cis-eks-v160-4-1-2

name	cis-eks-v160-4.1.2
description	Minimize access to secrets (Automated)
category	cis-eks
version	1.6.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["cis","eks","kubernetes","aws","rbac","service-accounts","secrets","access-control"]
cis_id	4.1.2
cis_benchmark	CIS Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Benchmark v1.6.0
tech_stack	["kubernetes","aws","eks"]
cwe_ids	[]
chains_with	[]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{}

4.1.2 Minimize access to secrets (Automated)

Profile Applicability

• Level 1

Description

The Kubernetes API stores secrets, which may be service account tokens for the Kubernetes API or credentials used by workloads in the cluster. Access to these secrets should be restricted to the smallest possible group of users to reduce the risk of privilege escalation.

Rationale

Inappropriate access to secrets stored within the Kubernetes cluster can allow for an attacker to gain additional access to the Kubernetes cluster or external resources whose credentials are stored as secrets.

Impact

Care should be taken not to remove access to secrets to system components which require this for their operation.

Audit Procedure

Review the users who have get, list or watch access to secrets objects in the Kubernetes API.

kubectl get clusterrolebindings -o=custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,ROLE:.roleRef.name,SUBJECT:.subjects[*].name
kubectl get rolebindings --all-namespaces -o=custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,ROLE:.roleRef.name,SUBJECT:.subjects[*].name

Remediation

Where possible, remove get, list and watch access to secret objects in the cluster.

Default Value

By default, the following list of principals have get privileges on secret objects:

CLUSTERROLEBINDING	SUBJECT
cluster-admin	system:masters
system:controller:clusterrole-aggregation-controller	clusterrole-aggregation-controller
system:controller:expand-controller	expand-controller
system:controller:generic-garbage-collector	generic-garbage-collector
system:controller:namespace-controller	namespace-controller
system:controller:persistent-volume-binder	persistent-volume-binder
system:kube-controller-manager	system:kube-controller-manager

References

None specified.

CIS Controls

Controls Version