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k8s-dashboard-present

Ensure the Kubernetes dashboard is not deployed

It is highly recommended NOT to deploy the Kubernetes dashboard publicly or simply at all, especially if you are using Kubernetes in a managed environment like Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, etc. Those cloud providers have their own methods of managing the cluster and monitoring it outside of the cluster itself.

The dashboard is merely a frontend for the Kubernetes API, which forces you to expose the sensitive control plane API to the public Internet. Given that, it is very important to have good Authentication / Authorization strategy to protect this sensitive API.

If you do decide to deploy it, make sure to follow the recommendation for Access Control in the official documentation.

Examples

Insecure Example

This is based on this manifest.

kind: Deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
spec:
  replicas: 1
  revisionHistoryLimit: 10
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: kubernetes-dashboard
          image: kubernetesui/dashboard:v2.0.0
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8443
              protocol: TCP
          args:
            - --auto-generate-certificates
            - --namespace=kubernetes-dashboard
            # Uncomment the following line to manually specify Kubernetes API server Host
            # If not specified, Dashboard will attempt to auto discover the API server and connect
            # to it. Uncomment only if the default does not work.
            # - --apiserver-host=http://my-address:port
          volumeMounts:
            - name: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
              mountPath: /certs
              # Create on-disk volume to store exec logs
            - mountPath: /tmp
              name: tmp-volume
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              scheme: HTTPS
              path: /
              port: 8443
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            timeoutSeconds: 30
          securityContext:
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
            runAsUser: 1001
            runAsGroup: 2001
      volumes:
        - name: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
          secret:
            secretName: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
        - name: tmp-volume
          emptyDir: {}
      serviceAccountName: kubernetes-dashboard
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      # Comment the following tolerations if Dashboard must not be deployed on master
      tolerations:
        - key: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
          effect: NoSchedule

Secure Example

There is no single recommended secure option here, simply avoid deploying this legacy component.

More information