Kubernetes Security Audit for Startups in India
Production Kubernetes cluster audit + hardening for Indian startups: RBAC review, network policies, admission controllers, supply-chain security, pod-security standards. Built for 3-15 node EKS / GKE / AKS clusters running real workloads, not enterprise mesh complexity.
The Problem
Most Indian startups run Kubernetes badly. Cluster created via the cloud Console with default RBAC (which gives every workload more permissions than it needs). No network policies (so a compromised pod can reach every other pod and exfiltrate data laterally). No admission controllers (so pods spin up with privileged access, host paths mounted, no resource limits). No image scanning in CI (so vulnerable container images ship to prod). The audit pattern is consistent: 80% of clusters fail at least 6 of the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark's high-severity controls. The fix isn't enterprise-grade service mesh. It's the basic guardrails that should have been there from cluster creation.
Who This Is For
Indian startups running production Kubernetes, typically 3-15 nodes on EKS / GKE / AKS, 10-50 engineers, with at least one workload that processes user data or hits the public internet. Especially relevant if you're approaching SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audit, or your cluster grew organically over 6-12 months without a security pass.
Typical Outcomes
Timeline Options
K8s Security Snapshot (5 days)
- RBAC audit + flagged over-privileged ServiceAccounts
- CIS Kubernetes Benchmark gap analysis
- Top 10 prioritized findings with severity + estimated fix time
- 1-hour briefing with your platform team
Audit + Critical Remediation (3 weeks)
- Everything in K8s Security Snapshot
- Network policies deployed (default-deny + per-workload)
- OPA Gatekeeper / Kyverno deployed with the top 8 policies
- Trivy CI integration + private registry hardening
- Audit logging enabled + log shipping configured
- Documentation handover for your team to maintain
Audit + Full Remediation + Retainer (3 weeks + monthly)
- Everything in Audit + Critical Remediation
- Pod Security Standards enforcement + workload migration
- Secrets migration to External Secrets Operator
- Falco runtime detection deployed where appropriate
- Monthly retainer: policy update reviews, RBAC drift detection, image vuln triage, CIS benchmark re-scoring
This might not be a fit if...
- You're running a single-node test cluster or local k3s / kind for development only
- You've already deployed Istio / Linkerd service mesh with full mTLS and a security team to maintain it
- You want a service mesh implementation (mTLS, traffic shaping, observability). That's a separate engagement; this audit covers the cluster-level controls beneath the mesh
- Your cluster is on a managed PaaS (Render, Railway, Fly.io) where you don't have direct kubectl access
What You Get
The Transformation
Before
- Default RBAC: most workloads have list-secrets-cluster-wide permissions they don't need
- No network policies: any pod can talk to any other pod, any namespace
- No admission controllers: privileged pods, hostPath mounts, missing resource limits all permitted
- Latest tags in production manifests: image-version drift on every pod restart
- Plain Kubernetes Secrets holding API keys, AWS creds, database passwords
- No K8s API audit log: incident investigation = guesswork
After
- RBAC scoped to least privilege per workload, no wildcard permissions outside intentional break-glass
- Default-deny network policy + explicit allow rules per workload pair, lateral movement blocked
- OPA Gatekeeper / Kyverno enforcing top failure modes at admission
- Image SHAs pinned in production, no surprise version drift
- External Secrets Operator pulling from AWS Secrets Manager / equivalent, secrets never plain-text in etcd
- K8s API audit log shipped to centralized store, every API call attributable
Engagement Models
Project-based
Fixed scope, fixed timeline, fixed price. Ideal for specific security initiatives.
Retainer
Ongoing support with priority response. Perfect for continuous security needs.
What influences pricing?
- Team size and environment complexity
- Timeline and urgency requirements
- Scope of systems and platforms
- Ongoing support and maintenance needs
Frequently Asked Questions
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