional
ICMPv6 connectivity	networking-icmpv6-connectivity	Telco/Far-Edge/Extended: mandatory, Non-Telco: optional
ICMPv6 Multus connectivity	networking-icmpv6-connectivity-multus	Telco/Far-Edge/Extended: mandatory, Non-Telco: optional
SR-IOV MTU	networking-network-attachment-definition-sriov-mtu	All profiles: mandatory
SR-IOV restart-on-reboot	networking-restart-on-reboot-sriov-pod	Extended/Far-Edge: mandatory, Telco/Non-Telco: optional

References

• Network Policies
• Dual-stack Services
• SR-IOV Network Operator
• Red Hat Best Practices for Kubernetes Guide
• Red Hat Best Practices Test Suite for Kubernetes (certsuite)