Why 93% Of Kubernetes Users Struggle With Security

This report from Red Hat highlights some really important security considerations. Because cloud-native design relies on new technology stacks such as containers, Kubernetes and service mesh, it also requires API development, integration, and consumption. This, in turn, creates a larger attack surface. In addition to threats caused by cloud complexity itself, the cloud also increases exposure of some assets beyond more well-understood, on-premises data centre environments.
Access controls are difficult to get “right” when organisations must support multiple environments and consumer types. There have also been cases of server-side request forgery. A good example is the Capital One incident where attackers use web applications or web APIs as the front door into back-end cloud provider metadata services and infrastructure. Kubernetes (and its APIs) are usually an internal service used by the service provider/maintainer and not by its users. This in turn can play to the hands of attackers, as exposing these APIs may turn a very small attack surface to a very big one – allowing the attackers to try and find number of issues that could be abused in the API service itself, whether from misconfigurations of the service itself, or from well-known API class vulnerabilities.