Kubernetes Sensitive RBAC Change Followed by Workload Modification
Detects a sequence where a principal creates or modifies a Role/ClusterRole to include high-risk permissions (e.g., wildcard access or escalation verbs) and then creates or patches a workload resource (DaemonSet,…
Description
Detects a sequence where a principal creates or modifies a Role/ClusterRole to include high-risk permissions (e.g., wildcard access or escalation verbs) and then creates or patches a workload resource (DaemonSet, Deployment, or CronJob) shortly after, which may indicate RBAC-based privilege escalation followed by payload deployment. This pattern is often used by adversaries to gain unauthorized access to sensitive resources and deploy malicious payloads.
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.
- Log source category
- event_index
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 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 3c82bf84-5941-495b-ac41-0302f28e1a90
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: KubernetesData Source: Kubernetes API Server Audit LogsDomain: CloudDomain: ContainersDomain: KubernetesNoise: HighPerformance: FastPlatform: KubernetesProfile: AggressiveResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: Event Correlation (EQL)Tactic: 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