A Comparative Study on the Security of Kubernetes Deployments

As the adoption of containerized environments continues to expand, ensuring the security of Kubernetes clusters has become a major concern. In this paper, we analyze the security postures of four Kubernetes clusters in distinct configurations. In more detail, we consider two popular on-premises clusters and two managed services from public cloud providers. To perform the comparative analysis, a dedicated tool is created to automate security scans of cluster workloads, aggregate data on compliance, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations, and support flexible result analysis. Experimental evaluation focuses on resource misconfigurations, container image vulnerabilities, and security benchmark compliance. The results obtained reveal the differences resulting from distinct management and deployment models of the compared environments.