Infrastructure Security Testing Approaches

Calendar February 22, 2026
Security
Intermediate
Automated-Vulnerability-Scanning, Kubernetes-Security-Testing, Network-Reconnaissance, Credential-Testing, Security-Assessment-Planning
Penetration-Testing, Vulnerability-Scanning, Nessus, Openvas, Kube-Bench, Kube-Hunter, Nmap, Security-Testing, Compliance
Nessus, Openvas, Kube-Bench, Kube-Hunter, Nmap, Nikto, Kubescape, Trivy, Nuclei

Choosing the Right Testing Approach#

Infrastructure security testing is not one activity. It is a spectrum from fully automated scanning to manual adversarial testing. Each approach has different costs, coverage, and compliance implications. Choosing wrong wastes budget on low-value scans or leaves critical gaps unexamined.

The core decision is: what are you trying to learn, and what constraints do you operate under?

Decision Matrix#

Question Automated Scanning Kubernetes-Specific Testing Network Scanning Manual Penetration Testing
What does it find? Known CVEs, misconfigurations, missing patches K8s-specific misconfigurations, RBAC issues, pod security gaps Open ports, exposed services, protocol weaknesses Business logic flaws, chained exploits, privilege escalation paths
How often? Continuous or daily Every cluster change, weekly minimum Weekly to monthly Annually or after major architecture changes
Who runs it? Automated pipeline or security team Platform/SRE team Security team or automated Specialized pentest firm or red team
Cost Low (tooling cost only) Low (open-source tools) Low to medium High ($20k-$100k+ per engagement)
False positive rate Medium to high Low Medium Very low
Compliance fit PCI-DSS 11.2, SOC2 CC7.1 CIS Kubernetes Benchmark PCI-DSS 11.2, NIST 800-53 PCI-DSS 11.3, SOC2 CC4.1

When to Use Each Approach#

Use automated scanning when you need continuous visibility into known vulnerabilities across your infrastructure. This is the baseline. Every organization should run automated scans regardless of what other testing they do.

Kubernetes Production Readiness Checklist: Everything to Verify Before Going Live

Calendar February 22, 2026
Kubernetes
Intermediate
Cluster-Auditing, Production-Readiness-Assessment, Pre-Launch-Verification
Production, Checklist, Audit, Security, Reliability, Observability, Operations
Kubectl, Helm, Trivy, Kube-Bench

Kubernetes Production Readiness Checklist#

This checklist is designed for agents to audit a Kubernetes cluster before production workloads run on it. Every item includes the verification command and what a passing result looks like. Work through each category sequentially. A failing item in Cluster Health should be fixed before checking Workload Configuration.

Cluster Health#

These are non-negotiable. If any of these fail, stop and fix them before evaluating anything else.

Security Compliance and Benchmarks

Calendar February 22, 2026
Security
Intermediate
Compliance-Scanning, Benchmark-Remediation, Security-Reporting
Cis-Benchmark, Compliance, Kube-Bench, Kubescape, Pci-Dss, Soc2, Scanning
Kube-Bench, Docker-Bench-Security, Kubescape, Polaris, Kube-Score, Trivy

Why Benchmarks Matter#

Security benchmarks translate “harden the cluster” into specific, testable checks. Run a scan, get a pass/fail report, fix what failed. CIS publishes the most widely adopted benchmarks for Kubernetes and Docker. NSA/CISA provide additional Kubernetes-specific threat guidance.

CIS Kubernetes Benchmark with kube-bench#

kube-bench runs CIS Kubernetes Benchmark checks against cluster nodes, testing API server flags, etcd configuration, kubelet settings, and control plane security:

# Run on a master node
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench/main/job-master.yaml

# Run on worker nodes
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench/main/job-node.yaml

# Read results
kubectl logs job/kube-bench

Or run directly on a node:

Security Hardening a Kubernetes Cluster: End-to-End Operational Sequence

Calendar February 22, 2026
Kubernetes
Intermediate
Cluster-Hardening, Security-Assessment, Policy-Enforcement, Runtime-Security
Security, Hardening, Rbac, Pod-Security, Network-Policies, Audit-Logging, Falco, Kyverno, Image-Scanning, Etcd-Encryption
Kubectl, Kube-Bench, Trivy, Kyverno, Falco, Etcdctl

Security Hardening a Kubernetes Cluster#

This operational sequence takes a default Kubernetes cluster and locks it down. Phases are ordered by impact and dependency: assessment first, then RBAC, pod security, networking, images, auditing, and finally data protection. Each phase includes the commands, policy YAML, and verification steps.

Do not skip the assessment phase. You need to know what you are fixing before you start fixing it.

Phase 1 – Assessment#

Before changing anything, establish a baseline. This phase produces a prioritized list of findings that drives the order of remediation in later phases.