gcloud-gke-secure-boot-disabled: GKE Node Pools Without Secure Boot Enabled

2025-08-01 gcloud-gke-secure-boot-disabled PoC Public

Description

Ensure that the Secure Boot security feature is enabled for your GKE cluster nodes to protect them against malware and rootkits. Secure Boot helps ensure that the system runs only authentic software by verifying the digital signature of all boot components, and halts the boot process if signature verification fails.

PoC

id: gcloud-gke-secure-boot-disabled

info:
  name: GKE Node Pools Without Secure Boot Enabled
  author: princechaddha
  severity: medium
  description: |
    Ensure that the Secure Boot security feature is enabled for your GKE cluster nodes to protect them against malware and rootkits. Secure Boot helps ensure that the system runs only authentic software by verifying the digital signature of all boot components, and halts the boot process if signature verification fails.
  impact: |
    Without Secure Boot enabled, cluster nodes are more vulnerable to boot-level and kernel-level malware and rootkits that could compromise the entire node's security.
  remediation: |
    Re-create your node pools with Secure Boot enabled using:
    gcloud container node-pools create POOL_NAME --cluster=CLUSTER_NAME --shielded-secure-boot
  reference:
    - https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/shielded-gke-nodes
    - https://www.trendmicro.com/cloudoneconformity/knowledge-base/gcp/GKE/enable-secure-boot.html
  tags: cloud,devops,gcp,gcloud,gke,kubernetes,security,boot,gcp-cloud-config

flow: |
  code(1)
  for(let projectId of iterate(template.projectIds)){
    set("projectId", projectId)
    code(2)
    for(let cluster of iterate(template.clusters)){
      cluster = JSON.parse(cluster)
      set("clusterName", cluster.name)
      set("location", cluster.location)
      code(3)
      for(let nodePool of iterate(template.nodePools)){
        nodePool = JSON.parse(nodePool)
        set("nodePoolName", nodePool.name)
        code(4)
      }
    }
  }

self-contained: true

code:
  - engine:
      - sh
      - bash
    source: |
      gcloud projects list --format="json(projectId)"

    extractors:
      - type: json
        name: projectIds
        internal: true
        json:
          - '.[].projectId'

  - engine:
      - sh
      - bash
    source: |
      gcloud container clusters list --project $projectId --format="json(name,location)"

    extractors:
      - type: json
        name: clusters
        internal: true
        json:
          - '.[]'

  - engine:
      - sh
      - bash
    source: |
      gcloud container node-pools list --cluster $clusterName --location $location --project $projectId --format="json(name)"

    extractors:
      - type: json
        name: nodePools
        internal: true
        json:
          - '.[]'

  - engine:
      - sh
      - bash
    source: |
      gcloud container node-pools describe $nodePoolName --cluster $clusterName --location $location --project $projectId --format="yaml(config.shieldedInstanceConfig.enableSecureBoot)"

    matchers:
      - type: word
        words:
          - "shieldedInstanceConfig: {}"
          - "null"

    extractors:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - '"Node pool " + nodePoolName + " in GKE cluster " + clusterName + " (" + location + ") of project " + projectId + " does not have Secure Boot enabled"'
# digest: 490a0046304402203d5733acbf3814baba82393e9af6d0be0dc2ed3ccfad787cbc1acb2d5c3f8a2a02207e104212ffe46383682d8ad138d28a4fcf2a0ab5c33418b2f92c368ea36390b2:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950

# Visit https://trap.biu.life/ to view exploit trends for this vulnerability.

References

Related Vulnerabilities