Formal Graph Verification of Cloud Identity Trust Policies, Cluster Access Roles, and Pod Confinement
A container running in a cluster is granted an overly broad service account token or mounts the underlying host disk, allowing an attacker to take over the entire Kubernetes cluster or cloud account. The verifier audits role graphs and admission specs in read-only dry-run mode and compiles an admission control policy for border enforcement.
In cloud-native environments, privilege boundaries are defined by identity role-assumption graphs, Kubernetes role-based access control (RBAC) bindings, and pod security contexts. Escalation paths emerge when workloads mount automounted service-account tokens with wildcard verbs, request privileged host namespaces or host-path volumes, or reach cloud instance metadata services to harvest node-level credentials.
Security Officer (Plain Meaning): Halts "Bind cluster-admin ClusterRole, mount host root filesystem, or exfiltrate node IAM credentials from IMDS" before socket (0 live DB damage, signed GOST receipt)
IT Auditor & SecOps (Evidence): Scope OWASP Kubernetes Top 10 (K01 / K03) | Wire Rule SEC-ZD-V2-06 | Formal Witness 1d76b309e48a5c23
Technocrat, CTO & VC (Moat): Z3 Invariant (assert (and (= (pod_privileged spec) false) (= (host_path... | FP = 0.0% | Contract IMMUNE-K8S-1D76B309 (mcp-sentinel 1.1.2)1. In-Path Interception and Contract Synthesis Schematic for CLD-K8S-06
Deterministic verification flow for CLD-K8S-06 (OWASP Kubernetes Top 10 (K01 / K03), MITRE ATT&CK T1611 / T1078.004): wire filter SEC-ZD-V2-06 intercepts destructive mutations prior to socket delivery, formal witness 1d76b309e48a5c23 proves the flaw, and compiler emits gateway rule IMMUNE-K8S-1D76B309 for mcp-sentinel.
2. Zero-Damage Wire Filtering and Formal Solver Invariant for CLD-K8S-06
Under rule SEC-ZD-V2-06, the in-path software filter restricts cluster and cloud verification to read-only policy reviews and server dry-run admission checks. Any request that would create a live privileged pod, modify cluster role bindings, or delete workloads is intercepted before socket transmission.
On the benchmark stand, the verifier evaluates role-escalation reachability and admission specifications against misconfigured and hardened cluster decoys. The differential check records formal witness 1d76b309e48a5c23 with zero false positives across compliant baseline manifests.
Class Identifier: CLD-K8S-06 (cloud_iam_kubernetes_escape)
Taxonomy Concordance: OWASP Kubernetes Top 10 (K01 / K03) | MITRE ATT&CK T1611 / T1078.004
Execution Mode: Active Safe Probing (AUTO_SCAN)
Candidate Probe: POST /apis/authorization.k8s.io/v1/selfsubjectrulesreviews {"spec":{"namespace":"kube-system"}} | PodSpec: privileged=true, hostPath=/
Blocked Mutation: Bind cluster-admin ClusterRole, mount host root filesystem, or exfiltrate node IAM credentials from IMDS
Z3 Solver Invariant: (assert (and (= (pod_privileged spec) false) (= (host_path_mount spec) false) (= (rbac_wildcard_verbs role) false) (= (imds_hop_limit node) 1)))
Wire Sandbox Rule: SEC-ZD-V2-06
Formal Witness Hash: 1d76b309e48a5c23
Compiled Sentinel Rule: IMMUNE-K8S-1D76B309 (mcp-sentinel 1.1.2)3. Autonomous Synthesis of Gateway Contract IMMUNE-K8S-1D76B309 and Streebog-256 Receipt
From witness 1d76b309e48a5c23, the compiler synthesizes contract IMMUNE-K8S-1D76B309 for border enforcement. The rule rejects privileged containers, host filesystem mounts, and wildcard role bindings at the admission webhook and gateway boundary.
4. Engineering Reference Notes for CLD-K8S-06
Auditing Kubernetes pod escape vectors without deploying privileged containers
The verifier submits candidate manifests strictly with the server dry-run parameter and evaluates RBAC permission graphs mathematically, proving admission gaps without scheduling a single container on a worker node.
Preventing pod-to-node cloud credential theft via metadata endpoints
The compiled policy blocks pod network egress to link-local metadata addresses (169.254.169.254) and enforces workload identity federation with audience-bound scoped tokens.