Skip to main content

More Info:

The kubelet configuration file should be owned by root:root to ensure that only the root user can read or modify it. Incorrect ownership could allow unauthorized users to tamper with kubelet configuration.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

  • CIS GKE

Triage and Remediation

Remediation

Manual Steps

  1. On every worker node, SSH in and check the current ownership of the kubelet config file:
  2. On every worker node, change the file ownership to root:root:
  3. (Optional but recommended) Ensure root is the only user with write access:
  4. On every worker node, verify the ownership is now correct:
    Expected output:
kubectl cannot modify file ownership on nodes, so this finding cannot be fixed via the Kubernetes API. To remediate, you must change the ownership of /home/kubernetes/kubelet-config.yaml directly on every worker node’s host OS; see the Manual Steps section for the exact commands.