A Brief Deep-Dive into Attacking and Defending Kubernetes | Kaptain

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Kaptain

#Kubernetes #Docker #DistributedSystems

🔍 Inside this Issue

Attackers map your cluster better than your docs; this set balances the ledger, hardening Kubernetes, shrinking base images, automating metal, and making dev envs reproducible without the yak shave. Skim the wins, stay for the gotchas and trade‑offs.

🔐 A Brief Deep-Dive into Attacking and Defending Kubernetes

🐧 Canonical Introduces Minimal Ubuntu Pro: Smaller Images and Secure Cloud Workloads at Scale

🧩 From Bare Metal to Containers: A Developer's Guide to Execution Environments

🧑‍💻 Run Your Project in a Dev Container, in Zed

🛠️ The best tools for bare metal automation that people actually use

🛡️ v1.35: Restricting executables invoked by kubeconfigs via exec plugin allowList added to kuberc

Fewer footguns, faster boots, ship like you mean it.
See you in the next issue!
FAUN.dev() Team

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End-to-End Kubernetes with Rancher, RKE2, K3s, Fleet, Longhorn, and NeuVector | The full journey from nothing to production

Rancher and SUSE offer a powerful suite of tools to simplify Kubernetes management and help you fully realize the potential of containerized applications. However, not all users are aware of the full range of features and capabilities provided by this dynamic ecosystem. Online documentation can be overwhelming, sometimes outdated, and often lacks real-world and practical implementation examples. Filling this gap is the primary goal of this guide.

This guide provides clear, practical steps to deploy, secure, and scale Kubernetes environments, from lightweight edge clusters with K3s to robust workloads with RKE2. You’ll explore tools like Rancher Manager, Fleet for GitOps, NeuVector for security, and Longhorn for distributed storage and gain the skills needed to address real-world challenges.

Designed to resonate with Kubernetes users of all levels, this guide will help you leverage this ecosystem confidently.

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ℹ️ News, Updates & Announcements

faun.dev

Canonical Introduces Minimal Ubuntu Pro: Smaller Images and Secure Cloud Workloads at Scale

Canonical dropped Minimal Ubuntu Pro onto AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Half the size. Boots 40% faster. Baked in with Ubuntu Pro-level hardening.

You still get long-term CVE patching, FIPS 140-3 crypto, and compliance checks for FedRAMP, NIST, HIPAA - just in a stripped-down shell.

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Stories From The Chief I/O

thechief.io

The best tools for bare metal automation that people actually use

Bare metal ops aren’t what they used to be. The game’s gone full stack: API-driven provisioning, declarative workflows, and config convergence now run the show.

Tools like MAAS, Foreman, Ironic, and Tinkerbell treat physical servers as programmable units. Real hardware, real APIs. Meanwhile, Kubernetes-native models bring physical gear into the cluster fold using Custom Resources (see: Bare Metal Operator). It’s a weirdly elegant mashup - metal meets manifest.

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🔗 Stories, Tutorials & Articles

zed.dev

Run Your Project in a Dev Container, in Zed

Zed v0.218 adds Dev Container support with Docker. Projects can now spin up in clean, spec-compliant environments built from .devcontainer.json.

It hooks into the Development Containers CLI, with a Zed remote server running backend ops and piping through standard IO. Fast and clean.

The bigger picture? Local dev just got way more reproducible. Spec-first workflows are pulling container-based setups straight into the editor.

buildsoftwaresystems.com

From Bare Metal to Containers: A Developer's Guide to Execution Environments

A sharp look at how execution environments evolved - from bare metal to VMs, containers, sandboxes, and language-level runtimes. The focus: isolation. Hardware, kernel, processes, runtimes - each adds a boundary. Modern stacks mix and match layers to dial in the right amount.

VMs, containers, venvs. All in one stack. Docker, Kubernetes, Wasm keep reshaping where those lines get drawn.

heilancoos.github.io

A Brief Deep-Dive into Attacking and Defending Kubernetes

A sharp teardown of Kubernetes’ attack surface maps out where things go sideways: pods, the control plane, RBAC, admission controllers, and etcd. Misconfigurations like anonymous API access, wildcard roles, and hostPath mounts aren't just sloppy- they're attack vectors.

Fixes? Think Falco, RBAC lockdowns, API hardening, and mutating admission controls. Defense-in-depth with actual depth.

kubernetes.io

v1.35: Restricting executables invoked by kubeconfigs via exec plugin allowList added to kuberc

Kubernetes v1.35 lands with a credential plugin allowlist, now in beta, no feature gate needed. It lets you lock down which exec plugins your kubeconfigs can run. Tighter leash, lower risk. Especially when the credential pipeline gets sketchy.

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⚙️ Tools, Apps & Software

github.com

heilancoos/k8s-custom-detections

This repository contains a curated collection of Falco detection rules, audit policies, sample attack manifests, and configuration files designed to detect real-world Kubernetes attack techniques.

github.com

andrewmoshu/diagram-mcp-server

An MCP server that seamlessly creates infrastructure diagrams for AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes and more

github.com

besoeasy/yantra

YANTRA is a cross-platform Docker App Store that makes server-grade self-hosting easy and flexible. It gives you ready-to-run apps — from Bitcoin nodes to file converters and privacy tools — all in lightweight Docker containers.

github.com

djvirus9/awesome-devsecops-mastery-2026

A curated, actionable checklist for securing CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes clusters in 2026.

github.com

dynatrace-oss/dtctl

kubectl-inspired CLI for managing Dynatrace platform resources from your terminal

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🤔 Did you know?

Did you know that Kubernetes deletes most resources asynchronously using ownerReferences, not immediately when you delete a parent object? Garbage collection runs in the background, so Pods or other dependents can stick around longer than expected, especially under load. If ownerReferences are missing or wrong, those resources may never be cleaned up at all.

🤖 Once, SenseiOne Said

"Kubernetes trades ssh for reconciliation loops; you swap hotfixes for debugging controllers and backoffs. Containers make builds reproducible; the distributed system makes behavior schedule-dependent. Portability exists, but mostly between Kubernetes-shaped platforms."
— SenseiOne

(*) SenseiOne is FAUN.dev’s work-in-progress AI agent

⚡Growth Notes

For any Kubernetes change larger than a trivial PR, write a 10 line max design note before coding that explicitly names blast radius, rollback path, default behavior, and the exact metric that will tell you if it made things better or worse. Then, 2 weeks after that change lands, spend 15 minutes re-reading the note and checking those metrics plus kube events, so you start seeing which of your "safe" ideas consistently create invisible toil in clusters (extra restarts, noisy autoscaling, or controller retries) and can adjust how you design Helm charts, CRDs, and operators accordingly.

Each week, we share a practical move to grow faster and work smarter

👤 This Week's Human

This Week’s Human is Rehan Julaha, a Product Architect at KITABOO who treats design as infrastructure. He built the Angular-based frameworks behind their learning platforms (cutting load times by 30%), led WCAG 2.1–compliant releases used by millions, stood up a modular UI design system that trimmed design-to-dev time by 40%, and is now exploring Generative AI to accelerate inclusive design across Web Architecture and Accessibility.

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❤️ Thanks for reading

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Kaptain #512: A Brief Deep-Dive into Attacking and Defending Kubernetes
Legend: ✅ = Editor's Choice / ♻️ = Old but Gold / ⭐ = Promoted / 🔰 = Beginner Friendly

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