The Kubernetes admin kubeconfig must have file permissions set to 644 or more restrictive.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-242460 | SRG-APP-000516-CTR-001335 | CNTR-K8-003270 | SV-242460r961863_rule | 2026-02-12 | 2 |
Description
The Kubernetes admin kubeconfig files contain the arguments and settings for the Control Plane services. These services are controller and scheduler. If these files can be changed, the scheduler will be implementing the changes immediately.
ℹ️ Check
Review the permissions of the Kubernetes config files by using the command:
stat -c %a /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf
stat -c %a /etc/kubernetes/scheduler.conf
stat -c %a /etc/kubernetes/controller-manager.conf
If any of the files are have permissions more permissive than "644", this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Change the permissions of the conf files to "644" by executing the command:
chmod 644 /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf
chmod 644 /etc/kubernetes/scheduler.conf
chmod 644 /etc/kubernetes/controller-manager.conf