Breaking Kubernetes for Fun and Profit

Learn how to secure the infrastructre of the future.

Description

Kubernetes is complex, powerful… and surprisingly easy to mess up. In this talk, we’ll take a guided tour through the dark alleys of Kubernetes misconfigurations, privilege escalations, and real-world attack vectors. You’ll see live demos of how attackers exploit innocent-looking setups — and more importantly, how you can detect, prevent, and recover from them.

In this talk, I’ll explore Kubernetes from the perspective of an attacker versus that of a system administrator. The goal is to highlight how seemingly minor misconfigurations can lead to full cluster compromise. By examining real-world attack paths and understanding how attackers think, I’ll peel back the layers of abstraction that Kubernetes provides — revealing the underlying mechanics that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Participants will learn how small oversights, like overly permissive RBAC or default settings, can open the door to privilege escalation and lateral movement. The talk is designed to help admins and developers build a more grounded understanding of Kubernetes' inner workings, empowering them to avoid blind trust in the platform’s default security and to recognize its limitations and risks more clearly.

Why the committee chose this talk

Kubernetes is a major building block in the infrastructre of the future. Securing it is of utmost importance.