GKE Secret Access via Unusual User Agent

Last updated 11 days ago on 2026-07-22

Created 11 days ago on 2026-07-22

About

Detects GKE secrets get or list requests from a previously unseen combination of source IP, identity, and user agent, excluding the default Kubernetes client placeholder. Attackers who compromise a pod or steal a kubeconfig often use curl, custom scripts, or atypical clients from a new host to read service-account tokens, registry credentials, or application secrets. Anonymous identities are excluded; use dedicated anonymous-access rules for unauthenticated probing.

Tags

Domain: CloudDomain: KubernetesData Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessLanguage: kuery

Severity

low

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Credential Access (TA0006)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Unsecured Credentials (T1552)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Administrators or CI jobs using a new workstation, bastion, VPN egress, or nonstandard API client can produce a first-seen alert; confirm against change records and expected automation. Workloads or operators that change client libraries after a deploy may introduce a new user agent for an otherwise known identity; baseline after validation.

License

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

Definition

Rule Type: New Terms Rule
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: logs-gcp.audit-*
Related Integrations: gcp(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗data_stream.dataset:gcp.audit and service.name:k8s.io and
event.action:("io.k8s.core.v1.secrets.get" or "io.k8s.core.v1.secrets.list") and
user_agent.original:(* and not (*kubernetes/$Format* or kube-probe* or gke-exec-auth-plugin*)) and
source.ip:(* and not (127.0.0.1 or "::1")) and
client.user.email:(* and not (
  "system:anonymous" or "system:unauthenticated" or "system:addon-manager" or
  "system:serviceaccount:kube-system:namespace-controller"
))

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect GKE Secret Access via Unusual User Agent 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).