> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/appsec-rules/iac-security/compute/appsec-k8s-2.md).

# Privileged containers are admitted misconfiguration detected in code

## Rule Details

|                        |                                                        |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Cortex AppSec Rule ID  | APPSEC\_K8S\_2                                         |
| Category - Subcategory | Kubernetes - Access Control                            |
| Provider               | OTHER                                                  |
| Severity               | HIGH                                                   |
| Framework              | Helm, Kubernetes, Kustomize, Terraform, Terraform Plan |

## Impact

Privileged containers are containers that have all of the root capabilities of a host machine, allowing access to resources that are not accessible in ordinary containers. Running a container with a privileged flag allows users to have critical access to the host's resources. If a privileged container is compromised, it does not necessarily entail remote code execution, but it implies that an attacker will be able to run full host root with all of the available capabilities, including CAP\_SYS\_ADMIN. Common uses of privileged containers include: running a Docker daemon inside a Docker container, running a container with direct hardware access, and automating CI/CD tasks in the open-source automation server Jenkins.

## How to Fix

*Resource:* PodSecurityPolicy

* *Arguments:* privileged (Optional) When set to false, containers are unable to run processes that are essentially equivalent to root on the host.

To use a **PodSecurityPolicy** resource, the requesting user or target pod's service account must be authorized to use the policy. The preferred method is to grant access to the service account.

In the following example we use **RBAC**, a standard Kubernetes authorization mode.

A *Role* or *ClusterRole* must grant access to *use* the desired policies.

*Kind*: ClusterRole

The **ClusterRole** is then bound to the authorized service(s):

## *Kind*: ClusterRoleBinding \[source,go]

apiVersion: policy/v1beta1 kind: PodSecurityPolicy metadata: name: spec:

* privileged: false

***

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: ClusterRole metadata: name: rules:

* apiGroups: \['policy'] resources: \['podsecuritypolicies'] verbs: \['use'] resourceNames:
*

***

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: ClusterRoleBinding metadata: name: roleRef: kind: ClusterRole name: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io subjects:

* kind: ServiceAccount name: namespace:

***


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