Elastic high stable kql

GKE API Request Impersonating Privileged Identity

Detects GKE API requests where a caller is impersonating a privileged cluster identity such as system:kube-controller-manager, system:admin, system:anonymous, or a kube-system service account. These identities have broad cluster-wide permissions including unrestricted access to secrets, the ability to create tokens for any service account, schedule pods on any node, and modify RBAC. Impersonating system:kube-controller-manager grants access to secrets across namespaces and service account token minting for lateral movement.

View Source

Detection Logic

data_stream.dataset:gcp.audit and service.name:"k8s.io" and event.outcome:success and
gcp.audit.authentication_info.authority_selector:(
  "admin" or "cluster-admin" or "kubernetes-admin" or "system:admin" or "system:anonymous" or
  "system:apiserver" or "system:kube-controller-manager" or "system:kube-proxy" or
  "system:kube-scheduler" or "system:volume-scheduler" or
  system\:node\:* or system\:serviceaccount\:kube-system\:*
) and
not client.user.email:(
  "system:kube-controller-manager" or
  "system:kube-scheduler" or
  system\:node\:* or
  system\:serviceaccount\:kube-system\:*
)

False Positives

⚠ Break-glass admin tooling, security scanners, or approved controllers that legitimately use impersonation against privileged targets may match. Map expected callers and expand client.user.email exclusions as needed.

Field Validations

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