AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam
Are you a guardian of your domain? Lean how to leverage your aptitude in security to protect Microsoft Azure technologies, with a goal of earning the Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification!
Practice Test
Expert
Practice Test
ExpertConfigure authentication for AKS
Configure authentication for AKS
Enable Azure AD Integration and Kubernetes RBAC
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) can use Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to confirm who you are and Kubernetes Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to decide what you can do. OpenID Connect (OIDC) is the standard that lets AKS trust tokens issued by Azure AD. This setup ensures only verified identities access the cluster and helps follow the principle of least privilege. By using Azure AD and RBAC together, you strengthen your cluster’s security and make auditing easier.
To start, you register two applications in Azure AD: one for the API server and one for client tools like kubectl. The API server app needs a Client ID, Client Secret, and a Redirect URI for issuing tokens. The client app requires a Client ID and permissions to request tokens. Registering both apps sets up a secure token flow between users, tools, and the AKS API server.
Next, configure the AKS API server to use Azure AD by enabling OIDC flags during cluster creation or update. You specify:
--aad-server-app-idand--aad-server-app-secret--aad-client-app-id--aad-tenant-id
These flags tell AKS to verify incoming tokens against Azure AD’s issuer URL and public keys. Once configured, AKS checks each access token before allowing API calls.
After authentication is in place, you define RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings to grant permissions. You can assign these to Azure AD:
- Users
- Groups
- Managed identities
For example, you might give a group thecluster-adminrole or allow a managed identity only to deploy workloads. Fine-grained bindings prevent over-privileged access and keep your cluster secure.
Finally, validate your configuration by signing in with an Azure AD account and running Kubernetes commands. Use kubectl auth can-i to test if specific actions are allowed or denied. Regular monitoring and auditing of sign-ins and RoleBindings helps catch misconfigurations and maintain compliance. This ensures your AKS cluster stays protected over time.
Conclusion
In this section, you learned how to secure AKS by integrating Azure AD for authentication and using Kubernetes RBAC for authorization. You saw the steps to register server and client applications, configure OIDC flags, and enforce token validation. You also covered how to create RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings for Azure AD identities. Finally, you practiced validating access with kubectl auth can-i and emphasized ongoing monitoring to keep your cluster safe.