Securing Kubernetes On Cloud

agentic-workflows-blueprint.workflow.securing-kubernetes-on-cloud

Goal

Harden managed Kubernetes clusters on major cloud providers by enforcing pod security, workload identity, network segmentation, RBAC constraints, image admission controls, and runtime monitoring.

Scope

• Applies to: EKS, AKS, GKE, or equivalent managed Kubernetes platforms.
• Does not cover: non-Kubernetes compute orchestration models.

Triggers

• "Secure managed Kubernetes cluster"
• "Harden EKS/AKS/GKE for production"
• "Enforce workload identity and pod security standards"
• "Add cloud-native Kubernetes security guardrails"

Inputs

• provider: EKS, AKS, GKE (or mapped equivalent)
• clusterContext: cluster name/environment/region
• namespaceSecurityMap: namespace-by-namespace target security posture
• identityStrategy: IRSA, Workload Identity, Managed Identity mapping plan
• networkPolicyStrategy: default-deny and explicit allow-list model
• admissionPolicyStrategy (optional): Kyverno/Gatekeeper policy requirements
• runtimeMonitoringStrategy (optional): Falco/eBPF/security telemetry integration
• rollbackPlan: rollback for blocking policy changes

Invariants

• Production namespaces require strict pod security posture with staged rollout.
• Static cloud credentials in pods are disallowed when workload identity is available.
• East-west traffic must be segmented by least privilege.
• RBAC access must avoid broad cluster-level grants for non-admin identities.
• Admission controls and runtime monitoring must complement static hardening.

Procedure

1. Security baseline assessment

   • Inventory cluster security posture (PSA labels, RBAC, service accounts, network policies, admission controls).
   • Identify provider-specific identity and control-plane constraints.

2. Enforce pod security standards

   • Apply namespace policy map (audit/warn/enforce) with staged rollout.
   • Remediate non-compliant workloads before strict enforcement.

3. Implement workload identity

   • Bind Kubernetes service accounts to cloud IAM identities (IRSA/GKE WI/AKS MI).
   • Remove static secrets/credentials used for cloud API access.

4. Segment network traffic

   • Apply default-deny and explicit allow-list network policies.
   • Validate service dependencies and DNS/control-plane paths.

5. Harden RBAC

   • Reduce overprivileged roles/bindings.
   • Align namespace roles to team/service responsibilities.

6. Apply image admission controls

   • Restrict allowed registries and require immutable digest references.
   • Enforce policy failures before workload admission.

7. Enable runtime monitoring

   • Deploy runtime threat detection and benchmark tooling as defined.
   • Route alerts with severity-driven triage paths.

8. Validate and operationalize

   • Execute security and functional validation checks after each hardening phase.
   • Publish final risk register, exceptions, and follow-up remediation work.

Outputs

• Cluster hardening plan and execution evidence by control area.
• Namespace security policy and compliance report.
• Workload identity migration report.
• Network/RBAC/admission control validation results.
• Runtime monitoring enablement and alert routing summary.

Review gate

• Pod security policies are applied with staged enforcement and evidence.
• Workload identity replaces static cloud credentials in target workloads.
• Network and RBAC controls enforce least-privilege boundaries.
• Admission controls enforce trusted registry/digest policy.
• Runtime monitoring is active with documented triage flow.

References

• ../../SKILL.md
• ../implementing-pod-security-admission-controller/SKILL.md
• ../implementing-network-policies-for-kubernetes/SKILL.md
• ../implementing-rbac-hardening-for-kubernetes/SKILL.md
• Interactive HTML View