Kubernetes Privileged Pod Created

Severity: high
Group by: username
Compliance: Stratus Red Team k8s.privilege-escalation.privileged-pod
Log types: Amazon.EKS.Audit, Azure.MonitorActivity, GCP.AuditLog
Tags: Kubernetes, Security Control, Privilege Escalation, Unified Detection
Reference: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/security/pod-security-standards/#restricted
Source: github.com/panther-labs/panther-analysis

Detects creation of privileged pods across Kubernetes clusters. Privileged pods have full access to the host's namespace and devices, have the ability to exploit the kernel, have dangerous linux capabilities, and can be a powerful launching point for further attacks. In the event of a successful container escape where a user is operating with root privileges, the attacker retains this role on the node.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1548.003` Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Sudo and Sudo Caching

Rule body yaml

AnalysisType: rule
RuleID: "Kubernetes.Pod.Privileged.Created"
DisplayName: "Kubernetes Privileged Pod Created"
Enabled: true
Filename: k8s_privileged_pod_created.py
LogTypes:
  - Amazon.EKS.Audit
  - Azure.MonitorActivity
  - GCP.AuditLog
Severity: High
Description: >
  Detects creation of privileged pods across Kubernetes clusters. Privileged pods have full access
  to the host's namespace and devices, have the ability to exploit the kernel, have dangerous linux
  capabilities, and can be a powerful launching point for further attacks. In the event of a
  successful container escape where a user is operating with root privileges, the attacker retains
  this role on the node.
Runbook: |
  1. Check if the username who created the privileged pod has a history of deploying system infrastructure in the past 90 days
  2. Review all API calls by this username in the 6 hours before the alert to understand context and related activity
  3. Query for other privileged pods created by the same user in the past 30 days to identify if this is an established pattern
Reference: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/security/pod-security-standards/#restricted
Reports:
  Stratus Red Team:
    - k8s.privilege-escalation.privileged-pod
  MITRE ATT&CK:
    - TA0004:T1548.003 # Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Sudo and Sudo Caching
DedupPeriodMinutes: 360
Tags:
  - Kubernetes
  - Security Control
  - Privilege Escalation
  - Unified Detection
Tests:
  - Name: EKS Privileged Pod Created
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "kind": "Event",
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "level": "RequestResponse",
        "auditID": "abc-123",
        "stage": "ResponseComplete",
        "requestURI": "/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods",
        "verb": "create",
        "user": {
          "username": "john.doe@company.com",
          "groups": ["system:authenticated"]
        },
        "sourceIPs": ["1.2.3.4"],
        "userAgent": "kubectl/v1.28.0",
        "objectRef": {
          "resource": "pods",
          "namespace": "default",
          "name": "test-privileged-pod",
          "apiVersion": "v1"
        },
        "responseStatus": {"code": 201},
        "requestObject": {
          "kind": "Pod",
          "apiVersion": "v1",
          "metadata": {"name": "test-privileged-pod", "namespace": "default"},
          "spec": {
            "containers": [{
              "name": "nginx",
              "image": "nginx",
              "securityContext": {"privileged": true}
            }]
          }
        },
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit",
        "p_source_label": "eks-cluster",
        "p_event_time": "2024-02-13 12:45:06.073"
      }
  - Name: AKS Privileged Pod Created
    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\":\"RequestResponse\",\"auditID\":\"abc-123\",\"stage\":\"ResponseComplete\",\"requestURI\":\"/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods\",\"verb\":\"create\",\"user\":{\"username\":\"admin@example.com\",\"groups\":[\"system:authenticated\"]},\"sourceIPs\":[\"10.0.0.1\"],\"userAgent\":\"kubectl/v1.28.0\",\"objectRef\":{\"resource\":\"pods\",\"namespace\":\"default\",\"name\":\"test-pod\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\"},\"responseStatus\":{\"code\":201},\"requestObject\":{\"kind\":\"Pod\",\"apiVersion\":\"v1\",\"metadata\":{\"name\":\"test-pod\"},\"spec\":{\"containers\":[{\"name\":\"nginx\",\"image\":\"nginx\",\"securityContext\":{\"privileged\":true}}]}}}"
        },
        "p_source_label": "aks-cluster",
        "p_event_time": "2024-03-20 10:00:00.000"
      }
  - Name: GCP GKE Privileged Pod Created
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "logName": "projects/test-project/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity",
        "protoPayload": {
          "at_sign_type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog",
          "authenticationInfo": {"principalEmail": "john.doe@company.com"},
          "authorizationInfo": [{
            "granted": true,
            "permission": "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create",
            "resource": "core/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-privileged-pod"
          }],
          "methodName": "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create",
          "request": {
            "@type": "core.k8s.io/v1.Pod",
            "apiVersion": "v1",
            "kind": "Pod",
            "metadata": {"name": "test-privileged-pod", "namespace": "default"},
            "spec": {
              "containers": [{
                "image": "nginx",
                "name": "nginx",
                "securityContext": {"privileged": true}
              }]
            }
          },
          "requestMetadata": {"callerIP": "1.2.3.4"},
          "resourceName": "core/v1/namespaces/default/pods/test-privileged-pod",
          "response": {
            "@type": "core.k8s.io/v1.Pod",
            "spec": {
              "containers": [{
                "image": "nginx",
                "name": "nginx",
                "securityContext": {"privileged": true}
              }]
            }
          },
          "serviceName": "k8s.io",
          "status": {}
        },
        "resource": {
          "labels": {
            "cluster_name": "gke-cluster",
            "project_id": "test-project"
          },
          "type": "k8s_cluster"
        },
        "p_log_type": "GCP.AuditLog",
        "p_source_label": "gke-cluster",
        "timestamp": "2024-02-13 12:45:06.073"
      }
  - Name: Run-As-Root Pod Created
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "kind": "Event",
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "level": "RequestResponse",
        "auditID": "abc-123",
        "stage": "ResponseComplete",
        "requestURI": "/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods",
        "verb": "create",
        "user": {"username": "john.doe@company.com"},
        "sourceIPs": ["1.2.3.4"],
        "objectRef": {
          "resource": "pods",
          "namespace": "default",
          "name": "test-pod",
          "apiVersion": "v1"
        },
        "responseStatus": {"code": 201},
        "requestObject": {
          "kind": "Pod",
          "spec": {
            "containers": [{
              "name": "nginx",
              "image": "nginx",
              "securityContext": {"runAsNonRoot": false}
            }]
          }
        },
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit",
        "p_source_label": "eks-cluster"
      }
  - Name: Pod with runAsUser=0 (root)
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "kind": "Event",
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "verb": "create",
        "user": {"username": "developer@company.com"},
        "sourceIPs": ["1.2.3.4"],
        "objectRef": {
          "resource": "pods",
          "namespace": "default",
          "name": "root-user-pod",
          "apiVersion": "v1"
        },
        "responseStatus": {"code": 201},
        "requestObject": {
          "kind": "Pod",
          "spec": {
            "containers": [{
              "name": "nginx",
              "image": "nginx",
              "securityContext": {"runAsUser": 0}
            }]
          }
        },
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit",
        "p_source_label": "eks-cluster"
      }
  - Name: Non-Privileged Pod Created
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "kind": "Event",
        "apiVersion": "audit.k8s.io/v1",
        "verb": "create",
        "user": {"username": "john.doe@company.com"},
        "sourceIPs": ["1.2.3.4"],
        "objectRef": {
          "resource": "pods",
          "namespace": "default",
          "name": "test-pod"
        },
        "responseStatus": {"code": 201},
        "requestObject": {
          "kind": "Pod",
          "spec": {
            "containers": [{
              "name": "nginx",
              "image": "nginx",
              "securityContext": {}
            }]
          }
        },
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit"
      }
  - Name: Error Creating Pod
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "kind": "Event",
        "verb": "create",
        "objectRef": {"resource": "pods", "namespace": "default"},
        "responseStatus": {"code": 409, "status": "Failure"},
        "requestObject": {
          "kind": "Pod",
          "spec": {
            "containers": [{
              "name": "nginx",
              "securityContext": {"privileged": true}
            }]
          }
        },
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit"
      }
  - Name: Privileged Pod in System Namespace (Excluded)
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "kind": "Event",
        "verb": "create",
        "user": {"username": "system:serviceaccount:kube-system:deployment-controller"},
        "objectRef": {
          "resource": "pods",
          "namespace": "kube-system",
          "name": "network-agent"
        },
        "responseStatus": {"code": 201},
        "requestObject": {
          "kind": "Pod",
          "spec": {
            "containers": [{
              "name": "agent",
              "securityContext": {"privileged": true}
            }]
          }
        },
        "p_log_type": "Amazon.EKS.Audit"
      }

Detection logic

Condition

not (verb ne "create" or resource ne "pods")
not (responseStatus is_not_null and (responseStatus.code ge "400" or (responseStatus.code ge "1" and responseStatus.code le "16")))
not (username is_not_null and (username in ["masterclient", "aksService"] or (username starts_with "system:" and username not contains "serviceaccount")) and namespace is_not_null and namespace in ["kube-system", "gke-system", "kube-node-lease", "kube-public"])
containers is_not_null

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
`username`	contains	`serviceaccount`
`username`	starts_with	`system:`
`username`	in	`aksService`, `masterclient`
`namespace`	in	`gke-system`, `kube-node-lease`, `kube-public`, `kube-system`
`namespace`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)
`username`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)
`responseStatus.code`	ge	`1`
`responseStatus.code`	le	`16`
`responseStatus.code`	ge	`400`
`responseStatus`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)
`resource`	ne	`pods`
`verb`	ne	`create`

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
`containers`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)
`username`	contains	`serviceaccount`

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)