Profile applicability: Level 1
Avoid non-default
ClusterRoleBindings and RoleBindings with the group system:authenticated, except the ClusterRoleBindings system:basic-user, system:discovery, and system:public-info-viewer.Google's approach to authentication is to make authenticating to Google Cloud and
GKE as simple and secure as possible without adding complex configuration steps. The
group
system:authenticated includes all users with a Google account, which includes all Gmail accounts. Consider
your authorization controls with this extended group scope when granting permissions.
Thus, group system:authenticated is not recommended for non-default use.GKE assigns the group
system:authenticated to API server requests made by any user who is signed in with a Google Account, including
all Gmail accounts. In practice, this isn't meaningfully different from system:unauthenticated because anyone can create a Google Account.Binding a role to the group
system:authenticated gives any user with a Google Account, including all Gmail accounts, the permissions
granted by that role and is strongly discouraged.Default value:
ClusterRoleBindings with group system:unauthenticated:
system:public-info-viewer
No
RoleBindings with the group system:unauthenticated.Impact
Authenticated users in group
system:authenticated should be treated similarly to users in system:unauthenticated, having privileges and permissions associated with roles associated with the configured
bindings.Care should be taken before removing any non-default
clusterrolebindings or rolebindings from the environment to ensure they were not required for operation of the cluster.
Leverage a more specific and authenticated user for cluster operations.Audit
Use the following command to confirm there are no non-default
ClusterRoleBindings to system:authenticated:$ kubectl get clusterrolebindings -o json | jq -r '["Name"], ["-----"], (.items[] | select((.subjects | length) > 0) | select(any(.subjects[]; .name == "system:unauthenticated")) | [.metadata.namespace, .metadata.name]) | @tsv'
Only the following default
ClusterRoleBindings should be displayed:Name
-----
system:public-info-viewer
system:discovery
system:public-info-viewer
If any non-default bindings exist, review their permissions with the following command
and reassess their privilege.
$ kubectl get clusterrolebinding [CLUSTER_ROLE_BINDING_NAME] -o json \
| jq ' .roleRef.name +" " + .roleRef.kind' \
| sed -e 's/"//g' \
| xargs -l bash -c 'kubectl get $1 $0 -o yaml'
Confirm that there are no
RoleBindings including the system:authenticated group:$ kubectl get rolebindings -A -o json \
| jq -r '["Namespace", "Name"], ["---------", "-----"], (.items[] |
select((.subjects | length) > 0) | select(any(.subjects[]; .name ==
"system:unauthenticated")) | [.metadata.namespace, .metadata.name]) | @tsv'
There should be no
RoleBindings listed. If any bindings exist, review their permissions with the following command and reassess
their privilege.
$ kubectl get rolebinding [ROLE_BINDING_NAME] --namespace
[ROLE_BINDING_NAMESPACE] -o json \
| jq ' .roleRef.name +" " + .roleRef.kind' \
| sed -e 's/"//g' \
| xargs -l bash -c 'kubectl get $1 $0 -o yaml --namespace
[ROLE_BINDING_NAMESPACE]'
Remediation
Identify all non-default
clusterrolebindings and rolebindings to the group system:authenticated. Check if they are used and review the permissions associated with the binding using
the commands in the Audit section above or refer to GKE documentation. Strongly consider replacing non-default, unsafe bindings with an authenticated, user-defined
group. Where possible, bind to non-default, user-defined groups with least-privilege
roles.
If there are any non-default, unsafe bindings to the group
system:authenticated, proceed to delete them after consideration for cluster operations with only necessary,
safer bindings.kubectl delete clusterrolebinding [CLUSTER_ROLE_BINDING_NAME] kubectl delete rolebinding [ROLE_BINDING_NAME] --namespace [ROLE_BINDING_NAMESPACE]
