Kubernetes Security Essentials Every Engineer Should Know
From pod security standards to network policies and admission control — the security primitives that matter most in production clusters.
Kubernetes is powerful but comes with a complex security surface. Understanding the key security primitives — and configuring them correctly — is essential for running production workloads safely.
Pod Security Standards
Kubernetes pod security standards replace the deprecated PodSecurityPolicies with three profiles: privileged, baseline, and restricted. For production, enforce at least the baseline profile — it disallows privileged containers, host namespace sharing, and other high-risk configurations. Use the restricted profile for security-sensitive workloads.
Network Policies
By default, pods can communicate freely. Network policies let you restrict traffic to only what is needed. Start with a default-deny policy and then add allow rules for required communication. This is one of the most impactful security controls in Kubernetes.
Admission Control
Admission controllers intercept requests to the API server and can validate or mutate them before they are persisted. Use OPA Gatekeeper or Kyverno to enforce policies like requiring resource limits, disallowing latest image tags, and verifying image signatures.
RBAC and Service Accounts
Follow least-privilege for RBAC. Do not use the default service account for your workloads — create dedicated service accounts per workload with minimal permissions. Regularly audit bindings and remove unused access.
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