Kubernetes Forbidden Creation Request

Last updated a month ago on 2025-07-07
Created a month ago on 2025-06-24

About

This rule detects attempts to create resources in Kubernetes clusters that are forbidden by the authorization policy. It specifically looks for creation requests that are denied with a "forbid" decision, indicating that the user or service account does not have the necessary permissions to perform the action. This activity is commonly associated with adversaries attempting to create resources in a Kubernetes environment without proper authorization, which can lead to unauthorized access, manipulation of cluster resources, lateral movement and/or privilege escalation.
Tags
Data Source: KubernetesDomain: KubernetesUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

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

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-kubernetes.audit_logs-*
Related Integrations

kubernetes(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
any where host.os.type == "linux" and event.dataset == "kubernetes.audit_logs" and kubernetes.audit.verb == "create" and
kubernetes.audit.stage == "ResponseComplete" and `kubernetes.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/decision` == "forbid"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Kubernetes Forbidden Creation Request 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(opens in a new tab or window).