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Ensure that the API server is configured to only use strong cryptographic ciphers.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

  • CIS Kubernetes

Triage and Remediation

Remediation

Manual Steps

  1. On every control plane node, back up the API server manifest before editing:
  2. Edit the manifest on every control plane node:
    Locate the command: or - kube-apiserver args list and either add or replace the existing --tls-cipher-suites argument with a single, comma-separated value line like this (each item exactly as shown, no spaces):
  3. Save the file and exit the editor. The kubelet will automatically detect the manifest change and restart the kube-apiserver static pod; expect a brief control-plane disruption while it restarts.
  4. Wait for the kube-apiserver pod to become Ready again (on any machine with kubectl access):
  5. On every control plane node, verify the running process has the correct cipher suites configured:
kubectl cannot modify the kube-apiserver static pod manifest or its process flags, so this finding cannot be remediated through the Kubernetes API. To fix it, you must edit /etc/kubernetes/manifests/kube-apiserver.yaml directly on every control plane node as described in the Manual Steps section.

Additional Reading: