Apply Security Context to Your Pods and Containers (Manual)
Scanned 5/30/2026
Install via CLI
openskills install CyberStrikeus/CyberStrike---
name: cis-ocp-v190-5.7.3
description: "Apply Security Context to Your Pods and Containers (Manual)"
category: cis-openshift
version: "1.9.0"
author: cyberstrike-official
tags: [cis, openshift, kubernetes, redhat, policies, general-policies]
cis_id: "5.7.3"
cis_benchmark: "CIS Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Benchmark v1.9.0"
tech_stack: [kubernetes, openshift, redhat]
cwe_ids: []
chains_with: []
prerequisites: []
severity_boost: {}
---
# CIS Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Benchmark v1.9.0 - Control 5.7.3
## Profile Applicability
- **Level:** 2
## Description
Apply Security Context to Your Pods and Containers.
## Rationale
A security context defines the operating system security settings (uid, gid, capabilities, SELinux role, etc..) applied to a container. When designing your containers and pods, make sure that you configure the security context for your pods, containers, and volumes. A security context is a property defined in the deployment yaml. It controls the security parameters that will be assigned to the pod/container/volume. There are two levels of security context: pod level security context, and container level security context.
## Impact
If you incorrectly apply security contexts, you may have trouble running the pods.
## Audit Procedure
Review the pod definitions in your cluster and verify that you have security contexts defined as appropriate.
OpenShift's Security Context Constraint feature is on by default in OpenShift 4 and applied to all pods deployed. SCC selection is determined by a combination of the values in the securityContext and the rolebindings for the account deploying the pod.
Run the following command to obtain a list of pods that are using `privileged` security context constraints:
```bash
oc get pods -A -o json | jq '.items[] | select(.metadata.annotations."openshift.io/scc"|test("privileged"?)) | .metadata.name'
```
Review each pod to ensure it requires the use of `privileged` security context constraints, which is the most relaxed security context constraint available in OpenShift by default.
Run the following command to obtain a list of pods that are not using security context constraints at all:
```bash
oc get pods -A -o json | jq '.items[] | select(.metadata.annotations."openshift.io/scc" == null) | .metadata.name'
```
Review each pod and determine if there is an existing security context constraint that it should be using.
## Remediation
Follow the Kubernetes documentation and apply security contexts to your pods. For a suggested list of security contexts, you may refer to the CIS Security Benchmark for Docker Containers.
## Default Value
By default, no security contexts are automatically applied to pods.
## References
1. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/policy/security-context/
2. https://learn.cisecurity.org/benchmarks
## CIS Controls
| Controls Version | Control | IG 1 | IG 2 | IG 3 |
| ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---- | ---- | ---- |
| v8 | 7.3 Perform Automated Operating System Patch Management | x | x | x |
| v7 | 8.3 Enable Operating System Anti-Exploitation Features / Deploy Anti-Exploit Technologies | | x | x |
## MITRE ATT&CK Mappings
| Techniques / Sub-techniques | Tactics | Mitigations |
| --------------------------- | -------------- | ----------- |
| T1556, T1611 | TA0004, TA0006 | M1048 |
## Profile
**Level 2** (Manual)
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