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Online resources help you prepare for the CNCF/Linux Foundation CKS 2020 "Kubernetes Certified Security Specialist" Certification exam. Please provide feedback or requests by raising issues, or making a pull request. All feedback for improvements are welcome. thank you .

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Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist - CKS

Online curated resources that will help you prepare for taking the Kubernetes Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist CKS Certification exam.

  • Please raise an issue, or make a pull request for fixes, new additions, or updates.

I will try to restrict the cross references of resources primarly to kubernetes.io as CNCF/Linux Foundation exam rules allows you search kubernetes.io/{docs|blog} and kubernetes github repo only. Youtube videos and other third party resources e.g. blogs will be provided as an optional complimentary material and any 3rd party material not allowed in the exam will be designated with 🚩 in the curriculum sections below.

Ensure you have the right version of Kubernetes documentation selected (e.g. v1.19 as of 17th Nov GA announcement) especially for API objects and annotations, however for third party tools, you might find that you can still find references for them in old releases and blogs e.g. Falco install.

  • Icons/emoji legend
    • 📋 Expand to see more content
    • 😕 Verify, not best resource yet
    • 🔵 Good overall refence, can be used in the exam
    • 🚩 External third-party resource, can not be used during exam
    • 📝 ToDo, item that needs further checking(todo list for future research/commits)

Exam Brief

Offical exam objectives you review and understand in order to pass the test.

CKS repo topics overview

Extra helpful material

Cluster Setup - 10%

🔵 Securing a Cluster

  1. Use Network security policies to restrict cluster level access

  2. 🚩 Use CIS benchmark to review the security configuration of Kubernetes components (etcd, kubelet, kubedns, kubeapi)

  3. Properly set up Ingress objects with security control

  4. Protect node metadata and endpoints

  5. Minimize use of, and access to, GUI elements

  6. Verify platform binaries before deploying

    📋 Kubernetes binaries can be verified by their digest **sha512 hash**
    • checking the Kubernetes release page for the specific release

Cluster Hardening - 15%

  1. Restrict access to Kubernetes API

  2. Use Role-Based Access Controls to minimize exposure

  3. Exercise caution in using service accounts e.g. disable defaults, minimize permissions on newly created ones

    📋 opt out of automounting API credentials for a service account

    service account scope

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: build-robot
automountServiceAccountToken: false

    pod scope

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: cks-pod
spec:
  serviceAccountName: default
  automountServiceAccountToken: false

  4. Update Kubernetes frequently

System Hardening - 15%

  1. Minimize host OS footprint (reduce attack surface)

    📋 😕 Reduce host attack surface

  2. Minimize IAM roles

  3. Minimize external access to the network

    📋 😕 if it means deny external traffic to outside the cluster?!!
    • not tested, however, the thinking is that all pods can talk to all pods in all name spaces but not to the outside of the cluster!!!
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: deny-external-egress
spec:
  podSelector: {}
  policyTypes:
  - Egress
  egress:
    to:
    - namespaceSelector: {}

  4. Appropriately use kernel hardening tools such as AppArmor, seccomp

Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities - 20%

  1. Setup appropriate OS-level security domains e.g. using PSP, OPA, security contexts
  2. Manage kubernetes secrets
  3. Use container runtime sandboxes in multi-tenant environments (e.g. gvisor, kata containers)
  4. Implement pod to pod encryption by use of mTLS
  • 📝 check if service mesh is part of the CKS exam

Supply Chain Security - 20%

  1. Minimize base image footprint

    📋 minimize base Image

  2. Secure your supply chain: whitelist allowed image registries, sign and validate images

  3. Use static analysis of user workloads (e.g. kubernetes resources, docker files)

  4. Scan images for known vulnerabilities

Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security - 20%

  1. Perform behavioural analytics of syscall process and file activities at the host and container level to detect malicious activities

  2. Detect threats within a physical infrastructure, apps, networks, data, users and workloads

  3. Detect all phases of attack regardless where it occurs and how it spreads

    📋 Attack Phases

  4. Perform deep analytical investigation and identification of bad actors within the environment

  5. Ensure immutability of containers at runtime

  6. Use Audit Logs to monitor access

Extra helpful material

Slack

  1. Kubernetes Community - #cks-exam-prep
  2. Kubernauts Community - #cks

Books

  1. Aqua Security Liz Rice:Free Container Security Book
  2. Learn Kubernetes security: Securely orchestrate, scale, and manage your microservices in Kubernetes deployments

Youtube Videos

  1. Google/Ian Lewis: Kubernetes security best practices
  2. Code in Action for the book Learn Kubernetes Security playlist
  3. Kubernetes security concepts and demos

Containers and Kubernetes Security Training

  1. Killer.sh CKS practice exam ⟹ use code walidshaari for 20% discount
  2. Udemy Kubernetes CKS 2020 Complete Course and killer.sh Simulator - Special discount code CKS-KILLER-SHELL valid till 3rd Dec 2020
  3. Linux Foundation Kubernetes Security essentials LFS 260 - available January 8, 2021.
  4. Linux Academy/ACloudGuru Kubernetes security
  5. Cloud native security defending containers and kubernetes
  6. Tutorial: Getting Started With Cloud-Native Security - Liz Rice, Aqua Security & Michael Hausenblas
  7. K21 academy CKS step by step activity hands-on-lab activity guide
  8. Andrew Martin Control Plane Security training

Other CKS related repos

  1. Stackrox CKS study guide - Brief and informative study guide from Stackrox @mfosterrox
  2. Abdennour - CKS repository
  3. Ibrahim Jelliti - CKS repository
  4. Viktor Vedmich - CKS repository

About

Online resources help you prepare for the CNCF/Linux Foundation CKS 2020 "Kubernetes Certified Security Specialist" Certification exam. Please provide feedback or requests by raising issues, or making a pull request. All feedback for improvements are welcome. thank you .

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