More Info:
Disable anonymous requests to the Kubelet server.Risk Level
HighAddress
SecurityCompliance Standards
- APRA CPS 234 (Australia)
- BSI C5 (Germany)
- Brazil LGPD
- CCPA / CPRA (California)
- CIS Critical Security Controls v8
- CIS GKE
- 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
-
Check current Kubelet configuration (every worker node)
-
Edit the Kubelet config file to disable anonymous auth (every worker node)
Open the file:In theauthenticationsection, ensure it looks like this (add or modify as needed):Save and exit. -
If the node is using Kubelet flags, ensure the flag is set (every worker node, if applicable)
In the
KUBELET_SYSTEM_PODS_ARGS(or equivalent) line, add or ensure:Save and exit. -
Reload systemd and restart kubelet (every worker node)
-
Verify kubelet is running with anonymous auth disabled (every worker node)
Confirm either the config file has
authentication: anonymous: enabled: falseor the kubelet process includes--anonymous-auth=false.
Using kubectl
Using kubectl
Using kubectl cannot modify the kubelet’s
--anonymous-auth setting or the /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml file on worker nodes; this must be fixed directly on each node’s host configuration (systemd unit and/or kubelet config file). See the Manual Steps section for the required on-node changes and how to restart kubelet safely.Automation
Automation

