Protect your Kubernetes workloads
This page describes how to use Azure Security Center's set of security recommendations dedicated to Kubernetes workload protection.
Learn more about these features in Workload protection best-practices using Kubernetes admission control
Security Center offers more container security features if you enable Azure Defender. Specifically:
- Scan your container registries for vulnerabilities with Azure Defender for container registries
- Get real-time threat detection alerts for your K8s clusters Azure Defender for Kubernetes
Tip
For a list of all security recommendations that might appear for Kubernetes clusters and nodes, see the compute section of the recommendations reference table.
Availability
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Release state: | General Availability (GA) |
| Pricing: | Free |
| Required roles and permissions: | Owner or Security admin to edit an assignment Reader to view the recommendations |
| Environment requirements: | Kubernetes v1.14 (or higher) is required No PodSecurityPolicy resource (old PSP model) on the clusters Windows nodes are not supported |
| Clouds: |  Commercial clouds National/Sovereign (US Gov, China Gov, Other Gov) |
Set up your workload protection
Azure Security Center includes a bundle of recommendations that are available when you've installed the Azure Policy add-on for Kubernetes.
Step 1: Deploy the add-on
To configure the recommendations, install the Azure Policy add-on for Kubernetes.
You can auto deploy this add-on as explained in Enable auto provisioning of the Log Analytics agent and extensions. When auto provisioning for the add-on is set to "on", the extension is enabled by default in all existing and future clusters (that meet the add-on installation requirements).
To manually deploy the add-on:
From the recommendations page, search for the recommendation "Azure Policy add-on for Kubernetes should be installed and enabled on your clusters".
Tip
The recommendation is included in five different security controls and it doesn't matter which one you select in the next step.
From any of the security controls, select the recommendation to see the resources on which you can install the add-on.
Select the relevant cluster, and Remediate.
Step 2: View and configure the bundle of 13 recommendations
Approximately 30 minutes after the add-on installation completes, Security Center shows the clusters’ health status for the following recommendations, each in the relevant security control as shown:
Tip
Some recommendations have parameters that must be customized via Azure Policy to use them effectively. For example, to benefit from the recommendation Container images should be deployed only from trusted registries, you'll have to define your trusted registries.
If you don't enter the necessary parameters for the recommendations that require configuration, your workloads will be shown as unhealthy.
Recommendation name Security control Configuration required Container CPU and memory limits should be enforced Protect applications against DDoS attack No Privileged containers should be avoided Manage access and permissions No Immutable (read-only) root filesystem should be enforced for containers Manage access and permissions No Container with privilege escalation should be avoided Manage access and permissions No Running containers as root user should be avoided Manage access and permissions No Containers sharing sensitive host namespaces should be avoided Manage access and permissions No Least privileged Linux capabilities should be enforced for containers Manage access and permissions Yes Usage of pod HostPath volume mounts should be restricted to a known list Manage access and permissions Yes Containers should listen on allowed ports only Restrict unauthorized network access Yes Services should listen on allowed ports only Restrict unauthorized network access Yes Usage of host networking and ports should be restricted Restrict unauthorized network access Yes Overriding or disabling of containers AppArmor profile should be restricted Remediate security configurations Yes Container images should be deployed only from trusted registries Remediate vulnerabilities Yes For the recommendations with parameters must be customized, set the parameters:
- From Security Center's menu, select Security policy.
- Select the relevant subscription.
- From the Security Center default policy section, select View effective policy.
- Select "ASC Default".
- Open the Parameters tab and modify the values as required.
- Select Review + save.
- Select Save.
To enforce any of the recommendations,
Open the recommendation details page and select Deny:
This will open the pane where you set the scope.
When you've set the scope, select Change to deny.
To see which recommendations apply to your clusters:
Open Security Center's asset inventory page and use the resource type filter to Kubernetes services.
Select a cluster to investigate and review the available recommendations available for it.
When viewing a recommendation from the workload protection set, you'll see the number of affected pods ("Kubernetes components") listed alongside the cluster. For a list of the specific pods, select the cluster and then select Take action.
To test the enforcement, use the two Kubernetes deployments below:
- One is for a healthy deployment, compliant with the bundle of workload protection recommendations.
- The other is for an unhealthy deployment, non-compliant with any of the recommendations.
Deploy the example .yaml files as-is, or use them as a reference to remediate your own workload (step VIII)
Healthy deployment example .yaml file
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: redis-healthy-deployment
labels:
app: redis
spec:
replicas: 3
selector:
matchLabels:
app: redis
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: redis
annotations:
apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io/pod: runtime/default
container.apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io/redis: runtime/default
spec:
containers:
- name: redis
image: healthyClusterRegistry.azurecr.io/redis:latest
ports:
- containerPort: 80
resources:
limits:
cpu: 100m
memory: 250Mi
securityContext:
privileged: false
readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
runAsNonRoot: true
runAsUser: 1000
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: redis-healthy-service
spec:
type: LoadBalancer
selector:
app: redis
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
Unhealthy deployment example .yaml file
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx-unhealthy-deployment
labels:
app: nginx
spec:
replicas: 3
selector:
matchLabels:
app: nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: nginx
spec:
hostNetwork: true
hostPID: true
hostIPC: true
containers:
- name: nginx
image: nginx:1.15.2
ports:
- containerPort: 9001
hostPort: 9001
securityContext:
privileged: true
readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
allowPrivilegeEscalation: true
runAsUser: 0
capabilities:
add:
- NET_ADMIN
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /test-pd
name: test-volume
readOnly: true
volumes:
- name: test-volume
hostPath:
# directory location on host
path: /tmp
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: nginx-unhealthy-service
spec:
type: LoadBalancer
selector:
app: nginx
ports:
- port: 6001
targetPort: 9001
Next steps
In this article, you learned how to configure Kubernetes workload protection.
For other related material, see the following pages: