Container Escape to Shadow Admin: GKE Autopilot Vulnerabilities


In February 2021, Google announced Autopilot, a new mode of operation in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). With Autopilot, Google provides a “hands-off” Kubernetes experience, managing cluster infrastructure for the customer. The platform automatically provisions and removes nodes based on resource consumption and enforces secure Kubernetes best practices out of the box.

In June 2021, Unit 42 researchers disclosed several vulnerabilities and attack techniques in GKE Autopilot to Google. Users able to create a pod could have abused these to (1) escape their pod and compromise the underlying node, (2) escalate privileges and become full cluster administrators, and (3) covertly persist administrative access through backdoors that are completely invisible to cluster operators.

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Source: Palo Alto/Unit 42