Kubescape Achieves CNCF Incubation Status 

It took longer than I thought it would, but the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Kubescape, has finally graduated from being a sandbox to being an incubation project. Yea!

This popular open source Kubernetes security project leverages eBPF-based event monitoring on Kubernetes nodes to detect security threats in real time. Since its introduction in 2021, it has evolved from being the first open source security scanner to support the NSA-CISA Kubernetes security guidelines to providing risk analysis, security, compliance, misconfiguration scanning, and image scanning for IDEs, CI/CD pipelines, and clusters.

It’s also become extremely popular. In a statement,  Ben Hirschberg, CTO and co-founder of ARMO, Kubescape’s parent company, said, “The scale of adoption has validated our vision, particularly with Kubescape’s incorporation into AWS security training materials, Intel’s public endorsement, and its contribution to securing other open source projects through platforms like Bitnami. It’s remarkable to see how an informal conversation between friends over coffee has evolved into something that delivers substantial value to organizations worldwide.”

Beyond Vulnerability Scanning

Emily Fox, Red Hat Portfolio Security Architect and Kubescape Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) sponsor, added, “Projects like Kubescape provide adopters with a robust series of security capabilities that go beyond vulnerability scanning to include all aspects of security considerations in Kubernetes environments.”

Specifically, Kubescape monitors events such as process initiations, file activities, network operations, and system calls via eBPF-based event monitoring on Kubernetes nodes. It also uses an anomaly detection engine to establish a baseline for application behavior and post alerts when deviations occur. Finally, it employs a behavioral analysis engine to spot known attack signatures.

With its new incubation status, Kubescape is poised for accelerated growth and increased contributor diversity. The project’s commitment to simplifying security for adopters sets it on a path toward potential graduation within the CNCF ecosystem.

Finally, while no plans were announced for its next release, it’s been a year and a half since Kubescape 3.0 saw the light of the day. Thus, I expect Kubescape 4.0 to make its appearance sometime later this year. Perhaps, even as soon as KubeCon Europe in London in April 2025.