Kubernetes Pod Security Standards: Profiles, Enforcement & Best Practices

Kubernetes Pod Security Standards (PSS) provide a framework for assigning varying levels of security to Pods based on their workloads, replacing the older and more complex Pod Security Policies. PSS operates through three security profiles—Privileged, Baseline, and Restricted—each providing different degrees of access control and enforced by the Pod Security Admission controller. These profiles are applied at the namespace level and can be managed using different enforcement modes, such as Enforce, Audit, and Warn, to balance security with operational needs. Best practices for implementing PSS include validating profiles early, using multiple enforcement modes, and strategically designing namespaces. Despite their effectiveness, PSS can be complemented by other security measures like image scanning, runtime threat detection, and identity segmentation. Groundcover enhances PSS compliance by providing detailed context for troubleshooting issues, making it easier for administrators to manage security configurations effectively.