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Kubernetes Offensive Security

Learn offensive security techniques and ethical hacking strategies to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in Kubernetes clusters

4 days
Intermediate to Advanced
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Kubernetes Offensive Security

Course Overview

This immersive 4‑day, hands‑on course focuses on offensive security in Kubernetes environments. Building on the theoretical foundation of ethical hacking, participants will actively exploit misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and insecure defaults—then learn how to remediate them. Practical exercises are based on real-world attack scenarios drawn from the Kubernetes Goat interactive playground.

What You Will Learn

  • Ethical Hacking Fundamentals in Kubernetes: Methodologies and tools for offensive security assessments
  • Attack Surface Exploration: Identifying Kubernetes vulnerabilities via Kubernetes Goat scenarios
  • Privilege Escalation & Lateral Movement: Exploiting container escapes, SSRF, and misconfigured RBAC
  • Enumeration & Reconnaissance: Gathering environment information and abusing insecure cluster components
  • Hands-On Exploit Development: Trigger real exploits like DIND, CIS benchmark abuse, namespace bypass
  • Post‑Exploit Techniques: Maintaining access, auditing clusters, and covering tracks
  • Defense Mechanisms: Learn to secure configurations, mitigate identified attack paths, and harden the cluster post‑assessment

Course Modules

Module 1: Offensive Foundations & Setup

  • Ethical hacking methodologies for Kubernetes clusters
  • Setting up the vulnerable Kubernetes Goat environment
  • Explore scenarios: Sensitive keys in codebases, SSRF, container escape, DIND exploitation

Module 2: Exploiting Misconfigurations & Privilege Escalation

  • Attacks: Sensitive keys exposure, SSRF for metadata extraction
  • DIND exploitation: docker-in-docker attacks, container breakout via host access
  • Container escapes: Kernel and chroot capabilities abuse
  • Namespace bypass, environment enumeration, and memory/CPU DoS attacks

Module 3: Advanced Attack Scenarios & Post‑Exploitation

  • Attacking private registries, crypto-miner container analysis
  • RBAC misconfigurations, hidden container layers, Helm v2 exploitation
  • Runtime security monitoring: Falco, KubeAudit, Popeye for cluster sanitization
  • Network boundaries: Network policies, eBPF-based enforcement, and policy engines

Module 4: Defensive Measures & Secure Remediation

  • Remediation of exploitation paths from modules 2 & 3
  • Secure configurations, lock down Docker and Kubernetes CIS Benchmarks
  • Harden container runtime: reduce misconfigurations exposed by Kubernetes Goat
  • Detection & monitoring: leverage audit logs, Falco rules, KubeAudit, and runtime observability
  • Crafting a security post-assessment playbook

Prerequisites

  • Strong foundational knowledge in Kubernetes internals: deployments, RBAC, networking, Helm, container orchestration
  • Familiarity with kubectl, YAML, and administering Kubernetes clusters
  • Previous exposure to container security or penetration testing recommended

Who Should Attend

  • Security professionals and red-teamers targeting Kubernetes environments
  • DevOps and platform engineers interested in offensive and defensive Kubernetes security
  • Developers eager to understand attack vectors in real-world Kubernetes deployments
  • Auditors and pentesters seeking structured, hands-on Kubernetes adversarial training