InSpec profile to validate the secure configuration of AWS EKS, against Cluster requirements under CIS's CIS Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Benchmark version 1.0.1 and 1.3.0*.
*for 4.2.x requirements
The baseline includes tests that must be executed against the Kubernetes API and tests that must be executed against the underlying nodes over SSH. This profile handles only the cluster tests, and is intended to be run alongside the EKS CIS Node Baseline profile.
This profile should be executed from a runner host with network access to the EKS cluster under test. The runner host must have InSpec installed.
For the best security of the runner, always install on the runner the latest version of InSpec and supporting Ruby language components.
Latest versions and installation options are available at the InSpec site.
This profile is executed against an AWS EKS cluster via the Kubernetes API and the AWS CLI. The profile assumes that the runner is authenticated as an AWS role permitted to run the kubectl utility against the cluster and run queries using the aws eks CLI command.
The profile makes use of the kubectl utility to access the Kubernetes API. The runner host must have kubectl installed -- see the Kubernetes documentation for tools for details.
A host's connection to the Kubernetes API is established using credentials recorded in the kubeconfig file. For the profile to use the Kubernetes API, the runner host must either have a valid kubeconfig file either in the default location ($HOME/.kube/config) or have designated a file as the kubeconfig file using the $KUBECONFIG environment variable. See the Kubernetes documentation for kubeconfig for details.
You can test if the runner host has access to the Kubernetes API by running kubectl from the command line:
kubectl get nodes
If the command returns a list of information on the EC2 nodes that comprise the cluster, then kubectl is able to support the profile.
Some controls in the profile require the use of the AWS CLI to investigate the EKS cluster. Ensure the runner host has the AWS CLI installed as per Amazon's instructions.
The runner host must also have assumed a role with sufficient permissions to access the AWS components of the EKS cluster. If running AWS commands results in a permission error, work with your cloud administrator to ensure your role has the correct IAM privileges to access the cluster's components.
To ensure the AWS CLI is installed and configured correctly, use it to print information on the target cluster:
aws eks describe-cluster --name <cluster name> --region <cluster region>
The following inputs may be configured in an inputs ".yml" file for the profile to run correctly for your specific environment. More information about InSpec inputs can be found in the InSpec Profile Documentation.
# Used by the AWS CLI controls. Give the name of the cluster under test
# as a string, ex. "my-test-cluster"
cluster-name:
# Used by the AWS CLI controls. Give the region of the cluster under test
# as a string, ex. "us-east-1"
cluster-region:
# Used by 4.1.1. Give an array of roles which are permitted to hold the
# cluster-admin role.
# If not defined, default is: ["system:admin", "system:masters"]
allowed_cluster_admin_principals:
# Optional -- leave blank if no outside access should be allowed
# IPs from within this array of CIDR blocks should be the only ones allowed to
# access the cluster via k8s API from outside the VPC
# Can be configured via AWS console
# Ex. ["0.0.0.0/0"]
allowlist_cidr_blocks:Executing the profile by downloading it to the runner:
git clone https://github.com/mitre/eks-cis-cluster-baseline.git
cd eks-cis-cluster-baseline
inspec exec . --input-file <path_to_your_input_file/name_of_your_input_file.yml> --reporter cli json:node1results.json
Executing the profile by executing it from this GitHub repository:
inspec exec https://github.com/mitre/eks-cis-cluster-baseline/archive/main.tar.gz --input-file <path_to_your_input_file/name_of_your_input_file.yml> --reporter cli json:cluster-results.json
If your runner is not always expected to have direct access to GitHub, use the following steps to create an archive bundle of this profile and all of its dependent tests:
(Git is required to clone the InSpec profile using the instructions below. Git can be downloaded from the Git site.)
mkdir profiles
cd profiles
git clone https://github.com/mitre/eks-cis-cluster-baseline.git
inspec archive eks-cis-cluster-baseline
sudo inspec exec <archive name> --input-file <path_to_your_input_file/name_of_your_input_file.yml> --reporter cli json:cluster-results.json
For every successive run, follow these steps to always have the latest version of this baseline and dependent profiles:
cd eks-cis-cluster-baseline
git pull
cd ..
inspec archive eks-cis-cluster-baseline --overwrite
sudo inspec exec <archive name> --input-file <path_to_your_input_file/name_of_your_input_file.yml> --reporter cli json:cluster-results.json
The JSON results output file can be loaded into heimdall-lite for a user-interactive, graphical view of the InSpec results.
The JSON InSpec results file may also be loaded into a full heimdall server, allowing for additional functionality such as to store and compare multiple profile runs.
- Will Dower - wdower
- Rony Xavier - rx294
To report a bug or feature request, please open an issue.
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Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited. Case Number 18-3678.
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CIS Benchmarks are published by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), see: https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks/.