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GKE Pod Exec Cloud Instance Metadata Access

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IMPORTANT: This documentation is no longer updated. Refer to Elastic's version policy and the latest documentation.

GKE Pod Exec Cloud Instance Metadata Access

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Detects successful GKE pod exec sessions whose command references Google Cloud instance metadata endpoints, including metadata.google.internal, computeMetadata/v1, or the link-local metadata IP 169.254.169.254. Workloads that reach the GKE metadata service from an exec session are often attempting to harvest short-lived credentials or instance attributes from the node or workload identity boundary. That behavior is high risk because it can expose cloud credentials to code running inside a container. GKE records the command in gcp.audit.labels.command.gke.io/command when an explicit command is passed to exec.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

  • logs-gcp.audit-*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-6m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Domain: Cloud
  • Domain: Kubernetes
  • Data Source: GCP
  • Data Source: GCP Audit Logs
  • Data Source: Google Cloud Platform
  • Use Case: Threat Detection
  • Tactic: Credential Access
  • Tactic: Execution
  • Resources: Investigation Guide

Version: 1

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Triage and analysis

Investigating GKE Pod Exec Cloud Instance Metadata Access

This alert fires when a successful pods/exec API call includes a command targeting GKE/GCP instance metadata. Review gcp.audit.labels.command.gke.io/command for the full command string.

Possible investigation steps

  • Confirm the actor (client.user.email), source IP, and user agent that performed exec.
  • Map gcp.audit.resource_name to the target pod/namespace and determine whether the workload should ever call metadata.
  • Correlate with GCP audit logs for token issuance or IAM activity around the same time from the node or workload identity.
  • Hunt adjacent activity from the same identity: secret reads, additional execs, or RBAC changes.

False positive analysis

  • Approved platform tooling or bootstrap scripts may query metadata during startup; baseline those images and identities.
  • Break-glass egress/metadata connectivity tests can match; document and allowlist those principals.

Response and remediation

  • If unauthorized, terminate the session, isolate the workload, revoke or rotate instance and workload credentials that could have been read, and tighten pods/exec RBAC plus network policies that deny link-local metadata from pods.

Setup

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The GCP Fleet integration with GKE audit logs enabled is required to be compatible with this rule.

Rule query

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data_stream.dataset:gcp.audit and service.name:"k8s.io" and
event.outcome:success and event.type:start and
event.action:("io.k8s.core.v1.pods.exec.create" or "io.k8s.core.v1.pods.exec.get") and
gcp.audit.labels.command.gke.io/command:(
  *169.254.169.254* or *metadata.google.internal* or *computeMetadata/v1*
)

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

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