5.2.13 Minimize the admission of containers which use HostPorts

Information

Do not generally permit containers which require the use of HostPorts.

Rationale:

Host ports connect containers directly to the host's network. This can bypass controls such as network policy.

There should be at least one admission control policy defined which does not permit containers which require the use of HostPorts.

If you need to run containers which require HostPorts, this should be defined in a separate policy and you should carefully check to ensure that only limited service accounts and users are given permission to use that policy.

Impact:

Pods defined with hostPort settings in either the container, initContainer or ephemeralContainer sections will not be permitted unless they are run under a specific policy.

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

Add policies to each namespace in the cluster which has user workloads to restrict the admission of containers which use hostPort sections.

Default Value:

By default, there are no restrictions on the use of HostPorts.

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|5.2

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 058b614f3cbb93d5a99e53cbc332dafdbe876162d3bd182ce7e1c85962117285