# Cis Ocp V160 5.4.1

> Prefer using secrets as files over secrets as environment variables (Manual)

- Skill: `cyberstrikeus/cis-ocp-v160-5-4-1` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cyberstrikeus/cis-ocp-v160-5-4-1`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cyberstrikeus/cis-ocp-v160-5-4-1/raw
- Safety review: PASS (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: DevOps & Infra
- Author: cyberstrikeus (https://skillmd.com/u/cyberstrikeus)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cyberstrikeus/cis-ocp-v160-5-4-1

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# CIS Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Benchmark v1.6.0 - Control 5.4.1

## Profile Applicability

- **Level:** 2

## Description

Kubernetes supports mounting secrets as data volumes or as environment variables. Minimize the use of environment variable secrets.

## Rationale

It is reasonably common for application code to log out its environment (particularly in the event of an error). This will include any secret values passed in as environment variables, so secrets can easily be exposed to any user or entity who has access to the logs.

## Impact

Application code which expects to read secrets in the form of environment variables would need modification.

## Audit Procedure

Information about ways to provide sensitive data to pods is included in the documentation. Providing sensitive data to pods.

Run the following command to find references to objects which use environment variables defined from secrets.

```bash
oc get all -o jsonpath='{range .items[?(@..secretKeyRef)]} {.kind}
{.metadata.name} {"\n"}{end}' -A
```

## Remediation

If possible, rewrite application code to read secrets from mounted secret files, rather than from environment variables.

## Default Value

By default, application secrets are not defined.

In a default OpenShift 4 cluster, the following platform objects are returned:

```
Pod aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-699844b6d7-2pl8k
Pod aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-6dcc794464-gnl6l
Pod aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-6dcc794464-kkhr9
Deployment aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller
Deployment aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller
ReplicaSet aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-699844b6d7
ReplicaSet aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-777d8fbb87
ReplicaSet aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-658754b8c8
ReplicaSet aws-ebs-csi-driver-controller-6dcc794464
```

## References

1. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/#using-secrets

## CIS Controls

| Controls Version | Control                                           | IG 1 | IG 2 | IG 3 |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ---- | ---- | ---- |
| v8               | 3.10 Encrypt Sensitive Data in Transit            |      | \*   | \*   |
| v7               | 14.4 Encrypt All Sensitive Information in Transit |      | \*   | \*   |

## MITRE ATT&CK Mappings

| Techniques / Sub-techniques | Tactics | Mitigations |
| --------------------------- | ------- | ----------- |
| T1552                       | TA0006  | M1026       |

## Profile

**Level 2** (Manual)