Amazon EKS security group considerations

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The following sections describe the recommended or minimum required security group settings for the cluster, control plane, and node security groups of your cluster. These considerations are dependent on which Kubernetes version and Amazon EKS platform version you use.

Cluster security group

Amazon EKS clusters, starting with Kubernetes version 1.14 and platform version eks.3, create a cluster security group when they are created. This also happens when a cluster of an earlier version is upgraded to this Kubernetes version and platform version. A cluster security group is designed to allow all traffic from the control plane and managed node groups to flow freely between each other. By assigning the cluster security group to the control plane cross-account network interfaces and the managed node group instances, you don't need to configure complex security group rules to allow this communication. Any instance or network interface that is assigned this security group can freely communicate with other resources with this security group.

You can check for a cluster security group for your cluster in the AWS Management Console under the cluster's Networkingsection, or with the following AWS CLI command:

aws eks describe-cluster --name cluster_name --query cluster.resourcesVpcConfig.clusterSecurityGroupId

If your cluster is running Kubernetes version 1.14 and platform version eks.3 or later, then we recommend that you add the cluster security group to all existing and future node groups. For more information, see Security Groups for Your VPC in the Amazon VPC User Guide. Amazon EKS managed node groupsare automatically configured to use the cluster security group.

	Protocol	Ports	Source	Destination
Recommended inbound traffic	All	All	Self
Recommended outbound traffic	All	All		0.0.0.0/0

Restricting cluster traffic

If you need to limit the open ports between the control plane and nodes, the default cluster security group can be modified to allow only the following required minimum ports. The required minimum ports are the same as they were in previous Amazon EKS versions.

	Protocol	Port	Source	Destination
Minimum inbound traffic	TCP	443	Cluster security group
Minimum inbound traffic*	TCP	10250	Cluster security group
Minimum outbound traffic	TCP	443		Cluster security group
Minimum outbound traffic*	TCP	10250		Cluster security group

*Any protocol and ports that you expect your nodes to use for inter-node communication should be included, if required. Nodes also require outbound internet access to the Amazon EKS APIs for cluster introspection and node registration at launch time, or that you've implemented the required necessary settings in Private clusters. To pull container images, they require access to Amazon S3, Amazon ECR APIs, and any other container registries that they need to pull images from, such as DockerHub. For more information, see AWS IP address ranges in the AWS General Reference.

Control plane and node security groups

For Amazon EKS clusters earlier than Kubernetes version 1.14 and platform version eks.3, control plane to node communication is configured by manually creating a control plane security group and specifying that security group when you create the cluster. At cluster creation, this security group is then attached to the cross-account network interfaces for the cluster.

Note

If you used the API directly, or a tool such as AWS CloudFormation to create your cluster and didn't specify a security group, then the default security group for the VPC was applied to the control plane cross-account network interfaces.

You can check the control plane security group for your cluster in the AWS Management Console under the cluster'sNetworking section (listed as Additional security groups), or with the following AWS CLI command:

aws eks describe-cluster --name cluster_name --query cluster.resourcesVpcConfig.securityGroupIds

If you launch nodes with the AWS CloudFormation template in the Getting started with Amazon EKS walkthrough, AWS CloudFormation modifies the control plane security group to allow communication with the nodes. Amazon EKS strongly recommends that you use a dedicated security group for each control plane (one for each cluster). If you share a control plane security group with other Amazon EKS clusters or resources, you may block or disrupt connections to those resources.

The security group for the nodes and the security group for the control plane communication to the nodes have been set up to prevent communication to privileged ports in the nodes. If your applications require added inbound or outbound access from the control plane or nodes, you must add these rules to the security groups associated with your cluster. For more information, see Security Groups for Your VPC in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Note

To allow proxy functionality on privileged ports or to run the CNCF conformance tests yourself, you must edit the security groups for your control plane and the nodes. The security group on the nodes' side needs to allow inbound access for ports 0-65535 from the control plane, and the control plane side needs to allow outbound access to the nodes on ports 0-65535.

Control Plane Security Group
	Protocol	Port range	Source	Destination
Minimum inbound traffic	TCP	443	All node security groups Whencluster endpoint private access is enabled:Any security groups that generate API server client traffic (such askubectlcommands on a bastion host within your cluster's VPC)
Recommended inbound traffic	TCP	443	All node security groups Whencluster endpoint private access is enabled:Any security groups that generate API server client traffic (such askubectlcommands on a bastion host within your cluster's VPC)
Minimum outbound traffic	TCP	10250		All node security groups
Recommended outbound traffic	TCP	1025-65535		All node security groups

Node security group
	Protocol