Suspicious Kubernetes Permission Enumeration via kubectl auth can-i

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
- T1069Permission Groups Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects enumeration of granted Kubernetes permissions via kubectl auth can-i --list. This behavior matches the Dirty DAG exploitation of Azure Data Factory Airflow where an attacker inside a compromised pod mapped its privileges before escalating. Permission enumeration from a workload context is an early reconnaissance step toward cluster takeover.

Reporting behind it

Related detections3 linkedT1069 — drag to rearrange

Windows PowerShell module commandlet names matching known exploitation and post-exploitation tooling

Windows Process Creation: Suspicious PowerShell Commandlets Used by Known Exploitation Tools

Windows PowerShell ScriptBlock detects known malicious commandlet names used by exploitation frameworks

Suspicious Kubernetes Permission Enumeration via kubectl auth can-i

Pivot detection · T1069 · 3 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →