GKE Sensitive RBAC Change Followed by Workload Modification
Detects when the same GKE identity creates or modifies a Role or ClusterRole with high-risk permissions (wildcard access, RBAC escalation verbs, or access to secrets / privileged APIs) and also creates or patches a…
Description
Detects when the same GKE identity creates or modifies a Role or ClusterRole with high-risk permissions (wildcard access, RBAC escalation verbs, or access to secrets / privileged APIs) and also creates or patches a DaemonSet, Deployment, or CronJob within five minutes. This correlation is consistent with RBAC-based privilege escalation followed by payload deployment.
Detection logic
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Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
Known benign triggers
- Coordinated maintenance that expands RBAC and rolls workloads in the same change window may alert; validate against change tickets and the actor's expected client fingerprint.
- GitOps or platform controllers that sync sensitive Roles and immediately reconcile DaemonSets, Deployments, or CronJobs can match. Baseline approved automation after confirming the Role content is intentional.
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 |
|---|---|
| heilancoos.github.io/research/2025/12/16/kubernetes.html#overly-permissive-role-based-access-control | 21 |
| kubernetes.io/docs/reference/access-authn-authz/rbac/ | 9from 2 sources |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 3ec2175d-8f34-4be9-b3be-c5821538760e
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: GCPData Source: GCP Audit LogsData Source: Google Cloud PlatformDomain: CloudDomain: ContainersDomain: KubernetesNoise: MediumPerformance: FastPlatform: GCPPlatform: KubernetesResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: ES|QLTactic: PersistenceTactic: Privilege EscalationUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 4