Analyzing Kubernetes Audit Logs

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Investigating a suspected cluster compromise
• Reconstructing what an attacker did through the API server
• Writing Kubernetes-specific detection content
• Syscall-level detection inside a running container - use detecting-container-runtime-threats-with-falco

Example prompts

• “Use the analyzing-kubernetes-audit-logs skill to parse Kubernetes API server audit logs (JSON lines) to detect exec-into-pod, secret access, RBAC…”
• “/analyzing-kubernetes-audit-logs”

Requirements

• Python 3

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1pods/exec and pods/attach (shell into containers)
2. 2secrets access (get/list/watch)
3. 3clusterrolebindings creation (RBAC escalation)
4. 4Privileged pod creation
5. 5Anonymous or system:unauthenticated access

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 54a7988. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Analyzing Kubernetes Audit Logs loads about 654 tokens when it runs, and up to ~1.1k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 163 tokens; SKILL.md has 128 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~163

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~654

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~1.1k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills at commit 54a7988, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© mukul975). 128 words, ~654 tokens.

name

analyzing-kubernetes-audit-logs

description

Parses Kubernetes API server audit logs (JSON lines) to detect exec-into-pod, secret access, RBAC modifications, privileged pod creation, and anonymous API access, and builds SIEM detection rules from the event patterns. Use when investigating a suspected cluster compromise, reconstructing what an attacker did through the API server, or writing Kubernetes-specific detection content. Keywords: audit policy, audit log, kube-apiserver, exec into pod, RBAC change, anonymous access, detection rules. Do not use for syscall-level detection inside a running container - use detecting-container-runtime-threats-with-falco. '

domain

cybersecurity

subdomain

container-security

tags

kubernetes-security, container-security, audit-log-analysis, rbac, privilege-escalation, k8s-api-server, threat-detection

version

1.0

author

mahipal

license

Apache-2.0

nist_csf

PR.PS-01, PR.IR-01, ID.AM-08, DE.CM-01

mitre_attack

T1610, T1613, T1078, T1552.007

import json

with open("/var/log/kubernetes/audit.log") as f:
    for line in f:
        event = json.loads(line)
        verb = event.get("verb")
        resource = event.get("objectRef", {}).get("resource")
        user = event.get("user", {}).get("username")
        if verb == "create" and resource == "pods/exec":
            print(f"Pod exec by {user}")

# Detect secret enumeration
if verb in ("get", "list") and resource == "secrets":
    print(f"Secret access: {user} -> {event['objectRef'].get('name')}")

© mukul975, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (scripts, references) in skills/analyzing-kubernetes-audit-logs of mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills.

• SKILL.md
• LICENSE
• references/api-reference.md
• scripts/agent.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 54a7988