Kubernetes Anonymous API Access Detected

Status: Experimental
Severity: informational
Group by: userAgent
Entities: ip_addresses, usernames
Log types: Amazon.EKS.Audit, Azure.MonitorActivity, GCP.AuditLog
Tags: Kubernetes, Security Control, API, Initial Access, Unified Detection
Reference: https://raesene.github.io/blog/2023/03/18/lets-talk-about-anonymous-access-to-Kubernetes/
Source: github.com/panther-labs/panther-analysis

This rule detects anonymous API requests made to Kubernetes API servers across AWS EKS, Azure AKS, and GCP GKE clusters. In production environments, anonymous access should be disabled to prevent unauthorized access to the API server.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Initial Access	`T1190` Exploit Public-Facing Application

Rule body yaml

AnalysisType: rule
Filename: k8s_anonymous_api_access.py
RuleID: "Kubernetes.API.AnonymousAccess"
DisplayName: "Kubernetes Anonymous API Access Detected"
Enabled: true
Status: Experimental
LogTypes:
  - Amazon.EKS.Audit
  - Azure.MonitorActivity
  - GCP.AuditLog
Severity: Info
Reports:
  MITRE ATT&CK:
    - TA0001:T1190 # Initial Access: Exploit Public-Facing Application
Description: >
  This rule detects anonymous API requests made to Kubernetes API servers across
  AWS EKS, Azure AKS, and GCP GKE clusters. In production environments, anonymous
  access should be disabled to prevent unauthorized access to the API server.
DedupPeriodMinutes: 60
Reference:
  https://raesene.github.io/blog/2023/03/18/lets-talk-about-anonymous-access-to-Kubernetes/
Runbook: |
  1. Query all API requests by the anonymous username (system:anonymous) in the 24 hours before and after the alert to identify scope of unauthorized access
  2. Check if the sourceIPs field contains internal, cloud provider, or external addresses to determine access vector
  3. Review other authentication attempts from the same sourceIPs in the past 7 days to identify related suspicious activity
SummaryAttributes:
  - username
  - p_any_ip_addresses
  - p_source_label
Tags:
  - Kubernetes
  - Security Control
  - API
  - Initial Access
  - Unified Detection
Tests:
  - Name: EKS Anonymous API Access
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "annotations": {
          "authorization.k8s.io/decision": "allow",
          "authorization.k8s.io/reason": "RBAC: allowed by ClusterRoleBinding system:public-info-viewer"
        },
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "auditID": "abcde12345",
        "kind": "Event",
        "level": "Request",
        "objectRef": {
          "apiVersion": "v1",
          "name": "test-pod",
          "namespace": "default",
          "resource": "pods"
        },
        "p_any_ip_addresses": ["8.8.8.8"],
        "p_any_usernames": ["system:anonymous"],
        "p_event_time": "2022-11-29 00:09:04.38",
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit",
        "p_source_label": "example-cluster-eks-logs",
        "requestReceivedTimestamp": "2022-11-29 00:09:04.38",
        "requestURI": "/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-pod",
        "responseStatus": {"code": 200},
        "sourceIPs": ["8.8.8.8"],
        "stage": "ResponseComplete",
        "user": {"username": "system:anonymous"},
        "userAgent": "kubectl/v1.25.4"
      }
  - Name: AKS Anonymous API Access
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "p_log_type": "Azure.MonitorActivity",
        "category": "kube-audit",
        "operationName": "Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/diagnosticLogs/Read",
        "resourceId": "/subscriptions/xxx/resourceGroups/rg/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/cluster",
        "properties": {
          "log": "{\"kind\":\"Event\",\"apiVersion\":\"audit.k8s.io/v1\",\"level\":\"Request\",\"auditID\":\"abc-123\",\"stage\":\"ResponseComplete\",\"requestURI\":\"/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-pod\",\"verb\":\"get\",\"user\":{\"username\":\"system:anonymous\",\"groups\":[\"system:unauthenticated\"]},\"sourceIPs\":[\"10.0.0.1\"],\"userAgent\":\"kubectl/v1.28.0\",\"objectRef\":{\"resource\":\"pods\",\"namespace\":\"default\",\"name\":\"test-pod\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\"},\"responseStatus\":{\"code\":200},\"annotations\":{\"authorization.k8s.io/decision\":\"allow\"}}"
        },
        "p_any_ip_addresses": ["10.0.0.1"],
        "p_any_usernames": ["system:anonymous"],
        "p_source_label": "azure-aks-cluster",
        "p_event_time": "2024-03-20 10:00:00.000"
      }
  - Name: GCP GKE Anonymous API Access
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "protoPayload": {
          "authenticationInfo": {"authoritySelector": "system:anonymous"},
          "authorizationInfo": [{
            "granted": true,
            "permission": "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.get",
            "resource": "core/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-pod"
          }],
          "methodName": "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.get",
          "requestMetadata": {
            "callerIP": "8.8.8.8",
            "callerSuppliedUserAgent": "kubectl/v1.27.0"
          },
          "resourceName": "core/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-pod",
          "serviceName": "k8s.io"
        },
        "resource": {
          "type": "k8s_cluster",
          "labels": {"project_id": "test-project"}
        },
        "p_log_type": "GCP.AuditLog",
        "p_any_ip_addresses": ["8.8.8.8"],
        "p_any_usernames": ["system:anonymous"],
        "p_source_label": "gcp-gke-cluster"
      }
  - Name: Non-Anonymous API Access
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "annotations": {
          "authorization.k8s.io/decision": "allow",
          "authorization.k8s.io/reason": "RBAC: allowed by ClusterRoleBinding"
        },
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "auditID": "abcde12345",
        "kind": "Event",
        "level": "Request",
        "objectRef": {
          "apiVersion": "v1",
          "name": "test-pod",
          "namespace": "default",
          "resource": "pods"
        },
        "p_any_ip_addresses": ["8.8.8.8"],
        "p_any_usernames": ["kubernetes-admin"],
        "p_event_time": "2022-11-29 00:09:04.38",
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit",
        "p_source_label": "example-cluster-eks-logs",
        "requestURI": "/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-pod",
        "responseStatus": {"code": 200},
        "sourceIPs": ["8.8.8.8"],
        "stage": "ResponseComplete",
        "user": {"username": "kubernetes-admin"},
        "userAgent": "kubectl/v1.25.4"
      }
  - Name: Localhost Access
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "kind": "Event",
        "sourceIPs": ["127.0.0.1"],
        "user": {"username": "system:anonymous"},
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit"
      }
  - Name: ELB Health Checker (excluded)
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "kind": "Event",
        "sourceIPs": ["10.0.1.100"],
        "user": {"username": "system:anonymous"},
        "userAgent": "ELB-HealthChecker/2.0",
        "requestURI": "/healthz",
        "responseStatus": {"code": 200},
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit"
      }
  - Name: kube-probe Health Check (excluded)
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "kind": "Event",
        "sourceIPs": ["10.128.0.1"],
        "user": {"username": "system:anonymous"},
        "userAgent": "kube-probe/1.28",
        "requestURI": "/healthz",
        "responseStatus": {"code": 200},
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit"
      }
  - Name: Google Load Balancer Health Check (excluded)
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "protoPayload": {
          "authenticationInfo": {"authoritySelector": "system:anonymous"},
          "methodName": "io.k8s.core.v1.componentstatuses.list",
          "requestMetadata": {
            "callerIP": "35.191.0.1",
            "callerSuppliedUserAgent": "GoogleHC/1.0"
          },
          "serviceName": "k8s.io"
        },
        "resource": {"type": "k8s_cluster"},
        "p_log_type": "GCP.AuditLog"
      }

Detection logic

Condition

username eq "system:anonymous"
not ((userAgent eq "ELB-HealthChecker/2.0" and sourceIPs is_not_null) or userAgent starts_with "kube-probe/" or userAgent starts_with "GoogleHC/")
not (requestURI starts_with "/healthz" or requestURI starts_with "/readyz" or requestURI starts_with "/livez" or requestURI starts_with "/apis/healthz" or requestURI starts_with "/apis/readyz" or requestURI starts_with "/apis/livez")

This rule also runs imperative logic the parser cannot express as a filter; the conditions above are the structured part it could extract.

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

Field	Kind	Excluded values
`sourceIPs`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)
`userAgent`	eq	`ELB-HealthChecker/2.0`
`userAgent`	starts_with	`GoogleHC/`
`userAgent`	starts_with	`kube-probe/`
`requestURI`	starts_with	`/apis/healthz`
`requestURI`	starts_with	`/apis/livez`
`requestURI`	starts_with	`/apis/readyz`
`requestURI`	starts_with	`/healthz`
`requestURI`	starts_with	`/livez`
`requestURI`	starts_with	`/readyz`

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`username`	eq	`system:anonymous`

Output fields

Fields the rule emits when it matches. Chronicle authors list these in the outcome block; they appear on the detection and $risk_score drives alerting. Sentinel / Defender XDR rules build them up through project / summarize / extend stages. Sentinel maps these into alert fields via entityMappings and customDetails; Defender XDR custom detections surface them as alert fields directly.

Field	Source
`username`
`sourceIPs`
`userAgent`
`namespace`
`verb`
`resource`
`requestURI`
`responseStatus`
`cluster`	`p_source_label`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)