Runtime Security

When to Use This Skill

This section covers runtime security for GKE clusters:

• Pod Security Standards: Namespace-level security policies (baseline, restricted)
• Admission Controllers: Pre-deployment validation and policy enforcement
• Runtime Monitoring: Behavioral detection with Falco or GKE Cloud Logging

Prerequisites

• GCP project with billing enabled
• Terraform 1.0+
• kubectl configured for cluster access

Implementation

• Cluster Configuration - Private GKE, Workload Identity
• Network Security - VPC networking, Network Policies
• IAM Configuration - Least-privilege IAM

Key Principles

Defense in Depth

Multiple layers of runtime security controls:

• Pod Security Standards enforce secure defaults
• Admission controllers block invalid configurations
• Runtime monitoring detects anomalous behavior
• Audit logging captures all activity

Secure by Default

Production workloads must meet strict security requirements:

• Run as non-root user
• Read-only root filesystem
• Drop all Linux capabilities
• No privilege escalation
• Resource limits defined

Continuous Monitoring

Runtime monitoring provides visibility into pod behavior:

• Process execution tracking
• File access monitoring
• Network connection detection
• System call auditing

Related Patterns

• Cluster Configuration
• Network Security
• IAM Configuration

References

• Source Documentation
• AEL Secure