Detecting Privilege Escalation in Kubernetes Pods

Overview

Privilege escalation in Kubernetes occurs when a pod or container gains elevated permissions beyond its intended scope. This includes running as root, using privileged mode, mounting host filesystems, enabling dangerous Linux capabilities, or exploiting kernel vulnerabilities. Detection combines admission control (prevention), runtime monitoring (detection), and audit logging (investigation).

When to Use

• When investigating security incidents that require detecting privilege escalation in kubernetes pods
• When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
• When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
• When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster v1.25+ (Pod Security Admission support)
• kubectl with cluster-admin access
• Falco or similar runtime security tool