Kubernetes Security: Lateral Movement Detection and Defense
What is Lateral Movement?
Lateral movement refers to the techniques that a cyber-attacker uses, after gaining initial access, to move deeper into a network in search of sensitive data and other high-value assets. Lateral movement techniques are widely used in sophisticated cyber-attacks such as advanced persistent threats (APTs). An adversary uses these techniques to access other hosts from a compromised system and get access to sensitive resources, such as mail systems, shared folders, and legitimate credentials, ultimately gaining access to the identified target. Lateral movement techniques enable a threat actor to avoid detection and retain access over an extended dwell time of weeks, or even months, after the initial breach.
What are the Stages of Lateral Movement?
There are three primary stages of lateral movement: reconnaissance, credential/privilege gathering, and gaining access to other resources in the network.
How Does an Adversary Gain Unauthorized Access to a Kubernetes Cluster?
In a Kubernetes cluster, an attacker will gain initial access by compromising a pod. Once the pod is compromised, there are three main areas where the attacker can begin reconnaissance and move through the lateral movement stages to learn more about the cluster: the cloud provider metadata service, the pod networking and Continue reading
