Skip to main content

More Info:

If kube-proxy is running, and if it is using a file-based kubeconfig file, ensure that the proxy kubeconfig file has permissions of 644 or more restrictive.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

  • CIS GKE

Triage and Remediation

Remediation

Manual Steps

  1. On every worker node, check whether the kube-proxy kubeconfig file exists and view its current permissions:
  2. On every worker node where the file exists, set the permissions to 644 (owner read/write, group read, others read):
  3. (Optional, but recommended) On every worker node, ensure the file is owned by the kube-proxy user and group if applicable in your environment (use the correct user/group if different):
  4. On every worker node, verify the permissions are now 644 or more restrictive:
    Confirm the output shows permissions=644 (or a more restrictive value such as 600).
kubectl cannot modify file permissions or other host-level settings on worker nodes, including /var/lib/kube-proxy/config.conf. This fix must be applied directly on each worker node’s OS; see the Manual Steps section for the exact commands to run over SSH.

Additional Reading: