This document details the setup for the demo environment. In the git repository you will also find a setup.sh
script which will automate the entire process.
Tested on Docker Desktop 4.23.0 and kind 0.19.0
brew install kind
brew install kubectl
kubectl krew install access-matrix
kubectl krew install net-forward
kubectl krew install who-can
We are going to create a Kubernetes cluster using Kind, with some custom configuration to add support for Ingress controllers.
kind create cluster --config kind_ingress.yaml
At this point the cluster will not actually deploy, as the PodSecurityPolicy admission controller is enabled without any policies in place. In this scenario all deployments are blocked so the control plane will not deploy.
When it has completed you should expect to see something like :
% kubectl get pods --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
kube-system coredns-f9fd979d6-cl9zh 1/1 Running 0 51s
kube-system coredns-f9fd979d6-x2gdt 1/1 Running 0 51s
kube-system etcd-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 64s
kube-system kindnet-d7xth 1/1 Running 0 61s
kube-system kindnet-w8d66 1/1 Running 0 61s
kube-system kube-apiserver-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 79s
kube-system kube-controller-manager-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 76s
kube-system kube-proxy-k5g69 1/1 Running 0 61s
kube-system kube-proxy-mt52w 1/1 Running 0 61s
kube-system kube-scheduler-kind-control-plane 1/1 Running 0 75s
local-path-storage local-path-provisioner-78776bfc44-xjqhk 1/1 Running 0 51s
% kubectl get nodes
NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION
kind-control-plane Ready master 3m47s v1.19.1
kind-worker Ready <none> 3m19s v1.19.1
Now we need to set up the Ingress controller within its own namespace :
kubectl apply -f ingress_ns_role.yaml
Next we can install the Nginx ingress controller :
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/master/deploy/static/provider/kind/deploy.yaml
At this point we need to wait until the Ingress controller pod is fully deployed :
% kubectl wait --namespace ingress-nginx \
--for=condition=ready pod \
--selector=app.kubernetes.io/component=controller \
--timeout=90s
pod/ingress-nginx-controller-c7c5dfc9f-dbb57 condition met
The cluster is now functioning correctly.
Now we need to set up the environment, including our configuration vulnerabilities. Firstly, set up the secure namespace - this will create the namespace, and bind all Service Accounts from that namespace to the restricted Pod Security Policy.
kubectl apply -f secure_ns_role.yaml
Next we will create the service account within the secure namespace. This will also introduce a vulnerability in that we will allow that service account to do a wide variety of actions within the specific namespace. This is a fairly common assumption but as we will show can give an attacker the ability to widen the blast radius of an exploit.
kubectl apply -f webadmin_user.yaml -n secure
Next we will introduce a second vulnerability, allowing this user to query the endpoints of the API server. Again this wouldn't necessarily be an obvious issue, but will allow an attacker to gain additional information about the cluster.
kubectl apply -f webadmin_allow_role_to_see_endpoints.yaml
Now we will deploy the vulnerable application into the secure namespace.
kubectl apply -f webadmin_deployment.yaml -n secure
We should see the pod running in the secure namespace :
% kubectl get pods -n secure
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
webadmin-57f55c596d-z5b9b 1/1 Running 0 3s
Now the vulnerable application is running, we need to expose it outside of the cluster. For this, we need a Service and an Ingress :
kubectl apply -f webadmin_svc_ingress.yaml -n secure
Note in the Ingress configuration that we rewrite the path back to /, since without this the Ingress controller will just pass the /webadmin path on to the application and we will then get a 404 as the app is only listening on the root.
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: webadmin-ingress
annotations:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
spec:
rules:
- http:
paths:
- path: /webadmin
backend:
serviceName: webadmin
servicePort: 5000
At this point you should be able to view the vulnerable application in your browser.
Next we will configure the default namespace, and allow service accounts in this namespace to access the privileged Pod Security Policy. Again this is a vulnerability, based on the assumption that we are controlling all other namespaces with namespace specific role bindings.
kubectl apply -f default_ns_role.yaml
Next we will add the same service account and roles as we have in our secure namespace :
kubectl apply -f webadmin_user.yaml
And now we add an instance of the vulnerable application to the default namespace :
kubectl apply -f webadmin_deployment.yaml
% k get pods
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
webadmin-57f55c596d-fhqqw 1/1 Running 0 3s
So this basically gives us a mirrored setup in the default namespace as we have in the secure namespace, but in default we are not enforcing the restricted Pod Security Policy.