Title

RKE2 must use a centralized user management solution to support account management functions. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The Kubernetes Controller Manager is a background process that embeds core control loops regulating cluster system state through the API Server. Every process executed in a pod has an associated service account. By default, service accounts use the same credentials for authentication. Implementing the default settings poses a high risk to the Kubernetes Controller Manager. Setting the use-service-account-credential value lowers the attack surface by generating unique service accounts settings for each controller instance.

Check Content

Ensure use-service-account-credentials argument is set correctly. Run this command on the RKE2 Control Plane: /bin/ps -ef | grep kube-controller-manager | grep -v grep If --use-service-account-credentials argument is not set to "true" or is not configured, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Edit the RKE2 Configuration File /etc/rancher/rke2/config.yaml on the RKE2 Control Plane and set the following "kube-controller-manager-arg" argument: - use-service-account-credentials=true Once the configuration file is updated, restart the RKE2 Server. Run the command: systemctl restart rke2-server

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-254554r960768_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-254554

Group Title: SRG-APP-000023-CTR-000055

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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