Kubernetes Creation or Modification of Sensitive Role

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-02-09
Created 7 days ago on 2026-02-04

About

Detects the creation or modification of Kubernetes Roles or ClusterRoles that grant high-risk permissions, such as wildcard access or RBAC escalation verbs (e.g., bind, escalate, impersonate), which may enable privilege escalation or unauthorized access within the cluster.
Tags
Data Source: KubernetesDomain: KubernetesUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceTactic: Privilege EscalationLanguage: esql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Related Integrations

kubernetes(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
FROM logs-kubernetes.audit_logs-* metadata _id, _index, _version | WHERE kubernetes.audit.objectRef.resource in ("roles", "clusterroles") and kubernetes.audit.verb in ("create", "update", "patch") and `kubernetes.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/decision` == "allow" and kubernetes.audit.level == "RequestResponse" and kubernetes.audit.stage == "ResponseComplete" and KQL("""kubernetes.audit.requestObject.rules.verbs:("*" or "escalate" or "bind" or "impersonate") or kubernetes.audit.requestObject.rules.resources:("clusterroles" or "clusterrolebindings" or "roles" or "rolebindings")""") | KEEP @timestamp, data_stream.namespace, `kubernetes.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/decision`, kubernetes.audit.level, kubernetes.audit.objectRef.name, kubernetes.audit.objectRef.resource, kubernetes.audit.requestURI, kubernetes.audit.responseStatus.code, kubernetes.audit.sourceIPs, kubernetes.audit.stage, kubernetes.audit.user.groups, kubernetes.audit.user.username, kubernetes.audit.userAgent, kubernetes.audit.verb, _id, _index, _version

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Kubernetes Creation or Modification of Sensitive Role in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).