GKE API Server Proxying Request to Kubelet

Last updated 9 days ago on 2026-07-13

Created 9 days ago on 2026-07-13

About

Detects non-system identities using the GKE nodes/proxy API to reach a node's Kubelet through the API server. The nodes/proxy subresource allows any principal with this permission to call the Kubelet API without direct node network access or Kubelet TLS certificates. Through this path an attacker can list pod specs (including environment secrets), read Kubelet configuration, retrieve container logs, and access running pod metadata on the target node. Monitoring endpoints such as metrics, healthz, and stats/summary are excluded to reduce noise from observability tooling.

Tags

Domain: CloudDomain: KubernetesData Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: Lateral MovementTactic: DiscoveryLanguage: kuery

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Escape to Host (T1611)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Use Alternate Authentication Material (T1550)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Discovery (TA0007)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Container and Resource Discovery (T1613)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Legitimate kubelet debugging, node troubleshooting, or security tooling that uses the node proxy outside the excluded metrics paths may match. Baseline approved operators and automation identities after review.

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

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗data_stream.dataset:gcp.audit and service.name:"k8s.io" and event.outcome:success and
event.action:(
  "io.k8s.core.v1.nodes.proxy.get" or
  "io.k8s.core.v1.nodes.proxy.create"
) and
not gcp.audit.resource_name:(*metrics* or *healthz* or *stats/summary* or *elastic-agent* or *configz*) and
not client.user.email:(
  "system:kube-controller-manager" or
  "system:kube-scheduler" or
  system\:serviceaccount\:kube-system\:* or
  system\:node\:*
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect GKE API Server Proxying Request to Kubelet 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).