5 Common Kubernetes Mistakes and how to avoid them

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes or Kube is an open-source platform for automating deployments and managing containerized applications.

What can you do with Kubernetes?

1. Check the status and self-repair of your applications with auto-placement, auto-launch, auto-replication, and auto-scaling.
2. Monitor and automate application deployments and updates.
3. Quickly scale containerized applications and their resources.

4. Declaration management services that ensure that deployment applications always run the way you want
5. Use suitable hardware to maximize the resources needed to run your business applications.
6. Arrange Multiple Host containers
7. Mount and add storage to run state-of-the-art applications.

It is during these operations that users make mistakes and encounter errors. Here are five common mistakes that Kubernetes users make and how to avoid them;

How to avoid common Kubernetes Security Mistakes

Using the ‘Latest’ Tag

As a beginner, one of the mistakes you can make while using Kubernetes is using the latest tag. By latest, it doesn’t mean the most recent one, nor does it represent the last one to be built. Latest is not some unique tag used in Kubernetes; this (latest) is a default tag used when you don’t specify a title. Using the newest tag in production is very dangerous because the version is not clear. When things break in production, it becomes complicated to return them to the original state as it will be difficult to understand what version the app is running.
Use specific tags during deployment to avoid the dangers of the latest tag. For example, you can use the user application version (server), the Git hash as a tag, or the date/build number.

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Deploying a Service to the Wrong Kubernetes Node

A node in Kubernetes is a worker machine that can either be virtual or physical, depending on the cluster, and a control panel manages each node. There are two nodes in Kubernetes, the worker node and the cluster node, and deploying a service to the wrong node can create chaos. This is because we have a controller and a scheduler to control all the node activities. The controller node runs the controller while the worker node runs the scheduler. Therefore if you deploy your work to the wrong node, it may not work as expected. Also, because containers depend on the scheduler to be assigned a task, it may take them longer than expected for a new container to start up. The solution to avoid this is to be constantly aware of the node your services are on before deploying them.

Using Only One Kind of Container in Production Environments

A container is a technology for packing an application and its runtime dependencies. Initially, engineers used much effort to support stateful container and containerization applications. However, this has been made easier with Kubernetes because of containerization and the ability to support modern data-driven applications, thus making it critical to employ stateful applications. As a developer, it is essential to note that during production, you must use more than one container; in this case, both stateful and stateless. Do not be mistaken; these containers are not the same. With a stateful container, you can store data on persistent storage like a disk, making it impossible to lose your data. However, you must back up data in stateless containers or lose it forever. It is therefore advised to use both stateful and stateless containers.

Security Misconfigurations & Default Configurations

Kubernetes’ purpose as a container orchestration platform is to manage all the containers while doing other things. Kubernetes makes your life much easier because of its wide array of controls and configurations; therefore, you do not need to do much as more things have been done for you. However, the critical point is that Kubernetes default configurations do not hold up during severe security attacks, just like any other default configurations. In Kubernetes, network policies that determine which pods can communicate with each other are not configured correctly. The network policy is not configured in default; every pod can communicate with the other, a severe security risk. As the developer, before deploying your application, ensure all the configurations are secure and do not rely on the default configurations. It is important to note that there is no standard guide to securely configuring your containers because every application is different.

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Exposing internal services to the Internet

When a software developer copies and pastes the workload configuration from a website or uses it.
The mixing scheme is be found online. Without knowing it, suppression includes the definition of a load balancer, which detects the Internet service. Such a mistake can happen, and it is difficult to capture. The best practice is to create load balancing tools that are exposable to the public services if performed intentionally.

Workloads listen for network traffic on a private IP address or other
default network settings. To get out of the cluster, you need to add o
the input controller or load balance ad then route the workload. But two dangerous settings keep the result from one line of code to an extended
configuration definition and bind the private IP to the base IP: host Port and
host network.

With the specified host port or host network set to true, the workload is displayed as a node, but no firewall and access control rules are attached to the host. That is critical that you do not publish production tasks directly to external networks using the host IP, such as the Internet. Therefore, you must permanently disable the use of these two settings.

Suppose someone wants to tune a service that is not exposed externally and does not want to. There is a hidden way (or not) to change the configuration of a container or cluster, take a hole in the cluster and uncover every external port: Kubectl port-forward<pod> <port> command. Maps local port pod to post pod, similar to Host Port, without authentication or access control, directly to the workload.

This command does not initiate or customize Kubernetes configurations, so it is ineffective in identifying and responding. The port remains operational until the order expires, which does not happen by itself when the command is sent in the background.
The order should always be prohibited in production clusters.
Unauthorized access to the network is accessible if accidental exposure to the workload simple K. Simple policy can stop it. Just allow additional loads. Connect them but not with external IP addresses.
Unfortunately, very few companies have a good network policy, if any.

I cannot suggest that you configure an old monolithic application server without a firewall but remains only in Kubernetes. One reason is
organizations are now creating and updating network policies for hundreds or even thousands of dynamic tasks at once. Fortunately, there are solutions. Manage this policy automatically and enable best practices (CIS Benchmark forCybernetes, PCI, NIST 800–53, etc.) for network isolation and inbound/outbound traffic management.

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Conclusion

Kubernetes users can make these mistakes that can lead to exploitation by hackers into company systems. Thus leading to zero days and hindered production in a company.
Employing those best practices will lead to effective production and smooth operations. In addition, it will create a hack-free environment when working.

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