Title

Kubernetes etcd must have a certificate for communication. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Kubernetes stores configuration and state information in a distributed key-value store called etcd. Anyone who can write to etcd can effectively control the Kubernetes cluster. Even just reading the contents of etcd could easily provide helpful hints to a would-be attacker. Using authenticity protection, the communication can be protected against man-in-the-middle attacks/session hijacking and the insertion of false information into sessions. The communication session is protected by utilizing transport encryption protocols, such as TLS. TLS provides the Kubernetes API Server and etcd with a means to be able to authenticate sessions and encrypt traffic. To enable encrypted communication for etcd, the parameter "--etcd-certfile" must be set. This parameter gives the location of the SSL certification file used to secure etcd communication.

Check Content

Change to the /etc/kubernetes/manifests directory on the Kubernetes Control Plane. Run the command: grep -i etcd-certfile * If the setting "--etcd-certfile" is not set in the Kubernetes API Server manifest file, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Edit the Kubernetes API Server manifest file in the /etc/kubernetes/manifests directory on the Kubernetes Control Plane. Set the value of "--etcd-certfile" to the certificate to be used for communication with etcd.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-242430r927254_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-242430

Group Title: SRG-APP-000219-CTR-000550

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.