Adversaries may attempt to discover containers and other resources that are available within a containers environment. Other resources may include images, deployments, pods, nodes, and other information such as the status of a cluster.
These resources can be viewed within web applications such as the Kubernetes dashboard or can be queried via the Docker and Kubernetes APIs.[1][2] In Docker, logs may leak information about the environment, such as the environment’s configuration, which services are available, and what cloud provider the victim may be utilizing. The discovery of these resources may inform an adversary’s next steps in the environment, such as how to perform lateral movement and which methods to utilize for execution.
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S0601 | Hildegard |
Hildegard has used masscan to search for kubelets and the kubelet API for additional running containers.[3] |
| S0683 | Peirates |
Peirates can enumerate Kubernetes pods in a given namespace.[4] |
| G0139 | TeamTNT |
TeamTNT has checked for running containers with |
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1035 | Limit Access to Resource Over Network |
Limit communications with the container service to local Unix sockets or remote access via SSH. Require secure port access to communicate with the APIs over TLS by disabling unauthenticated access to the Docker API and Kubernetes API Server.[6][7] |
| M1030 | Network Segmentation |
Deny direct remote access to internal systems through the use of network proxies, gateways, and firewalls. |
| M1018 | User Account Management |
Enforce the principle of least privilege by limiting dashboard visibility to only the required users. |
| ID | Data Source | Data Component |
|---|---|---|
| DS0032 | Container | Container Enumeration |
| DS0014 | Pod | Pod Enumeration |
Establish centralized logging for the activity of container and Kubernetes cluster components. This can be done by deploying logging agents on Kubernetes nodes and retrieving logs from sidecar proxies for application pods to detect malicious activity at the cluster level.
Monitor logs for actions that could be taken to gather information about container infrastructure, including the use of discovery API calls by new or unexpected users. Monitor account activity logs to see actions performed and activity associated with the Kubernetes dashboard and other web applications.