Threat actors in Kubernetes environments

A threat actor is an entity or code executing in the system that the asset should be protected from. From a defense standpoint, you first need to understand who your potential enemies are, or your defense strategy will be too vague. Threat actors in Kubernetes environments can be broadly classified into three categories:

1. End user: An entity that can connect to the application. The entry point for this actor is usually the load balancer or ingress. Sometimes, pods, containers, or NodePorts may be directly exposed to the internet, adding more entry points for the end user.
2. Internal attacker: An entity that has limited access inside the Kubernetes cluster. Malicious containers or pods spawned within the cluster are examples of internal attackers.
3. Privileged attacker: An entity that has administrator access inside the Kubernetes cluster. Infrastructure administrators, compromised kube-apiserver instances, and malicious nodes are...