STIGUI
V-242392CAT I — High severitySV-242392r1137639_rule

The Kubernetes kubelet must enable explicit authorization.

Rule version CNTR-K8-000380 · STIG v2 · 2026-02-12

Discussion

Kubelet is the primary agent on each node. The API server communicates with each kubelet to perform tasks such as starting/stopping pods. By default, kubelets allow all authenticated requests, even anonymous ones, without requiring any authorization checks from the API server. This default behavior bypasses any authorization controls put in place to limit what users may perform within the Kubernetes cluster. To change this behavior, the default setting of AlwaysAllow for the authorization mode must be set to "Webhook".

Check

Run the following command on each Worker Node: ps -ef | grep kubelet Verify that the --authorization-mode exists and is set to "Webhook".

If the --authorization-mode argument is not set to "Webhook" or doesn't exist, this is a finding.

Fix

Edit the Kubernetes Kubelet service file in the --config directory on the Kubernetes Worker Node:

Set the value of "--authorization-mode" to "Webhook" in KUBELET_SYSTEM_PODS_ARGS variable.

Restart the kubelet service using the following command:

systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart kubelet

Identifiers

Group ID
V-242392
Group title
SRG-APP-000033-CTR-000095
Rule ID
SV-242392r1137639_rule
Check ID
C-45667r1069459_chk
Fix ID
F-45625r1069460_fix