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Ensure that the admin.conf file ownership is set to root:root.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

  • CIS Kubernetes

Triage and Remediation

Remediation

Manual Steps

  1. On every control plane node, check the current ownership of the admin.conf file:
  2. If the output is not root:root, change the ownership to root:root:
  3. (Optional but recommended) Ensure the file exists and is not world-writable:
  4. Verify the fix on every control plane node using the audit command:
    Confirm the output is:
kubectl cannot modify file ownership on control plane nodes, so it cannot be used to fix /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf. This change must be made directly on each control plane node’s filesystem; see the Manual Steps section for the exact commands to run there.

Additional Reading: