December 6, 2018 By Security Intelligence Staff 2 min read

This post originally appeared on the IBM Cloud blog and is being shared with permission.

What’s happening?

We’re taking action to secure our IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service against the recent Kubernetes security vulnerabilities.

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is affected by the following vulnerabilities that, in some cases, allow unauthorized access to Kubernetes and/or trusted user privilege escalation.

Vulnerability Details

Affected Products and Versions

  • Affected components: Kubernetes API server
  • Affected versions:
    • Kubernetes versions 1.0.x through 1.9.x
    • 1.12.0-1.12.2 (fixed in v1.12.3)
    • 1.11.0-1.11.4 (fixed in v1.11.5)
    • 1.10.0-1.10.10 (fixed in v1.10.11)
    • 1.9.x and 1.8.x (update to v1.10.11)
    • 1.7 (update to 1.9.x and then update to 1.10.11)
    • 1.5 (unsupported, no migration path)

What do I need to know?

This exposure affects your IBM Cloud Kubernetes cluster master only, there is no exposure to your IBM Cloud Kubernetes Workers.

There are two exploits as part of this vulnerability:

Vulnerability 1: Authenticated and unauthenticated requests can provide full admin access to Kubernetes API Server.

  • Affected users: This only affects users with aggregated API servers.
    • 1.11 and earlier: IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service does not deploy any aggregated API servers in versions 1.11 and earlier. You will not be impacted unless you have deployed your own aggregated API server.
    • 1.12: All users are affected since all clusters contain the metrics-server, which is an aggregated API server affected by this vulnerability.

Vulnerability 2: Authenticated users with specific permissions to exec/attach/portforward API calls can be escalated to perform any API request against the kubelet API on the node specified in the pod spec.

  • Affected users: All IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service clusters are affected by this vulnerability.

We are releasing updates for all supported releases of IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service this week. Then, all supported clusters will auto-update to remediate the vulnerabilities during the next few days.

How do I mitigate the issue?

If you are on a supported release, then you don’t need to do anything, your IBM Cloud Kubernetes Cluster Master will be updated automatically.

All supported IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service clusters at version 1.10 and later will be updated automatically to address this security flaw. If you find that your cluster has not been automatically updated over the next few days, please contact IBM Support.

Customers running unsupported IBM Cloud Kubernetes versions must upgrade the affected clusters to a supported version 1.10.11, 1.11.5, 1.12.3, or later when these versions are released by IBM.

Refer to https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/containers/cs_versions.html for more information about Kubernetes versions.

You do not need to update your workers for this exposure, we do recommend that you always stay current with your workers to ensure you are not vulnerable to other exposures.

How do I check my version?

To see which Kubernetes versions the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service has released:
ibmcloud ks kube-versions

To see which version your clusters are currently using:
ibmcloud ks clusters

What about unsupported clusters?

For 1.9.x or 1.8.x, you must update your cluster to a supported release:
ibmcloud ks cluster-update --cluster <clustername> --kube-version 1.10

For 1.7.x, you must first update to 1.9 and then update to a supported release:

  1. Run: ibmcloud ks cluster-update --cluster <clustername> --kube-version 1.9
  2. Confirm that the update completed successfully by checking the Kubernetes version.
  3. Run: >ibmcloud ks cluster-update --cluster <clustername> --kube-version 1.10

Questions or comments

Please join us on our public Slack channel at https://ibm-container-service.slack.com or raise a support ticket if you have any issues.

More from

Autonomous security for cloud in AWS: Harnessing the power of AI for a secure future

3 min read - As the digital world evolves, businesses increasingly rely on cloud solutions to store data, run operations and manage applications. However, with this growth comes the challenge of ensuring that cloud environments remain secure and compliant with ever-changing regulations. This is where the idea of autonomous security for cloud (ASC) comes into play.Security and compliance aren't just technical buzzwords; they are crucial for businesses of all sizes. With data breaches and cyber threats on the rise, having systems that ensure your…

Adversarial advantage: Using nation-state threat analysis to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity

4 min read - Nation-state adversaries are changing their approach, pivoting from data destruction to prioritizing stealth and espionage. According to the Microsoft 2023 Digital Defense Report, "nation-state attackers are increasing their investments and launching more sophisticated cyberattacks to evade detection and achieve strategic priorities."These actors pose a critical threat to United States infrastructure and protected data, and compromising either resource could put citizens at risk.Thankfully, there's an upside to these malicious efforts: information. By analyzing nation-state tactics, government agencies and private enterprises are…

6 Principles of Operational Technology Cybersecurity released by joint NSA initiative

4 min read - Today’s critical infrastructure organizations rely on operational technology (OT) to help control and manage the systems and processes required to keep critical services to the public running. However, due to the highly integrated nature of OT deployments, cybersecurity has become a primary concern.On October 2, 2024, the NSA (National Security Agency) released a new CSI titled “Principles of Operational Technology Cybersecurity.” This new guide was created in collaboration with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD SCSC) to…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today