Roles

In Kubernetes, a Role is a declaration of the operations that can be performed on a type of Kubernetes resource within a particular namespace. A simple example of a Role could be: You might need to do some pre-checks as below:

Roles. yaml: This Role, named ‘pod-reader’, provides read-only access to Pods in the default namespace.

kind: Role
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
namespace: default
name: pod-reader
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
resources: ["pods"]
verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]

How To Use Kubernetes RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)?

In a nutshell, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a method of regulating access to computer or network resources based on the roles of individual users within an organization. In the context of Kubernetes, RBAC is a security feature that controls access to resources within your cluster. It allows you to specify what actions a user or a group of users can and cannot perform. This is vital in a team environment, where not everyone should have full, unrestricted access to all resources.

Before we go further, let’s briefly understand the architecture of Kubernetes. Kubernetes follows a master-worker node architecture. The master node is responsible for maintaining the desired state (like which applications or other workloads should be running and which nodes they live on), and the worker nodes actually run the workloads.

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Kubernetes Architecture

Kubernetes Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) can manage the access and permissions to users and groups based on their requirements as shown below figure the roles or cluster role will be attached to the specified user depending upon their requirements it may be the role that defines permissions within the namespace or cluster role which defines across the namespace....

Understanding Key Concepts

RBAC in Kubernetes primarily involves four types of Kubernetes objects: Roles, RoleBindings, ClusterRoles, and ClusterRoleBindings. We also need to understand the concepts of Subjects, Verbs, and Resources as they form the basis of defining access control rules....

Roles

In Kubernetes, a Role is a declaration of the operations that can be performed on a type of Kubernetes resource within a particular namespace. A simple example of a Role could be: You might need to do some pre-checks as below:...

RoleBindings

It actually grants the permissions defined in a Role to a user or set of users. It holds a list of subjects and a reference to the Role being granted. Here’s an example of a RoleBinding:...

ClusterRoles

ClusterRole is similar to Role. However, while a Role is namespace-specific, a ClusterRole is not. This means that you can define permissions that apply across all namespaces in your cluster. Here’s an example of a ClusterRole....

ClusterRoleBindings

Similar to a RoleBinding, a ClusterRoleBinding grants the permissions defined in a ClusterRole to a set of users, but it applies cluster-wide....

How to Implement RBAC

In Kubernetes, we typically apply Roles, RoleBindings, ClusterRoles, and ClusterRoleBindings by writing them in YAML files and applying them using kubectl. Firstly, we define Roles and cluster roles. These define the “what” – what can be done? Then, we define your RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings. These define the “who” – who can do it? Through the interplay of these RBAC components, you can fine-tune the permissions in your Kubernetes cluster, ensuring that every user can only do what they need to do, and nothing more....

RBAC Usage Scenarios

RBAC can be used in various scenarios to isolate team access, limit resource access, restrict operations, control admin access, and manage service account permissions....

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