Kubernetes 1.8 is all about enhancing security

Kubernetes 1.8 is now out with the prime focus on enhancing its security. The new version upgrades the existing networking support and includes role-based features to deliver a more secure experience.

First in the list of new features in Kubernetes 1.8 is role-based access control (RABC) that lets an admin define access permissions to various resources. RABC comes with permission access for resources like pods and secrets that can be granted to one or more users.

The orchestration framework already included a provision for networking. But with the new version, developers have been provided beta support for filtering outbound traffic as well. However, the beta package limits filtering in both directions, and only supports some destination ports and peers at the initial stage.

The Google team behind Kubernetes has upgraded the automatic TLS certificate rotation for Kubelet to beta. This helps to automatically generate unique certifications for Kubelet when a current one expires. The latest version promotes auditing features from the alpha to the beta stage. This includes formatting tools for audit logs and features to control users of each element of the cluster.

Another feature that has been promoted from alpha to beta is the set of workload APIs. This provides a way to orchestrate applications based on their overall behaviour. Workload APIs can also be used to monitor the production status.

You can find the latest Kubernetes release on its official GitHub page.