Can I Use kubectl If the Cluster Management Permissions Are Not Configured?

IAM authentication is not required for running kubectl commands. Therefore, you can run kubectl commands without configuring cluster management (IAM) permissions. However, you need to obtain the kubectl configuration file (kubeconfig) with the namespace permissions. In the following scenarios, information leakage may occur during file transmission.

• Scenario 1

  If an IAM user has been configured with the cluster management permissions and namespace permissions, downloads the kubeconfig authentication file and then deletes the cluster management permissions (reserving the namespace permissions), kubectl can still be used to perform operations on Kubernetes clusters. Therefore, if you want to permanently delete the permission of a user, you must also delete the cluster management permissions and namespace permissions of the user.

• Scenario 2

  An IAM user has certain cluster management and namespace permissions and downloads the kubeconfig authentication file. In this case, CCE determines which Kubernetes resources can be accessed by kubectl based on the user information. That is, the authentication information of a user is recorded in kubeconfig. Anyone can use kubeconfig to access the cluster.