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The Kubernetes kubelet must enable explicit authorization.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-254561CNTR-R2-000150SV-254561r1137639_ruleCCI-000213high
Description
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".
STIGDate
Rancher Government Solutions RKE2 Security Technical Implementation Guide2026-05-13

Related Frameworks

1 mapping across 5 frameworks
SCF0 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (20) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

CFG-02Secure Baseline Configurations
1.00
CRY-01Use of Cryptographic Controls
1.00
DCH-01Data Protection
1.00
HRS-02Position Categorization
1.00
HRS-11Separation of Duties (SoD)
1.00
IAC-01Identity & Access Management (IAM)
1.00
IAC-01.2Authenticate, Authorize and Audit (AAA)
1.00
IAC-02Identification & Authentication for Organizational Users
1.00
IAC-03Identification & Authentication for Non-Organizational Users
1.00
IAC-04Identification & Authentication for Devices
1.00

+10 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-530 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 2 hops (93) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

AC-10Concurrent Session Control
1.00
AC-16Security and Privacy Attributes
1.00
AC-17(1)Monitoring and Control
1.00
AC-17(10)Authenticate Remote Commands
1.00
AC-17(2)Protection of Confidentiality and Integrity Using Encryption
1.00
AC-18(1)Authentication and Encryption
1.00
AC-2(1)Automated System Account Management
1.00
AC-2(10)Shared and Group Account Credential Change
1.00
AC-2(11)Usage Conditions
1.00
AC-2(2)Automated Temporary and Emergency Account Management
1.00

+83 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-1710 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (2) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

3.1.1
1.00
3.1.2
1.00
CCI1 mapping
CCI-000213
1.00
NIST CSF 2.00 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (3) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

PR.AA-05
1.00
PR.DS-10
1.00
PR.IR-01
1.00

Who does this work

17 NICE work roles and 9 EC-Council certifications.

This is an inference across published mappings, not a single claim by anyone. This check maps to a control, which maps to a Cybersecurity Framework outcome, which NIST assigns to the work roles below. EC-Council separately maps its certifications to those same roles.

A certification prepares someone for a role. It is not evidence that a holder is qualified, and neither NIST nor EC-Council has stated that any certification here addresses this check.

Work-role assignments published by NIST (NICE Framework Components 2.2.0 and the CSF 2.0 OLIR crosswalk). Certification mappings published by EC-Council.

Details

Check Text (C-254561r1137639_chk)

Ensure authorization-mode is set correctly in the kubelet on each rke2 node. Run this command on each node: /bin/ps -ef | grep kubelet | grep -v grep If --authorization-mode is not set to "Webhook" or is not configured, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-57994r918233_fix)

Edit the RKE2 Configuration File /etc/rancher/rke2/config.yaml on every RKE2 node and set the following "kubelet-arg" argument: - authorization-mode=Webhook Once the configuration file is updated, restart the RKE2 Server or Agent. Run the command: systemctl restart rke2-server or systemctl restart rke2-agent