GKE Privileged Pod Created
Detects successful GKE audit events where a pod is created with allowPrivilegeEscalation enabled. This weakens container isolation and can help an attacker escalate toward host access. Standalone pods are included;…
Description
Detects successful GKE audit events where a pod is created with allowPrivilegeEscalation enabled. This weakens container isolation and can help an attacker escalate toward host access. Standalone pods are included; workloads owned by ReplicaSet, DaemonSet, or StatefulSet controllers are excluded.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiLinuxWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- Debug or break-glass pods may enable privilege escalation intentionally. Exclude trusted namespaces, users, or deployment patterns after baselining.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/audit-logging | 12from 2 sources |
| kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/security-context/ | 4 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- a7b984e4-16ff-405b-80be-31a94a03e929
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformDomain: CloudDomain: ContainersDomain: KubernetesNoise: UnknownPerformance: FastPlatform: GCPPlatform: KubernetesProfile: RecommendedResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Tactic: ExecutionTactic: Privilege EscalationThreat: Container EscapeUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3