kube-bench
v0.16.0 (2026-08-05) open-sourceThe section your link pointed to isn't on kube-bench's page any more, so we've brought you to the top.
Checks whether Kubernetes is deployed securely by running CIS KubernetesCIS KubernetesHardening benchmarks published by the Center for Internet Security for Kubernetes clusters, giving cyber tools a concrete, versioned checklist of configuration checks to run and report against. Benchmark tests configured via YAML files.
kube-bench run --targets=rke2-cis-1.8 kube-bench --benchmark rke2-cis-1.8 K8S_HOST=remote-db.example.com kube-bench psql kube-bench run --targets=master,node --version=eks-1.0 kube-bench run --targets=node --version=k8s-1.18 kube-bench --format=junit kube-bench --outputfile=report.json run master kube-bench --json node kube-bench --request-timeout=30s kube-bench --noremediations --nosummary --noresults
Summary
kube-bench is an open-source command-line tool, licensed under Apache 2.0, that audits a Kubernetes cluster against the CISCISA nonprofit that publishes consensus-based configuration benchmarks and controls for hardening operating systems, cloud environments, and software; cyber tools use it as a ready-made compliance baseline. Kubernetes Benchmark by running YAML-configured checks against the actual node and control-plane configuration. It's typically run as a pod with access to the host's PID namespace and config directories, or invoked directly on a node, which makes it a fit for platform engineers and compliance owners verifying hardening rather than developers reviewing manifests pre-deployment. It supports benchmark profiles for EKSEKSAmazon's managed Kubernetes service, run by AWS, that handles control-plane provisioning so teams can deploy containerized workloads without operating the underlying cluster infrastructure themselves., GKEGKEGoogle Kubernetes Engine, Google's managed Kubernetes service, which lets cyber tools run containerized workloads without managing the underlying cluster infrastructure., AKSAKSAzure Kubernetes Service, Microsoft's managed Kubernetes offering, which lets cyber tools offload cluster provisioning and scaling to Azure so engineers focus on workload logic instead of control-plane operations., OpenShift, RKE2 and k3s, though on managed clusters it can only check worker nodes since master nodes aren't accessible. The README notes that the same CIS scanning is also built into Trivy and the Trivy Operator for in-cluster use. Started in 2017 and maintained by Aqua Security, it has 187 contributors and a release 81 days ago, showing active upkeep.
Checks whether Kubernetes is deployed securely by running CIS Kubernetes Benchmark tests configured via YAML files.
How kube-bench helps
Is my cluster's control-plane configuration actually compliant with the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark, or just assumed to be?
it runs the YAML-defined CIS checks against the live configuration files, arguments and file permissions on each node and reports each test as pass, fail or warn against the benchmark's own numbering
Which specific hardening settings are missing on my nodes, and what does the benchmark say to do about them?
each failed check is reported individually with the CIS test number and description, so a practitioner gets a line-by-line list of what's misconfigured rather than a single pass/fail verdict
Is my managed Kubernetes service (EKS, GKE, AKS) configured the way that provider's own hardening guide expects?
it loads the matching cloud-specific benchmark profile and runs those checks against the node, though only the worker nodes are reachable since the provider controls the master
Does my cluster meet the hardening bar for the specific Kubernetes distribution I'm running, like RKE2, k3s or OpenShift?
it selects the YAML check set built for that distribution's own CIS profile and scores the node against that profile rather than a generic Kubernetes baseline
Has upgrading Kubernetes versions changed which CIS controls apply to my cluster?
separate benchmark profiles map to different Kubernetes and CIS release ranges, so pointing it at the right profile answers whether the older checks still apply or a newer set is now required
Languages
Command line
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Score card
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Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
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Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
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Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
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Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
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Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
- Community health
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Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
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Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
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Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
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Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply
Nine scores for kube-bench, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.
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Blank means never measured; nothing here is a filled-in zero.
Peer standings are included with Researcher and Business. See how this tool ranks against its competitors, using data we don't publish anywhere else.
See plans →Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.
How this is scored
- Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
- Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
- Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
- Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
- Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
- Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
- Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
- Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.
Release-note detail over time
See how much detail kube-bench puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.
Checking release-note history…
Website history
trivy.dev, every changeAqua Security's home page and 3 more pages as they looked each month from December 2021 to October 2026: 19 renders, 6 changes of tagline or palette. Step through them, play them, or put any two months side by side.
Website history is included with Researcher and Business.
See plans → Already subscribed? Sign in →← → or h l a month · Shift a year · [ ] previous / next change · Space play · 1 2 3 page · T whole page · C compare · F full size
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Rebranding timeline
Dates bound when a change appeared between captures. Possible rebrands are AI suggestions; a redesign alone does not establish a rebrand.
Releases
31 entries
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- November 20192
- June 20191
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- March 20191
- October 20181
- May 20181
- April 20181
Project health
Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in aquasecurity/kube-bench, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.
- Contributors 7 −16 vs prior 12 months
- Maintainers 2 +0 joined · −2 left, last 12 months
- Bus factor 1 committers behind half the commits
- Community-filed 73% of issues opened, last 12 months
- Median time to close 8.3 days first maintainer reply 23 days
- Open backlog 69 of 515 issues ever filed
- Issues opened / month 1 · 3 communitymaintainers
- Open backlog 69
- Contributors / month 1
- Commits / month 1
- Stars 8,187
- other 100%
Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this
Libraries its release ships
What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.None of its release's images build from a lockfile we can read.
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