More Info:
Binary Authorization Helps To Protect Supply-Chain Security By Only Allowing Images With Verifiable Cryptographically Signed Metadata Into The Cluster.Risk Level
MediumAddress
SecurityCompliance Standards
- CIS GKE
Triage and Remediation
- Remediation
Remediation
Manual Steps
Manual Steps
-
Identify current Binary Authorization evaluation mode
- Run on any machine with
gcloudand IAM access to the project: - If the value is
DISABLED, Binary Authorization is not in use for this cluster.
- Run on any machine with
-
List and inspect the Binary Authorization policy in the project
- Check if a project-level policy exists:
- Review the exported YAML to see:
- If
defaultAdmissionRule.enforcementModeisENFORCED_BLOCK_AND_AUDIT_LOGor onlyDRYRUN_AUDIT_LOG_ONLY. - Which images/attestors are enforced or exempted via
clusterAdmissionRulesorimageAllowlist.
- If
- Check if a project-level policy exists:
-
Decide intended enforcement level and scope
- In consultation with your security and application teams, determine:
- Whether you are ready for full enforcement (
PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE) vs audit-only. - Which registries/images must be allowed and which must require attestations.
- Whether you are ready for full enforcement (
- Update the exported policy YAML locally to reflect the desired rules and
enforcementModevalues.
- In consultation with your security and application teams, determine:
-
Apply (import) the updated Binary Authorization policy
- Save the updated policy to a file, for example:
/tmp/binauthz-policy.yaml. - Import it to the project:
- Save the updated policy to a file, for example:
-
Enable Binary Authorization on the GKE cluster
- Choose an evaluation mode consistent with your decision in step 3. Examples:
- Enforce project policy:
- Audit-only (if you are not ready to block yet):
- Enforce project policy:
- Choose an evaluation mode consistent with your decision in step 3. Examples:
-
Verify configuration and observe impact
- Confirm the cluster is using Binary Authorization:
- Optionally, deploy a test workload with an image that should be denied or only audited, and review audit logs in Cloud Logging under Kubernetes Engine and Binary Authorization logs to verify enforcement/audit behavior matches expectations.
- Confirm the cluster is using Binary Authorization:
Using kubectl
Using kubectl
kubectl cannot configure Binary Authorization because it is a GKE control-plane / project-level setting managed via gcloud, the GCP console, or IaC. To enable and configure Binary Authorization, follow the guidance in the Manual Steps section using the Google Cloud tools.
Automation
Automation

