GKE Pod Created with a Sensitive hostPath Volume

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-06-30
Created 8 days ago on 2026-06-30

About

Detects GKE pod create, update, or patch events that mount sensitive hostPath volumes such as the root filesystem, kubelet paths, or container runtime sockets. This can enable container escape and credential theft. System identities and controller-owned workloads are excluded.
Tags
Domain: CloudDomain: KubernetesData Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: ExecutionLanguage: kuery
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

Execution (TA0002)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Node agents and observability DaemonSets commonly mount host paths like /proc or /var/log. Controller ownerReferences exclusions reduce noise; add image exceptions if needed.
License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-gcp.audit-*
Related Integrations

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

Query
text code block:
data_stream.dataset:gcp.audit and event.outcome:success and event.action:("io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create" or "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.update" or "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.patch") and gcp.audit.request.spec.volumes.hostPath.path:( "/" or "/proc" or "/root" or "/var" or "/var/run" or "/var/run/docker.sock" or "/var/run/crio/crio.sock" or "/var/run/cri-dockerd.sock" or "/var/lib/kubelet" or "/var/lib/kubelet/pki" or "/var/lib/docker/overlay2" or "/etc" or "/etc/kubernetes" or "/etc/kubernetes/manifests" or "/etc/kubernetes/pki" or "/home/admin" ) and not user.email:system\:* and not gcp.audit.request.metadata.ownerReferences.kind:("ReplicaSet" or "DaemonSet" or "StatefulSet")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect GKE Pod Created with a Sensitive hostPath Volume 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).