Mapping PodSecurityPolicies to Pod Security Standards

The tables below enumerate the configuration parameters on PodSecurityPolicy objects, whether the field mutates and/or validates pods, and how the configuration values map to the Pod Security Standards.

For each applicable parameter, the allowed values for the Baseline and Restricted profiles are listed. Anything outside the allowed values for those profiles would fall under the Privileged profile. "No opinion" means all values are allowed under all Pod Security Standards.

For a step-by-step migration guide, see Migrate from PodSecurityPolicy to the Built-In PodSecurity Admission Controller.

PodSecurityPolicy Spec

The fields enumerated in this table are part of the PodSecurityPolicySpec, which is specified under the .spec field path.

Mapping PodSecurityPolicySpec fields to Pod Security Standards
PodSecurityPolicySpec Type Pod Security Standards Equivalent
privileged Validating Baseline & Restricted: false / undefined / nil
defaultAddCapabilities Mutating & Validating Requirements match allowedCapabilities below.
allowedCapabilities Validating

Baseline: subset of

  • AUDIT_WRITE
  • CHOWN
  • DAC_OVERRIDE
  • FOWNER
  • FSETID
  • KILL
  • MKNOD
  • NET_BIND_SERVICE
  • SETFCAP
  • SETGID
  • SETPCAP
  • SETUID
  • SYS_CHROOT

Restricted: empty / undefined / nil OR a list containing only NET_BIND_SERVICE

requiredDropCapabilities Mutating & Validating

Baseline: no opinion

Restricted: must include ALL
volumes Validating

Baseline: anything except

  • hostPath
  • *

Restricted: subset of

  • configMap
  • csi
  • downwardAPI
  • emptyDir
  • ephemeral
  • persistentVolumeClaim
  • projected
  • secret
hostNetwork Validating Baseline & Restricted: false / undefined / nil
hostPorts Validating Baseline & Restricted: undefined / nil / empty
hostPID Validating Baseline & Restricted: false / undefined / nil
hostIPC Validating Baseline & Restricted: false / undefined / nil
seLinux Mutating & Validating

Baseline & Restricted: seLinux.rule is MustRunAs, with the following options

  • user is unset ("" / undefined / nil)
  • role is unset ("" / undefined / nil)
  • type is unset or one of: container_t, container_init_t, container_kvm_t
  • level is anything
runAsUser Mutating & Validating

Baseline: Anything

Restricted: rule is MustRunAsNonRoot
runAsGroup Mutating (MustRunAs) & Validating No opinion
supplementalGroups Mutating & Validating No opinion
fsGroup Mutating & Validating No opinion
readOnlyRootFilesystem Mutating & Validating No opinion
defaultAllowPrivilegeEscalation Mutating No opinion (non-validating)
allowPrivilegeEscalation Mutating & Validating

Only mutating if set to false

Baseline: No opinion

Restricted: false
allowedHostPaths Validating No opinion (volumes takes precedence)
allowedFlexVolumes Validating No opinion (volumes takes precedence)
allowedCSIDrivers Validating No opinion (volumes takes precedence)
allowedUnsafeSysctls Validating Baseline & Restricted: undefined / nil / empty
forbiddenSysctls Validating No opinion
allowedProcMountTypes
(alpha feature)		 Validating Baseline & Restricted: ["Default"] OR undefined / nil / empty
runtimeClass
 .defaultRuntimeClassName		 Mutating No opinion
runtimeClass
 .allowedRuntimeClassNames		 Validating No opinion

PodSecurityPolicy annotations

The annotations enumerated in this table can be specified under .metadata.annotations on the PodSecurityPolicy object.

Mapping PodSecurityPolicy annotations to Pod Security Standards
PSP Annotation Type Pod Security Standards Equivalent
seccomp.security.alpha.kubernetes.io
/defaultProfileName		 Mutating No opinion
seccomp.security.alpha.kubernetes.io
/allowedProfileNames		 Validating

Baseline: "runtime/default," (Trailing comma to allow unset)

Restricted: "runtime/default" (No trailing comma)

localhost/* values are also permitted for both Baseline & Restricted.
apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io
/defaultProfileName		 Mutating No opinion
apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io
/allowedProfileNames		 Validating

Baseline: "runtime/default," (Trailing comma to allow unset)

Restricted: "runtime/default" (No trailing comma)

localhost/* values are also permitted for both Baseline & Restricted.
Last modified February 25, 2022 at 10:27 AM PST: Link to PSP migration guide from PSP to PSS reference (b8264dcfc7)