---
title: "Pod Security"
description: "Enabling Pod Security Admission plugin to configure Pod Security Standards."
aliases:
  - ../../guides/pod-security
---

Kubernetes deprecated [Pod Security Policy](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/policy/pod-security-policy/) as of v1.21, and it is
going to be removed in v1.25.
Pod Security Policy was replaced with [Pod Security Admission](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/security/pod-security-admission/).
Pod Security Admission is alpha in v1.22 (requires a feature gate) and beta in v1.23 (enabled by default).

In this guide we are going to enable and configure Pod Security Admission in Talos.

## Configuration

Prepare the following machine configuration patch and store it in the `pod-security-patch.yaml`:

```yaml
- op: add
  path: /cluster/apiServer/admissionControl
  value:
    - name: PodSecurity
      configuration:
        apiVersion: pod-security.admission.config.k8s.io/v1alpha1
        kind: PodSecurityConfiguration
        defaults:
            enforce: "baseline"
            enforce-version: "latest"
            audit: "restricted"
            audit-version: "latest"
            warn: "restricted"
            warn-version: "latest"
        exemptions:
            usernames: []
            runtimeClasses: []
            namespaces: [kube-system]
```

This is a cluster-wide configuration for the Pod Security Admission plugin:

* by default `baseline` [Pod Security Standard](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/security/pod-security-standards/) profile is enforced
* more strict `restricted` profile is not enforced, but API server warns about found issues

Generate Talos machine configuration applying the patch above:

```shell
talosctl gen config cluster1 https://<IP>:6443/ --config-patch-control-plane @../pod-security-patch.yaml
```

Deploy Talos using the generated machine configuration.

Verify current admission plugin configuration with:

```shell
$ talosctl get kubernetescontrolplaneconfigs apiserver-admission-control -o yaml
node: 172.20.0.2
metadata:
    namespace: config
    type: KubernetesControlPlaneConfigs.config.talos.dev
    id: apiserver-admission-control
    version: 1
    owner: config.K8sControlPlaneController
    phase: running
    created: 2022-02-22T20:28:21Z
    updated: 2022-02-22T20:28:21Z
spec:
    config:
        - name: PodSecurity
          configuration:
            apiVersion: pod-security.admission.config.k8s.io/v1alpha1
            defaults:
                audit: restricted
                audit-version: latest
                enforce: baseline
                enforce-version: latest
                warn: restricted
                warn-version: latest
            exemptions:
                namespaces:
                    - kube-system
                runtimeClasses: []
                usernames: []
            kind: PodSecurityConfiguration
```

## Usage

Create a deployment that satisfies the `baseline` policy but gives warnings on `restricted` policy:

```shell
$ kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx
Warning: would violate PodSecurity "restricted:latest": allowPrivilegeEscalation != false (container "nginx" must set securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation=false), unrestricted capabilities (container "nginx" must set securityContext.capabilities.drop=["ALL"]), runAsNonRoot != true (pod or container "nginx" must set securityContext.runAsNonRoot=true), seccompProfile (pod or container "nginx" must set securityContext.seccompProfile.type to "RuntimeDefault" or "Localhost")
deployment.apps/nginx created
$ kubectl get pods
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
nginx-85b98978db-j68l8   1/1     Running   0          2m3s
```

Create a daemonset which fails to meet requirements of the `baseline` policy:

```yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  labels:
    app: debug-container
  name: debug-container
  namespace: default
spec:
  revisionHistoryLimit: 10
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: debug-container
  template:
    metadata:
      creationTimestamp: null
      labels:
        app: debug-container
    spec:
      containers:
      - args:
        - "360000"
        command:
        - /bin/sleep
        image: ubuntu:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        name: debug-container
        resources: {}
        securityContext:
          privileged: true
        terminationMessagePath: /dev/termination-log
        terminationMessagePolicy: File
      dnsPolicy: ClusterFirstWithHostNet
      hostIPC: true
      hostPID: true
      hostNetwork: true
      restartPolicy: Always
      schedulerName: default-scheduler
      securityContext: {}
      terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30
  updateStrategy:
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 0
      maxUnavailable: 1
    type: RollingUpdate
```

```shell
$ kubectl apply -f debug.yaml
Warning: would violate PodSecurity "restricted:latest": host namespaces (hostNetwork=true, hostPID=true, hostIPC=true), privileged (container "debug-container" must not set securityContext.privileged=true), allowPrivilegeEscalation != false (container "debug-container" must set securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation=false), unrestricted capabilities (container "debug-container" must set securityContext.capabilities.drop=["ALL"]), runAsNonRoot != true (pod or container "debug-container" must set securityContext.runAsNonRoot=true), seccompProfile (pod or container "debug-container" must set securityContext.seccompProfile.type to "RuntimeDefault" or "Localhost")
daemonset.apps/debug-container created
```

Daemonset `debug-container` gets created, but no pods are scheduled:

```shell
$ kubectl get ds
NAME              DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
debug-container   0         0         0       0            0           <none>          34s
```

Pod Security Admission plugin errors are in the daemonset events:

```shell
$ kubectl describe ds debug-container
...
  Warning  FailedCreate  92s                daemonset-controller  Error creating: pods "debug-container-kwzdj" is forbidden: violates PodSecurity "baseline:latest": host namespaces (hostNetwork=true, hostPID=true, hostIPC=true), privileged (container "debug-container" must not set securityContext.privileged=true)
```

Pod Security Admission configuration can also be overridden on a namespace level:

```shell
$ kubectl label ns default pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=privileged
namespace/default labeled
$ kubectl get ds
NAME              DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
debug-container   2         2         0       2            0           <none>          4s
```

As enforce policy was updated to the `privileged` for the `default` namespace, `debug-container` is now successfully running.