More Info:
When makeIPTablesUtilChains is true, the kubelet manages the iptables utility chains needed for correct pod networking and traffic filtering on the node.Risk Level
MediumAddress
SecurityCompliance Standards
- CIS EKS
Triage and Remediation
- Remediation
Remediation
Manual Steps
Manual Steps
-
On every worker node, open the kubelet config file and set
makeIPTablesUtilChainsto true:If your environment instead uses/etc/kubernetes/kubelet/kubelet-config.json, edit that file: -
On every worker node, ensure the systemd drop-in does not override this setting:
-
On every worker node, reload systemd and restart kubelet (this restarts the kubelet and may briefly disrupt workloads on that node):
-
From any machine with
kubectlaccess, optionally verify the live kubelet config via the configz endpoint for a given worker node: -
On every worker node, confirm the running kubelet process is not passing a conflicting
--make-iptables-util-chainsflag:Ensure the command line either omits--make-iptables-util-chains(so the config file value is used) or, if present, has it set totrue.
Using kubectl
Using kubectl
kubectl cannot modify the kubelet’s host-level configuration or process flags, including
makeIPTablesUtilChains. This finding must be remediated directly on each worker node by editing the kubelet config and/or systemd unit files as described in the Manual Steps section.Automation
Automation

