blumeops/docs/changelog.d/prowler-iac-mutelist.infra.md
Erich Blume 0510a8151c Address critical Prowler IaC findings via mute + RBAC tightening
Six critical IaC findings against argocd/manifests/ broke into two
patterns: legitimate-by-design RBAC (mute) and over-broad RBAC (fix).

Plumbing:
  - cronjob-iac-scan.yaml now passes --mutelist-file (previously
    unused, which is why all IaC findings reported as unmuted)
  - new mutelist/iac.yaml is bundled into the prowler-mutelist
    ConfigMap and mounted into the IaC cronjob via items: selector

Compensating controls (in compensating-controls.yaml):
  - operator-purpose-bound-rbac — external-secrets-operator's whole
    function is to manage Secret objects; ClusterRole over secrets
    matches its purpose. cert-controller mutates its own validating
    webhooks to inject a rotating CA bundle.
  - kube-state-metrics-metadata-only — KSM exposes only Secret
    metadata via kube_secret_info / kube_secret_labels; the data
    field is never read into exposed metrics.

Mutes (mutelist/iac.yaml):
  - KSV-0041 for external-secrets/rbac.yaml,
    kube-state-metrics/rbac.yaml,
    kube-state-metrics-ringtail/rbac.yaml
  - KSV-0114 for external-secrets/rbac.yaml

Real fix:
  - grafana-clusterrole no longer reads secrets. The dashboard sidecar
    (RESOURCE=both → configmap, both init and watch instances) only
    needs ConfigMap-labeled dashboards; no Secrets are labeled
    grafana_dashboard.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-27 12:48:54 -07:00

612 B

Address the 6 critical Prowler IaC findings against argocd/manifests/. The IaC cronjob now passes --mutelist-file (previously unused), fed from a new mutelist/iac.yaml. Two new compensating controls — operator-purpose-bound-rbac and kube-state-metrics-metadata-only — justify muting the external-secrets and kube-state-metrics Secret-access findings (KSV-0041, KSV-0114). Separately, grafana-clusterrole is tightened to remove secrets access entirely: the dashboard sidecar already only consumes ConfigMap-labeled dashboards, so its RESOURCE env var is now configmap instead of both.