Pod Security Standards in Detail
privileged, baseline and restricted are easy to recite and hard to place. This guide builds the matrix: an ordinary Pod and a privileged one, submitted to all three levels, plus the host-namespace case that shows what baseline is for.
Security Fundamentals Guide 22 of 42 Intermediate
- Kubernetesapiserver v1.36.4, kubelet v1.36.3
- Runtimecontainerd 2.2.6
- CNICilium 1.18.1
- Built withkubeadm v1.36.3
- TimeAbout 18 min
Pod Security Admission is built into the apiserver, so none of this needs anything installed. The warning text names the version it evaluated against - restricted:latest here - which is why pinning enforce-version matters.
- Host kernel7.0.0-29
| Server Name | IP Address | OS | Roles | CPU | RAM | HDD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CKA5001 | 192.168.0.41 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Control Plane Node (tainted NoSchedule) | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
| CKA5001-NODE01 | 192.168.0.42 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Worker Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
| CKA5001-NODE02 | 192.168.0.43 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Worker Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
| CKA5001-NODE03 | 192.168.0.44 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Worker Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
This guide includes
Use this when privileged, baseline and restricted have to be placed rather than recited. This matters because the difference only becomes concrete once the same Pod is submitted to all three levels and two of them refuse it.
- creating three namespaces, one per level, where the entire configuration is a label
- submitting a privileged Pod to all three and finding only one that accepts it
- submitting an ordinary Pod, which is where the baseline-to-restricted line actually falls
- using host namespaces where they are permitted, and seeing what they expose
- using
warnmode, which is how a rollout of this is actually done
Before you start
-
Three namespaces, one per level
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A privileged Pod: only one level takes it
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An ordinary Pod: the line between baseline and restricted
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Host namespaces, and what they actually expose
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warn mode, which is how a rollout actually happens