Access Control for Secure Operation of Kubernetes Clusters

Introduction

With the increasing use of Kubernetes clusters, the importance of access control for enhancing security and operational efficiency is becoming more prominent.
However, the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) feature provided by Kubernetes is often underutilized due to its complexity in setup and management. As a result, many organizations share Admin privileges among multiple users, which can escalate security risks and lead to operational issues.

Shared Admin privileges grant unlimited access to all users, increasing the risk of accidental deletion or modification of resources. This can lead to service disruptions, and in the event of an issue, it becomes difficult to track who performed which action. Therefore, establishing clear access control policies for each user is essential for the safe and efficient operation of Kubernetes clusters.

Although Kubernetes RBAC is considered for access control, many organizations struggle to adopt it due to various limitations in functionality and management complexities. What challenges does Kubernetes RBAC pose, and how can they be addressed to ensure safer use of Kubernetes clusters?

In this document, I will introduce the features of our Kubernetes access control product, which was developed to resolve these issues, as well as the technologies we used during development.