Shift-Left Security in Kubernetes
Security can’t be an afterthought in Kubernetes. In fast-moving DevOps pipelines, leaving security checks until production means vulnerabilities are caught too late. The solution is Shift-Left Security — bringing security earlier into the CI/CD lifecycle.
1. Why Shift-Left Matters in Kubernetes
Containers move from dev to prod in minutes.
Without security baked into build and deploy, misconfigured RBAC, exposed secrets, and vulnerable images slip into clusters.
By shifting left, vulnerabilities are caught before workloads hit production.
2. Image Scanning in CI/CD
Use tools like Trivy, Anchore, or Clair to scan container images before they’re deployed.
Example: GitHub Actions step with Trivy.
- name: Scan container image
uses: aquasecurity/trivy-action@master
with:
image-ref: myapp:latest
format: 'table'
exit-code: '1'
ignore-unfixed: true
If critical CVEs are found, the pipeline fails.
3. Policy as Code
Shift-left means enforcing compliance early in the pipeline. Open Policy Agent (OPA Gatekeeper) or Kyverno can block bad manifests before they reach the cluster.
Example: Block privileged containers.
apiVersion: constraints.gatekeeper.sh/v1beta1
kind: K8sPSPNoPrivilegedContainer
metadata:
name: disallow-privileged
spec:
enforcementAction: deny
This prevents engineers from accidentally deploying insecure pods.
Read More: https://kubeha.com/shift-left-security-in-kubernetes/
Follow KubeHA Linkedin Page: https://lnkd.in/gV4Q2d4m
KubeHA's introduction: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyzTQPLGaD0
Top comments (2)
Awesome
Thanks