AWS EKS Privileged Pod Created

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-10-21

Created 3 months ago on 2026-08-03

About

This rule detects when a user creates a pod/container running in privileged mode. A highly privileged container has access to the node's resources and breaks the isolation between containers. If compromised, an attacker can use the privileged container to gain access to the underlying host. Gaining access to the host may provide the adversary with the opportunity to achieve follow-on objectives, such as establishing persistence, moving laterally within the environment, or setting up a command and control channel on the host.

Tags

Domain: CloudDomain: ContainersPlatform: AWSPlatform: KubernetesData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: Kubernetes API Server Audit LogsService: AWS EKSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionTactic: Privilege EscalationRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Threat: Container EscapeProfile: BetaLanguage: 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)

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

↳ Deploy Container (T1610)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

By default a container is not allowed to access any devices on the host, but a "privileged" container is given access to all devices on the host. This allows the container nearly all the same access as processes running on the host. An administrator may want to run a privileged container to use operating system administrative capabilities such as manipulating the network stack or accessing hardware devices from within the cluster. Add exceptions for trusted container images using the query field "aws.eks.audit.requestObject.spec.container.image"

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-aws.eks_audit-*
Related Integrations: aws(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗data_stream.dataset : "aws.eks_audit" and aws.eks.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/decision:"allow" and
aws.eks.audit.objectRef.resource:pods and aws.eks.audit.verb:create and aws.eks.audit.requestObject.spec.containers.securityContext.privileged:true and
not aws.eks.audit.requestObject.spec.containers.image: (
  *amazonaws.com/betsie/pipeline/pipeline-core* or mirror.gcr.io/aquasec/trivy* or rancher/mirrored-longhornio-longhorn-instance-manager* or quay.io/calico* or
  rancher/system-agent* or openebs/m-exporter* or openebs/cstor-istgt* or ghcr.io/kubereboot/kured* or registry.k8s.io/sig-storage/csi-node-driver-registrar* or
  registry.k8s.io/csi-secrets-store* or registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/gitlab-runner-helper* or sonarsource/sonar-scanner-cli* or
  rancher/mirrored-longhornio-longhorn-engine* or jenkins/inbound-agent* or registry.k8s.io/dns/k8s-dns-node-cache* or
  *amazonaws.com/eks/kube-proxy* or *amazonaws.com/eks/aws-efs-csi-driver* or *amazonaws.com/eks/livenessprobe* or *amazonaws.com/amazon-k8s-cni* or
  *amazonaws.com/amazon/aws-network-policy-agent* or openebs/node-disk-manager* or openebs/node-disk-exporter* or
  public.ecr.aws/eks-distro/kubernetes-csi/livenessprobe* or public.ecr.aws/eks-distro/kubernetes-csi/external-provisioner* or
  amazon/aws-efs-csi-driver* or registry.k8s.io/kube-proxy* or registry.crowdstrike.com/falcon-sensor* or *octopus-deploy/tentacle* or */sysdig/*
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS EKS Privileged Pod Created 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).