Suspicious Access To Kubernetes Service Account Token File
- Product
- linux
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-10-16
- Updated
- 2026-10-16
ATT&CK techniques
Cred AccessRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects command line access to the mounted Kubernetes service account token path under var run secrets kubernetes io as described in NCC Group Kubernetes detection engineering research. Adversaries read this bearer token to impersonate the pod service account and authenticate to the API server for lateral movement and privilege escalation.
Reporting behind it
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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