Kubernetes Ransomware Threat: How to Protect and Recover

Vulnerabilities may delay the launch of Kubernetes, but the growing threat of ransomware doesn't seem to be holding back Kubernetes adoption.

www.urolime.com

Kubernetes is becoming increasingly popular for automating large-scale software deployment, distribution, and management in a containerized environment. However, many Kubernetes Consulting Company view the threat of ransomware attacks as a barrier to ransomware adoption. A Red Hat survey of more than 500 DevOps, engineering, and security professionals found that 55% delayed deployment of production Kubernetes applications due to security issues.

Vulnerabilities may delay the launch of Kubernetes, but the growing threat of ransomware doesn't seem to be holding back Kubernetes adoption. In a survey conducted by Red Hat, 88% of respondents said their organization uses Kubernetes for container orchestration, and 74% had adopted Kubernetes in production.

As Kubernetes distributions continue to grow, so does the theoretical number of attack vectors, which partly helps explain the increase in ransomware attacks and the damage they inflict on these environments. In general, due to their highly distributed nature, Kubernetes containers and clusters are vulnerable as entry points for attackers trying to stage ransomware attacks. When scaling, the number of microservices implemented results in many usable dependencies.

According to a Kubernetes Consulting Services provider, ransomware attacks can usually be prevented. Once you understand the risks of Kubernetes ransomware, companies can take specific and appropriate steps to protect themselves.

The Weakest Links Vulnerabilities in the Kubernetes environment exploited by ransomware attackers are similar to vulnerabilities exposed to other types of attacks. This often leads to data theft and destruction, theft of computing resources through cloud provider accounts, illegal cryptocurrency mining, Denial-ofservice (DoS), and other incidents related to security. Ransomware, specifically, obfuscates organizations to allow attackers to block access to data and applications, usually through encryption, and pay a ransom to continue access.

The framework behind Kubernetes clusters lends itself to multiple attack entries between Kubernetes components.

• • • • •

Kubernetes API server. etcd server client to store key values.

Kubelet for managing nodes.

Use a Kube planner to assign nodes to pods.

A Kube controller administrator/manager.

And for those who rely on cloud providers, there is a separate Kube controller Manager for cloud environments.

Although less complicated to deploy and maintain, virtual machines (VMs) do not offer the huge advantages that Kubernetes offers for application development and management, but like virtual machines running Linux, Windows, or other systems operations are largely self-contained, which makes it vulnerable. Although they do not share the underlying operating system, in a Kubernetes distribution they are shared by all containers running on each node.

www.urolime.com

If a Kubernetes node is compromised, all pods on that node can be affected, exposing the entire cluster to that vulnerable node. This makes it possible to operate all the containers in the cluster because, unlike virtual machines, they share the same core on the same host.

In the world of Kubernetes, all nodes, clusters, and containers can share many resources and vulnerabilities in addition to a common operating system. A single microservice only needs to introduce vulnerabilities into multiple containers. The potential attack vectors lurking in the container supply chain are as plentiful as the microservices that connect container environments.

Within the Kubernetes cluster, there is another source of problems: stealth (secret) management.

Secrets used to provide API tokens, passwords, and other sensitive data have inherent vulnerabilities. For example, the ingress controller and other components are configured to access cluster secrets. Also, most secrets are not encrypted. There are different encryption schemes, including the Kubernetes option which offers secret encryption, but these options are still in beta testing or not 100% secure. The DevOps team is cautious when using it in a production environment.

Threatening Predators Ransomware attackers attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in the Kubernetes environment are likely to use automated tools to scan for vulnerabilities. Many scan tools can be purchased online on the Dark Web and sometimes even through public forums like Reddit. The attacker finds a way into the group, then waits while automated detection tools determine the angle of attack.

There is a more direct data path for ransomware attackers. For more than 8 years, until the recent public disclosure of the vulnerability, a simple search tool was essentially able to find and locate the default port of the MongoDB database, which had been exposed for several years. Meanwhile, all MongoDB client admins (or hackers posing as hackers) have read and write access to these MongoDB databases through unencrypted and unsecured ports. This means that organizations deploying MongoDB databases on Kubernetes or containerized environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) can expose their databases to the world via commands that do not require credentials for access. Kubernetes Consulting Services prepare a systematic roadmap.

Internal security a greater challenge Security and IT personnel can also be involved in phishing. To give attackers a direct link to potential ransomware gold, someone with enhanced network access only needs to click the malicious link once. Potential fatal targets are administrators, especially those with access to the control plane API. The Kubernetes clusters needed to manage these permissions are vulnerable to ransomware attacks, for example by tricking administrators into granting them access to host endpoints. Such access could compromise the underlying operating system and corrupt some containers or pods. In some cases, the attacker manages to gain access to the pod and can further escalate the attack if root access is secure. They can access and control sensitive data suitable for on-premises or cloud data storage with the etcd server client. Privilege elevation allows attackers to access on-premises and cloud data stores.

Siloscape is the latest example of how ransomware attackers can gain access to Microsoft Windows containers. Siloscape exploits the RCE (Remote Code Execution) vulnerability using a Tor proxy and an onion domain. The attacker accesses the entire cluster by running binaries in the container. This allows ransomware attackers to access all data stored in the cluster, including passwords and customer information. In many cases, distributed container clusters in multi-cloud environments can trigger larger supply chain attacks.

www.urolime.com

Create Immutable Kubernetes Environment: The standard protocol for ransomware readiness. There are essential best practices and tools to help prevent Kubernetes ransomware attacks. With the right type of patches and updates, and delegating security management to a trusted third party (a simple API security management solution is available), you can protect yourself against the attacks described in this article. In a clustered environment infrastructure protection, a service Mesh helper model can help manage traffic between clustered services to prevent ransomware or other attacks by using a neighboring proxy daemon that controls the incoming and outgoing traffic for the container.

Mitigate Risks - which limits the spread of secondary attacks, is arguably the best defense against ransomware attacks. Micro-segmentation allows you to grant limited access to specific data and applications while leaving the rest of your environment unsecured, despite rigorous patching and other security routines. This practice is known as Zero Trust, limits administrator or user access to the API space while limiting access to more critical data warehousing functions, which may include data storage components.

Essential Native Backup components – typically the lifeblood of a business along with the data and applications needed to run it – can benefit from immutability. Once created, you cannot modify it.

Live Object Storage backup data is stored in read-only mode and it is encrypted, so even if an attacker gains access to it, the data remains out of the attacker's reach and can be used for a safe recovery, preventing ransomware.

In the event of a ransomware attack, you should have a decent backup and recovery system that can restore your data and apps in minutes. Data and applications cannot be changed here either. The decryption key that can perform this recovery process remains locked to the network and cannot be obtained by cloud or local ransomware attackers. Any data distributed to Kubernetes in this way is kept to a minimum. In the MongoDB attack described above, the attacker has no control over the object storage component directly through the API. Immutability protects against ransomware attacks. Backup administrators or attackers with access to AWS storage containers cannot delete the data. Data can be backed up at set intervals based on your organization's needs. True immutability allows you to revert to different backup versions for different timestamps when data recovery and replication are required. Potential ransomware attackers can control certain parts of the system, but everything reverts to its previous timestamp within minutes. It is as if the organization is back to where it was before the attack.

Schedule Actions To prevent Kubernetes ransomware attacks, you need to be aware of the nature of the attack and the security limitations associated with Kubernetes. Knowing about the vulnerabilities is the first step. Organizations should implement mitigation methods and IT infrastructure best practices.

Immutability is the standard practice for protection against ransomware attacks in Kubernetes environments. Otherwise, if your data is locked or erased in an attack, your business may be forced to stop operations or pay a ransom, and there is no guarantee that your data will be recovered.

The immutability of direct-object storage allows organizations to easily recover data. If an attacker manages to gain access and destroys the cluster infrastructure, the organization must also be able to request disaster recovery. It means data and workloads are restored to a brand-new cluster.

www.urolime.com

Additionally, your organization should have the right tools to deploy new clusters in public clouds or off-premises if needed.

Disaster recovery should consider all kinds of use cases and Kubernetes deployments, including edge environments. Data snapshots should be periodically exported to ensure forced storage objects are not accessed. Post a ransomware attack, organizations should be able to use their credentials to recover encrypted data. Last, but not the least, you should regularly test the immutability of your backups.

You can be back to business as usual in minutes without paying a dime to the attacker. It requires significant changes in the ongoing work to protect your business against ransomware. Next time you receive a message that your data is hijacked, and it will cost you $100 million to recover customer data, just restore your backup.

www.urolime.com