3.2.4 - Ensure that the --read-only-port is disabled (Automated)

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Disable the read-only port.

The Kubelet process provides a read-only API in addition to the main Kubelet API. Unauthenticated access is provided to this read-only API, which could possibly retrieve potentially sensitive information about the cluster.

Note

See the Amazon EKS documentation for the default value.

Impact

Removal of the read-only port will require that any service which made use of it will need to be re-configured to use the main Kubelet API.

Audit

If using a Kubelet configuration file, check that there is an entry for authentication: anonymous: enabled set to 0.
SSH to the relevant node. Run the following command on each node to find the appropriate Kubelet config file:
```
ps -ef | grep kubelet
```
The output of the above command should return something similar to --config/etc/kubernetes/kubelet/kubelet-config.json, which is the location of the Kubelet config file.

Open the Kubelet config file:

cat /etc/kubernetes/kubelet/kubelet-config.json

Verify that the --read-only-port argument exists and is set to 0.
If the --read-only-port argument is not present, check that there is a Kubelet config file specified by --config. Check that if there is a readOnlyPort entry in the file, it is set to 0.

Remediation

If modifying the Kubelet config file, edit the kubelet-config.json file /etc/kubernetes/kubelet/kubelet-config.json and set the below parameter to 0:

"readOnlyPort": 0

If using executable arguments, edit the kubelet service file /etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service.d/10-kubelet-args.conf on each worker node and add the below parameter at the end of the KUBELET_ARGS variable string:

--read-only-port=0

For each remediation, restart the kubelet service and check status based on your system:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl restart kubelet.service
systemctl status kubelet -l