cis-eks-v180-4-1-12

name	cis-eks-v180-4.1.12
description	Minimize access to the service account token creation (Manual)
category	cis-eks
version	1.8.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["cis","eks","kubernetes","aws","rbac","service-accounts","token-creation"]
cis_id	4.1.12
cis_benchmark	CIS Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Benchmark v1.8.0
tech_stack	["kubernetes","aws","eks"]
cwe_ids	[]
chains_with	[]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{}

4.1.12 Minimize access to the service account token creation (Manual)

Profile Applicability

• Level 1

Description

Users with rights to create new service account tokens at a cluster level, can create long-lived privileged credentials in the cluster. This could allow for privilege escalation and persistent access to the cluster, even if the users account has been revoked.

Rationale

The ability to create service account tokens should be limited.

Audit Procedure

Review the users who have access to create the token sub-resource of serviceaccount objects in the Kubernetes API.

kubectl get clusterroles -o json | jq -r '.items[] | select(.rules[]? | select(.resources[]? == "serviceaccounts/token")) | .metadata.name'

Remediation

Where possible, remove access to the token sub-resource of serviceaccount objects.

Default Value

By default, the cluster-admin ClusterRole has access to create service account tokens.

References

1. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/security/rbac-good-practices/#token-request

CIS Controls

Controls Version	Control	IG 1	IG 2	IG 3
v8	6.8 Define and Maintain Role-Based Access Control			●

Profile Applicability

• Level 1