GKE Container Created with Excessive Linux Capabilities

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-06-30

Created 8 days ago on 2026-06-30

About

Detects GKE pod creation with dangerous Linux capabilities that are commonly abused in container escape techniques. Standalone pods are included; controller-owned ReplicaSet, DaemonSet, and StatefulSet workloads are excluded.

Tags

Domain: CloudDomain: KubernetesData Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: ExecutionLanguage: 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

Some platform or security images legitimately require elevated capabilities. Add image or namespace exceptions 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 event.action:"io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create" and event.outcome:success and
gcp.audit.request.spec.containers.securityContext.capabilities.add:(
  "BPF" or "DAC_READ_SEARCH" or "NET_ADMIN" or "SYS_ADMIN" or "SYS_BOOT" or "SYS_MODULE" or "SYS_PTRACE" or "SYS_RAWIO" or
  "SYSLOG"
) and not gcp.audit.request.metadata.ownerReferences.kind:("ReplicaSet" or "DaemonSet" or "StatefulSet")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect GKE Container Created with Excessive Linux Capabilities 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).