[](https://microbadger.com/images/aquasec/kube-bench "Get your own image badge on microbadger.com")
kube-bench is a Go application that checks whether Kubernetes is deployed securely by running the checks documented in the [CIS Kubernetes Benchmark](https://www.cisecurity.org/benchmark/kubernetes/).
Note that it is impossible to inspect the master nodes of managed clusters, e.g. GKE, EKS and AKS, using kube-bench as one does not have access to such nodes, although it is still possible to use kube-bench to check worker node configuration in these environments.
There is also preliminary support for Red Hat's OpenShift Hardening Guide for 3.10 and 3.11. Please note that kube-bench does not automatically detect OpenShift - see below.
`kube-bench` will map the `--version` to the corresponding CIS Benchmark version as indicated by the mapping table above. For example, if you specify `--version 1.13`, this is mapped to CIS Benchmark version `cis-1.14`.
You can avoid installing kube-bench on the host by running it inside a container using the host PID namespace and mounting the `/etc` and `/var` directories where the configuration and other files are located on the host so that kube-bench can check their existence and permissions.
> Note: the tests require either the kubelet or kubectl binary in the path in order to auto-detect the Kubernetes version. You can pass `-v $(which kubectl):/usr/bin/kubectl` to resolve this. You will also need to pass in kubeconfig credentials. For example:
You can run kube-bench inside a pod, but it will need access to the host's PID namespace in order to check the running processes, as well as access to some directories on the host where config files and other files are stored.
The detection is done by verifying that mandatory components for master, as defined in the config files, are running (see [Configuration](#configuration)).
The default labels applied to master nodes has changed since Kubernetes 1.11, so if you are using an older version you may need to modify the nodeSelector and tolerations to run the job on the master node.
There is a `job-eks.yaml` file for running the kube-bench node checks on an EKS cluster. **Note that you must update the image reference in `job-eks.yaml`.** Typically you will push the container image for kube-bench to ECR and refer to it there in the YAML file.
There are two significant differences on EKS:
* It uses [config files in JSON format](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/kubelet-config-file/)
* It's not possible to schedule jobs onto the master node, so master checks can't be performed
If Go is installed on the target machines, you can simply clone this repository and run as follows (assuming your [`GOPATH` is set](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/GOPATH)):
kube-bench includes a set of test files for Red Hat's OpenShift hardening guide for OCP 3.10 and 3.11. To run this you will need to specify `--benchmark rh-07`, or `--version ocp-3.10` or `--version ocp-3.11`
when you run the `kube-bench` command (either directly or through YAML).
- If the test is Manual, this always generates WARN (because the user has to run it manually)
- If the test is Scored, and kube-bench was unable to run the test, this generates FAIL (because the test has not been passed, and as a Scored test, if it doesn't pass then it must be considered a failure).
- If the test is Not Scored, and kube-bench was unable to run the test, this generates WARN.
- If the test is Scored, type is empty, and there are no `test_items` present, it generates a WARN.
Kubernetes configuration and binary file locations and names can vary from installation to installation, so these are configurable in the `cfg/config.yaml` file.
The tests (or "controls") are represented as YAML documents (installed by default into `./cfg`). There are different versions of these test YAML files reflecting different versions of the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark. You will find more information about the test file YAML definitions in our [documentation](docs/README.md).
If you decide that a recommendation is not appropriate for your environment, you can choose to omit it by editing the test YAML file to give it the check type `skip` as in this example:
```yaml
checks:
- id: 2.1.1
text: "Ensure that the --allow-privileged argument is set to false (Scored)"
type: "skip"
scored: true
```
No tests will be run for this check and the output will be marked [INFO].
Going forward we plan to release updates to kube-bench to add support for new releases of the Benchmark, which in turn we can anticipate being made for each new Kubernetes release.
Our makefile contains targets to test your current version of kube-bench inside a [Kind](https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/) cluster. This can be very handy if you don't want to run a real Kubernetes cluster for development purposes.
First, you'll need to create the cluster using `make kind-test-cluster` this will create a new cluster if it cannot be found on your machine. By default, the cluster is named `kube-bench` but you can change the name by using the environment variable `KIND_PROFILE`.
Next, you'll have to build the kube-bench docker image using `make build-docker`, then we will be able to push the docker image to the cluster using `make kind-push`.
Finally, we can use the `make kind-run` target to run the current version of kube-bench in the cluster and follow the logs of pods created. (Ctrl+C to exit)
Every time you want to test a change, you'll need to rebuild the docker image and push it to cluster before running it again. ( `make build-docker kind-push kind-run` )
- If you would like to include a technical design for your feature please feel free to do so.
### Pull Requests
We welcome pull requests!
- Your PR is more likely to be accepted if it focuses on just one change.
- Please include a comment with the results before and after your change.
- Your PR is more likely to be accepted if it includes tests. (We have not historically been very strict about tests, but we would like to improve this!).
- You're welcome to submit a draft PR if you would like early feedback on an idea or an approach.
