Kubernetes Security Posture Management (KSPM)

Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM) is everything related to Kubernetes security. 

It starts with visibility into K8s clusters, and continues with detecting K8s-related compliance and security risks across the application lifecycle. 

From code, with CI and container registry scanning, through deployment with admission controllers, to the runtime with agentless and agent-based scanning.

The compliance and security risks can be misconfigurations, but they don't have to be. It also includes risks related to the application running in K8s, such as vulnerabilities, that can be detected by scanning the container images in different places, from the code to cloud.

Many organizations use Kubernetes to deploy and manage containerized apps. 

As these environments scale, it becomes harder to manage and maintain visibility into your configuration risks and enforce consistent policies.

These challenges are why you need Kubernetes security posture management. KSPM helps security and DevOps teams identify misconfigurations, enforce best practices and reduce risk across Kubernetes environments.

This KSPM guide explains how KSPM works and how it fits into your broader cloud security posture management strategy. Read on to also learn how Tenable supports it in a unified approach to exposure management.

Want audio/visual? Check out our “Securing K8s with KSPM” webinar here.

KSPM evaluates and improves the security posture of your Kubernetes environments. KSPM ensures secure configuration of Kubernetes clusters, the workloads running within them, and the permissions and roles (access controls) governing user and system behavior.

With KSPM, your teams can:

• Identify misconfigurations that reduce visibility and security
• Scan for common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs)
• Assess compliance with security benchmarks that align with regulatory standards
• Monitor changes across environments, like drift and misconfigurations
• Prioritize and address security issues based on urgency

Configuration issues in Kubernetes cause security issues. These issues can expose your systems to risk even when workloads appear to be running correctly. For example, issues can accumulate as clusters scale, creating a broad attack surface difficult to manage without centralized insight. 

By surfacing risks earlier in your software delivery lifecycle, KSPM can help you remediate issues during development and testing. During production, the cost and impact of the same fixes are usually much higher.

For some additional reading, check out best practices for improving Kubernetes security.

The typical KSPM process includes:

1. Discovery - Mapping all Kubernetes assets, including cloud-managed and self-managed clusters, nodes, running containers, image registries and specific RBAC permissions, gives you holistic visibility to proactively address security risks. Without this visibility, your teams can’t reliably assess exposure or determine where they need to apply controls.
2. Evaluation - Once KSPM identifies assets, it assesses configurations against established security benchmarks (like the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark) and internal requirements. This evaluation helps your teams identify potential policy violations or gaps that could lead to system compromise.
3. Detection - While evaluation highlights where configurations fall short, detection prioritizes your most urgent risks, like overly permissive role-based access controls (RBACs) or missing network segmentation policies.
4. Remediation - Workflows guide your teams through remediation based on your organizational policies, which is essential for restoring secure configurations without introducing additional risk.
5. Reporting - Ongoing reporting helps your teams track changes in security posture, demonstrate improvements over time and prepare for audits. Transparent reporting also aligns security priorities with regulatory expectations. 

Want to be a K8s security guru? Get the need-to-know on mastering Kubernetes security here.

Security professionals often talk about KSPM and cloud security posture management (CSPM) together. However, they address different layers of cloud-native architecture. 

The table below outlines the core differences between these two approaches.

Got more cloud security posture management questions? You can find additional resources on CSPM here.

Effective KSPM tools should provide:

• Broad visibility without agents.
  • Agent-less monitoring lowers your overhead and helps security teams scale coverage across dynamic workloads.
• Role-aware access reviews.
  • Role-specific permissions help prevent unnecessary access and reduce the chance of privilege misuse or escalation.
• Configuration assessments aligned with policies.
  • Scanning configurations against security policies supports consistent security posture. See how Tenable secures K8s workloads with container image scanning.
• Integration with DevOps workflows.
  • Connecting KSPM to CI/CD pipelines identifies misconfigurations before deployment.
• Prioritization and reporting features.
  • These help teams focus on the most important tasks and can demonstrate progress to stakeholders.

By embedding security checks into your development processes, your teams can detect issues before workloads reach production. KSPM also improves collaboration between DevSecOps teams. 

This includes:

• Policy checks during builds that detect misconfigurations before code deployment for faster fixes and less vulnerable workloads.
• Developer-facing feedback that helps resolve issues faster, so those closest to the changes to make them in real time.
• Automated responses to policy violations, like triggering alerts, blocking deployment, or applying fixes with minimal manual intervention.
• Centralized posture and remediation tracking that helps your teams identify recurring issues and align on remediation priorities. This improves accountability and coordination across DevSecOps.

If you need K8s security as part of an identity-first cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP), see Tenable’s KSPM solution for multi-cloud environments.

Banks and financial institutions can use KSPM to meet legal and regulatory requirements. The tool catches configuration problems in their Kubernetes setups and maintains consistent access control, which is essential when dealing with customer financial data and payment processing.

Healthcare providers depend on KSPM for HIPAA compliance. It keeps patient data separate from other workloads and controls who can access what. This cuts down on accidental breaches and makes systems more secure overall.

Retailers need KSPM during busy shopping seasons like Black Friday and to ensure compliance with requirements like PCI DSS. It keeps their systems running smoothly with consistent security policies across all their distributed environments. It also protects customer data and backend systems from configuration mistakes that could cause real problems.

Tech companies use KSPM to stay secure without slowing innovation. By building policy checks right into their development pipelines and managing access based on roles, they can securely scale their operations without hindering their teams.

Government agencies use KSPM to meet strict federal cybersecurity standards like NIST 800-53. It gives them much better visibility into their complex Kubernetes setups and makes audit preparation much less painful by ensuring consistent policy enforcement.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is an open-source tool you can use to manage and run containerized apps. It is a leading platform for container orchestration. Kubernetes automatically deploys your apps, scales them up or down as needed and keeps everything running smoothly across multiple servers by orchestrating underlying containers.

How does KSPM reduce risk?

KSPM helps your teams reduce risk by identifying misconfigurations and noncompliant Kubernetes settings. It prioritizes these risks based on potential impact, so your teams can focus on remediating the most critical issues before threat actors exploit them.

Can KSPM be used with on-prem Kubernetes?

Yes. KSPM supports self-managed and managed Kubernetes environments. 

Does Tenable support multi-cloud Kubernetes environments?

Yes. Tenable offers consistent coverage across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle OCI that enforces policy and manages risk in multi-cloud Kubernetes deployments.

How does KSPM fit into exposure management?

KSPM complements broader exposure management efforts by targeting the orchestration layer of cloud-native applications. It adds configuration and identity context to close visibility gaps in Kubernetes clusters.

What’s the difference between KSPM and CSPM?

CSPM focuses on cloud infrastructure services (such as storage, IAM and networking. KSPM secures Kubernetes-specific components, including pods, RBAC and namespaces. Together, they provide a layered defense across cloud workloads and container orchestration.

Does KSPM help with compliance?

Yes. KSPM supports compliance, like alignment with CIS Kubernetes Benchmarks, NIST 800-53, HIPAA, PCI DSS and other frameworks. Tenable includes prebuilt policy checks and reporting features to simplify compliance workflows.

What kinds of misconfigurations does KSPM catch?

KSPM identifies high-risk issues, like containers running with excessive privileges, missing network policies between pods, overly permissive RBAC permissions and workloads missing required security context.

Does KSPM support DevSecOps workflows?

Yes. KSPM integrates into CI/CD pipelines to detect issues earlier in the development lifecycle. It also enables real-time feedback for developers, supports automated policy enforcement and tracks remediation over time so your teams can securely deploy apps and services without slowing production.

Is KSPM useful if I already scan container images?

Yes. KSPM addresses how you configure and govern containers within K8s environments. Both KSPM and container image scanning are essential for securing cloud-native workloads.

Kubernetes environments are complex. Tenable delivers KSPM capabilities as part of its unified cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) to help you secure your Kubernetes environments within the broader cloud and identity risk context. Explore Tenable's KSPM solution today.