# Cis Gke V170 4.6.3

> Apply Security Context to Pods and Containers (Manual)

- Skill: `cyberstrikeus/cis-gke-v170-4-6-3` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cyberstrikeus/cis-gke-v170-4-6-3`
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- Category: DevOps & Infra
- Author: cyberstrikeus (https://skillmd.com/u/cyberstrikeus)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cyberstrikeus/cis-gke-v170-4-6-3

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# 4.6.3 Apply Security Context to Pods and Containers (Manual)

## Profile Applicability

- Level 2

## Description

Apply Security Context to Pods and Containers.

## Rationale

A security context defines the operating system security settings (uid, gid, capabilities, SELinux role, etc..) applied to a container. When designing containers and pods, make sure that the security context is configured for pods, containers, and volumes. A security context is a property defined in the deployment yaml. It controls the security parameters that will be assigned to the pod/container/volume. There are two levels of security context: pod level security context, and container level security context.

## Impact

If you incorrectly apply security contexts, there may be issues running the pods.

## Audit

Review the pod definitions in the cluster and verify that the security contexts have been defined as appropriate.

## Remediation

Follow the Kubernetes documentation and apply security contexts to your pods. For a suggested list of security contexts, you may refer to the CIS Google Container-Optimized OS Benchmark.

## Default Value

By default, no security contexts are automatically applied to pods.

## References

1. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/
2. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/containers/
3. https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/security-context/
4. https://learn.cisecurity.org/benchmarks

## CIS Controls

| Controls Version | Control                                                  | IG 1 | IG 2 | IG 3 |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ---- | ---- | ---- |
| v8               | 4 Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software |      |      |      |
| v7               | 5.1 Establish Secure Configurations                      | \*   | \*   | \*   |