> 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/iam/appsec-k8s-96.md).

# The --service-account-lookup argument is not set to true misconfiguration detected in code

## Rule Details

|                        |                                       |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Cortex AppSec Rule ID  | APPSEC\_K8S\_96                       |
| Category - Subcategory | Kubernetes - Native Security Controls |
| Provider               | OTHER                                 |
| Severity               | HIGH                                  |
| Framework              | Helm, Kubernetes, Kustomize           |

## Impact

Validate service account before validating token. If `--service-account-lookup` is not enabled, the apiserver only verifies that the authentication token is valid, and does not validate that the service account token mentioned in the request is actually present in etcd. This allows using a service account token even after the corresponding service account is deleted. This is an example of time of check to time of use security issue.

## How to Fix

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

{ "apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: creationTimestamp: null labels: component: kube-apiserver tier: control-plane name: kube-apiserver namespace: kube-system spec: containers:

* command:
* * kube-apiserver
* * \--service-account-lookup=true image: gcr.io/google\_containers/kube-apiserver-amd64:v1.6.0 ...", }

***


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