More Info:
Ensure that the kubelet.conf file ownership is set to root:root.Risk Level
LowAddress
SecurityCompliance Standards
- APRA CPS 234 (Australia)
- BSI C5 (Germany)
- Brazil LGPD
- CCPA / CPRA (California)
- CIS Critical Security Controls v8
- CIS EKS
- CMMC 2.0
- CSA Cloud Controls Matrix v4
- DPDPA
- Digital Operational Resilience Act (EU)
- Essential 8
- ISO/IEC 27017
- ISO/IEC 27018
- ISO/IEC 27701
- KSA PDPL
- MAS Technology Risk Management (Singapore)
- MITRE ATT&CK (Cloud)
- NIS2 Directive
- NIST SP 800-171
- NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500
- SWIFT Customer Security Controls Framework
- Sarbanes-Oxley IT General Controls
- UK NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework
Triage and Remediation
- Remediation
Remediation
Manual Steps
Manual Steps
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On every worker node, confirm the kubelet kubeconfig file exists and check its current ownership:
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On every worker node, change ownership of the kubelet kubeconfig file to root:root:
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(Optional, if permissions also need tightening) On every worker node, restrict permissions to read/write for root only:
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On every worker node, verify the ownership is now correct:
The output must be:
Using kubectl
Using kubectl
kubectl cannot modify file ownership on worker node filesystems, including
/etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf. This finding must be fixed directly on each worker node via host-level commands; see the Manual Steps section for the exact steps and verification commands.Automation
Automation

