No RoleBinding Should Grant Access To Anonymous Or Unauthenticated Users

Manual Steps

On any machine with kubectl access, list all RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings that target system:anonymous or system:unauthenticated and review them to understand what they grant and whether they are truly needed:

kubectl get rolebindings,clusterrolebindings --all-namespaces -o json | jq -r '
  [ .items[]
    | .kind as $kind | .apiVersion as $api | .metadata as $m
    | ((.subjects // [])[] | select(.name == "system:anonymous" or .name == "system:unauthenticated"))
    | "kind=\($kind)"
      + (if ($m.namespace // "") == "" then "" else " ns=\($m.namespace)" end)
      + " name=\($m.name) uid=\($m.uid)"
      + (if ($api // "") == "" then "" else " apiVersion=\($api)" end)
      + (if ($m.creationTimestamp // "") == "" then "" else " created=\($m.creationTimestamp)" end)
      + " subject=\(.name) is_compliant=false"
  ] as $rows
  | if ($rows | length) == 0 then "is_compliant=true" else $rows[] end'

For each listed binding, fetch the full YAML and record it (for rollback or to recreate with a safer subject such as a specific Group, User, or ServiceAccount):

# Example for a namespaced RoleBinding
kubectl get rolebinding <ROLEBINDING_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE> -o yaml > /tmp/<ROLEBINDING_NAME>.yaml

# Example for a ClusterRoleBinding
kubectl get clusterrolebinding <CLUSTERROLEBINDING_NAME> -o yaml > /tmp/<CLUSTERROLEBINDING_NAME>.yaml

Decide whether each binding can simply be deleted (preferred), or whether you must instead rebind the same Role/ClusterRole to an authenticated subject (e.g., a specific service account or group). Document the chosen replacement subject for each binding that must be preserved.

On any machine with kubectl access, delete each RoleBinding or ClusterRoleBinding whose subject is system:anonymous or system:unauthenticated:

# Namespaced RoleBinding
kubectl delete rolebinding <ROLEBINDING_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE>

# ClusterRoleBinding
kubectl delete clusterrolebinding <CLUSTERROLEBINDING_NAME>

If you need to preserve the permission but for an authenticated subject, recreate an equivalent binding that omits system:anonymous / system:unauthenticated and uses your chosen subject instead. For example:

cat << 'EOF' | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: <NEW_ROLEBINDING_NAME>
  namespace: <NAMESPACE>
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: <EXISTING_ROLE_NAME>
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: <SERVICEACCOUNT_NAME>
  namespace: <NAMESPACE>
EOF

Verification (on any machine with kubectl access): rerun the audit command and confirm that it returns only the compliance sentinel and no bindings with system:anonymous or system:unauthenticated:

kubectl get rolebindings,clusterrolebindings --all-namespaces -o json | jq -r '
  [ .items[]
    | .kind as $kind | .apiVersion as $api | .metadata as $m
    | ((.subjects // [])[] | select(.name == "system:anonymous" or .name == "system:unauthenticated"))
    | "kind=\($kind)"
      + (if ($m.namespace // "") == "" then "" else " ns=\($m.namespace)" end)
      + " name=\($m.name) uid=\($m.uid)"
      + (if ($api // "") == "" then "" else " apiVersion=\($api)" end)
      + (if ($m.creationTimestamp // "") == "" then "" else " created=\($m.creationTimestamp)" end)
      + " subject=\(.name) is_compliant=false"
  ] as $rows
  | if ($rows | length) == 0 then "is_compliant=true" else $rows[] end'

Using kubectl

On any machine with kubectl access to the cluster:

List offending RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings (review before deleting):

kubectl get rolebindings,clusterrolebindings --all-namespaces -o wide \
  | grep -E 'system:anonymous|system:unauthenticated' || true

For each violating RoleBinding, delete it. Example commands (replace with the actual names/namespaces you saw):

# Example RoleBindings
kubectl delete rolebinding rb-anon-access -n default
kubectl delete rolebinding rb-unauthenticated-view -n kube-system

# Example ClusterRoleBindings
kubectl delete clusterrolebinding crb-anon-access
kubectl delete clusterrolebinding crb-unauthenticated-view

If you manage these via manifests (GitOps/IaC), also remove the corresponding RoleBinding or ClusterRoleBinding objects (those whose subjects have name: system:anonymous or name: system:unauthenticated) from your declarative configuration and apply:

kubectl apply -f <your-updated-manifests>.yaml

Verification (same command as the audit):

kubectl get rolebindings,clusterrolebindings --all-namespaces -o json | jq -r '
  [ .items[]
    | .kind as $kind | .apiVersion as $api | .metadata as $m
    | ((.subjects // [])[] | select(.name == "system:anonymous" or .name == "system:unauthenticated"))
    | "kind=\($kind)"
      + (if ($m.namespace // "") == "" then "" else " ns=\($m.namespace)" end)
      + " name=\($m.name) uid=\($m.uid)"
      + (if ($api // "") == "" then "" else " apiVersion=\($api)" end)
      + (if ($m.creationTimestamp // "") == "" then "" else " created=\($m.creationTimestamp)" end)
      + " subject=\(.name) is_compliant=false"
  ] as $rows
  | if ($rows | length) == 0 then "is_compliant=true" else $rows[] end'

Automation

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Remove any RoleBinding or ClusterRoleBinding that grants access
# to system:anonymous or system:unauthenticated.
#
# Run on: any machine with kubectl access and current context set.
# Idempotent: safe to re-run; only currently offending bindings are deleted.

set -euo pipefail

# Fail fast if kubectl or jq are missing
command -v kubectl >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "kubectl not found in PATH" >&2; exit 1; }
command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "jq not found in PATH" >&2; exit 1; }

echo "Discovering RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings that target system:anonymous or system:unauthenticated..."

# Get offending RoleBindings
mapfile -t RB_TO_DELETE < <(
  kubectl get rolebindings --all-namespaces -o json \
  | jq -r '
      .items[]
      | select((.subjects // [])[]?.name == "system:anonymous"
               or (.subjects // [])[]?.name == "system:unauthenticated")
      | "\(.metadata.namespace),\(.metadata.name)"
    ' \
  | sort -u
)

# Get offending ClusterRoleBindings
mapfile -t CRB_TO_DELETE < <(
  kubectl get clusterrolebindings -o json \
  | jq -r '
      .items[]
      | select((.subjects // [])[]?.name == "system:anonymous"
               or (.subjects // [])[]?.name == "system:unauthenticated")
      | .metadata.name
    ' \
  | sort -u
)

if [[ ${#RB_TO_DELETE[@]} -eq 0 && ${#CRB_TO_DELETE[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
  echo "No offending RoleBindings or ClusterRoleBindings found."
else
  echo "Deleting offending RoleBindings..."
  for entry in "${RB_TO_DELETE[@]}"; do
    ns="${entry%%,*}"
    name="${entry##*,}"
    if [[ -n "$ns" && -n "$name" ]]; then
      echo "  - Deleting RoleBinding '$name' in namespace '$ns'"
      kubectl delete rolebinding "$name" -n "$ns" --ignore-not-found
    fi
  done

  echo "Deleting offending ClusterRoleBindings..."
  for name in "${CRB_TO_DELETE[@]}"; do
    if [[ -n "$name" ]]; then
      echo "  - Deleting ClusterRoleBinding '$name'"
      kubectl delete clusterrolebinding "$name" --ignore-not-found
    fi
  done
fi

echo
echo "Verifying compliance..."

kubectl get rolebindings,clusterrolebindings --all-namespaces -o json | jq -r '
  [ .items[]
    | .kind as $kind | .apiVersion as $api | .metadata as $m
    | ((.subjects // [])[] | select(.name == "system:anonymous" or .name == "system:unauthenticated"))
    | "kind=\($kind)"
      + (if ($m.namespace // "") == "" then "" else " ns=\($m.namespace)" end)
      + " name=\($m.name) uid=\($m.uid)"
      + (if ($api // "") == "" then "" else " apiVersion=\($api)" end)
      + (if ($m.creationTimestamp // "") == "" then "" else " created=\($m.creationTimestamp)" end)
      + " subject=\(.name) is_compliant=false"
  ] as $rows
  | if ($rows | length) == 0 then "is_compliant=true" else $rows[] end
'

Kubernetes

Kubernetes Misconfigurations

No RoleBinding Should Grant Access To Anonymous Or Unauthenticated Users

More Info:

Risk Level

Address

Compliance Standards

Triage and Remediation

Remediation

​More Info:

​Risk Level

​Address

​Compliance Standards

​Triage and Remediation

​Remediation