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More Info:

Verifies that the Kubernetes PKI directory and its files are owned by root:root so only privileged users can access the cluster certificates and keys.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

  • CIS Kubernetes

Triage and Remediation

Remediation

Manual Steps

  1. On every control plane node, review current ownership of the PKI directory and its contents:
  2. If any entry is not owned by root:root, correct the ownership of the entire PKI tree:
  3. Re-check for any remaining non-root:root ownership (should return no output):
  4. Verify compliance using the audit-style command:
    Ensure the output contains only:
kubectl cannot change file ownership or permissions on the node filesystem, including /etc/kubernetes/pki/. This finding must be remediated directly on every control plane node via host-level commands; see the Manual Steps section for how to fix and verify the ownership.