Secrets in Kubernetes must not be stored as environment variables.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-242415	CNTR-K8-001160	SV-242415r1015300_rule		High

Description

Secrets, such as passwords, keys, tokens, and certificates should not be stored as environment variables. These environment variables are accessible inside Kubernetes by the "Get Pod" API call, and by any system, such as CI/CD pipeline, which has access to the definition file of the container. Secrets must be mounted from files or stored within password vaults.

STIG	Date
Kubernetes Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-08-22

Details

Check Text (C-45690r863838_chk)

On the Kubernetes Control Plane, run the following command:
kubectl get all -o jsonpath='{range .items[?(@..secretKeyRef)]} {.kind} {.metadata.name} {"\n"}{end}' -A

If any of the values returned reference environment variables, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-45648r712600_fix)

Any secrets stored as environment variables must be moved to the secret files with the proper protections and enforcements or placed within a password vault.