More Info:
Setting the kubelet authorization mode to AlwaysAllow permits every authenticated request without checking permissions. Use Webhook mode so requests are authorized against the API server.Risk Level
CriticalAddress
SecurityCompliance Standards
- CIS EKS
Triage and Remediation
- Remediation
Remediation
Manual Steps
Manual Steps
-
On every worker node, confirm how kubelet is configured and where its config file is:
- If you see
--config=/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml(or another path), note that path. - If you instead see flags like
--authorization-mode=AlwaysAllowdirectly, follow step 3 (flag-based config).
- If you see
-
If using the kubelet config file (e.g.
/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml), edit it to enable webhook authn/z (YAML form of the benchmark’s JSON example):Ensure these sections exist and are set as follows (add or adjust as needed):Save the file. -
If using executable arguments and you find
--authorization-mode=AlwaysAllowor missing webhook options in the systemd drop-in, edit the kubelet args file:In the line defining extra args (for exampleKUBELET_ARGS=orKUBELET_CONFIG_ARGS=), remove any--authorization-mode=AlwaysAllowand ensure the following flags are present:Save the file. -
Reload systemd configuration and restart kubelet (this will restart the kubelet on this worker node):
-
Confirm kubelet is healthy on the node:
-
Verify that kubelet is no longer using
AlwaysAllowand that Webhook mode is in use:In the output:- You should NOT see
--authorization-mode=AlwaysAllow. - If using flags, you SHOULD see
--authorization-mode=Webhookand--authentication-token-webhook. - If using a config file only, you should still not see
AlwaysAllow, and you have already setauthorization.mode: Webhookin/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml.
- You should NOT see
Using kubectl
Using kubectl
kubectl cannot change the kubelet’s
--authorization-mode or the contents of /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml, because these are host-level settings managed on each worker node’s OS and systemd units. To remediate this finding, make the changes directly on every worker node as described in the Manual Steps section.Automation
Automation

