> 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-6.md).

# Root containers admitted misconfiguration detected in code

## Rule Details

|                        |                                                        |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Cortex AppSec Rule ID  | APPSEC\_K8S\_6                                         |
| Category - Subcategory | Kubernetes - Access Control                            |
| Provider               | OTHER                                                  |
| Severity               | MEDIUM                                                 |
| Framework              | Helm, Kubernetes, Kustomize, Terraform, Terraform Plan |

## Impact

In Kubernetes, a container's user ID table maps to the host's user table. Running a process as the root user inside a container runs it as root on the host. Many container images use the root user to run PID 1. If PID 1 is compromised, an attacker has root permissions in the container, and any misconfigurations can be exploited. Containers that run as root frequently have more permissions than their workload requires which, in case of compromise, could help an attacker further their exploits.

## How to Fix

*Resource:* PodSecurityPolicy

* *Arguments:* runAsUser:rule:MustRunAsNonRoot - Unable containers to run with root privileges. runAsUser:rule:MustRunAs - When the minimum range is set to 1 or higher, containers cannot run as root.

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* needs to grant access to *use* the desired policies.

*Kind*: ClusterRole

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

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

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

* rule: 'MustRunAsNonRoot' or rule: 'MustRunAs' ranges:
* * min: \<min user, 1 or higher> max:

***

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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