More Info:
Ensure that the kubelet service file ownership is set to root:root.Risk Level
LowAddress
SecurityCompliance Standards
- CIS Kubernetes
Triage and Remediation
- Remediation
Remediation
Manual Steps
Manual Steps
-
On every worker node, confirm the kubelet drop-in file exists and see its current ownership:
If you see
No such file or directory, this check is not applicable on that node. -
On every worker node where the file exists, change its ownership to root:root:
-
(Optional but recommended) Reload systemd metadata on every worker node so it sees any permission changes:
-
Verify on every worker node that the ownership is now correctly set to root:root:
The command must output:
Using kubectl
Using kubectl
kubectl cannot modify host-level systemd unit files such as
/etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service.d/10-kubeadm.conf on worker nodes. To remediate this finding, you must change file ownership directly on each worker node’s OS; see the Manual Steps section for the exact commands.Automation
Automation
- Copy this script to each worker node, e.g.
/root/fix-kubelet-ownership.sh. - On each worker node, run:
- Optionally, re-run the audit command on each worker node:

