Malicious actors have been exploiting vulnerable Kubernetes (K8s) clusters to deploy cryptocurrency miners and backdoors, according to a report by cloud security firm Aqua. The majority of these compromised clusters belong to small to medium-sized organizations, while some are linked to larger entities across sectors like finance, aerospace, and automotive industries.
A total of over 350 Kubernetes clusters were identified, with 60% targeted in active crypto-mining campaigns. The vulnerabilities lie in misconfigurations that allow unauthorized access, including enabling high-privilege anonymous access and running kubectl proxy with specific flags.
These exposed Kubernetes clusters house a wealth of valuable assets, including customer data, financial records, intellectual property, access credentials, encryption keys, and more.
Security researchers Michael Katchinskiy and Assaf Morag emphasize the severity of the threat, highlighting how the compromised clusters contain pods lists with sensitive environment variables and access keys. These vulnerabilities offer malicious actors the potential to delve deep into the target environment, access source code repositories, and even introduce harmful modifications. Further investigation has revealed ongoing cryptocurrency mining campaigns, including a Dero cryptojacking operation, RBAC Buster, and TeamTNT’s Silentbob.
Despite the evident security risks, misconfigurations continue to be a widespread issue across organizations of all sizes. This highlights a concerning gap in the understanding and management of Kubernetes security, prompting the urgent need for improved practices and measures to safeguard against these evolving threats.
