GKE User Exec into Pod

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-06-30

Created 8 days ago on 2026-06-30

About

Detects the first occurrence of a non-system GKE identity establishing an exec session into a pod. kubectl exec enables interactive command execution inside workloads and is a common post-compromise technique to access secrets and expand access.

Tags

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

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Container Administration Command (T1609)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Administrators routinely exec into pods for troubleshooting. Baseline expected users and target pods, then exclude known break-glass identities.

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 event.action:("io.k8s.core.v1.pods.exec.create" or "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.exec.get") and
not user.email:system\:*

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect GKE User Exec into Pod 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).