Kubernetes Security Report: 2025

Kubernetes remains a cornerstone of modern cloud environments, but security maturity still has room to improve.

The Wiz Research team’s refresh of the Kubernetes Security Report offers a view into the current landscape of container security. By analyzing over 200,000 cloud accounts, we've gathered concrete data on real-world Kubernetes deployments, uncovering critical insights that matter to security professionals and cloud architects alike.

Fact 1

New clusters are targeted at lightning speed

Bad actors are quick to probe fresh deployments. AKS clusters face their first attack attempt within 18 minutes, while EKS clusters are targeted within 28 minutes of creation.

Tweet Share

Fact 2

Critical vulnerabilities are declining

Organizations are strengthening their security posture, reducing publicly exposed pods with severe vulnerabilities by 50% since our last report—showcasing progress in proactive risk management.

Tweet Share

Fact 3

Security feature adoption has room for improvement

81% of EKS clusters still rely on deprecated CONFIG_MAP authentication, against AWS security best practices.

Tweet Share

Fact 4

Kubernetes version maintenance is advancing

Kubernetes users are prioritizing version updates, with 54% of clusters now running on supported versions—an improvement from the 42% in our last report. This reflects a growing focus on maintaining up-to-date and secure environments.

Tweet Share

Conclusions

Kubernetes security continues to evolve, with organizations making progress in key areas while still facing opportunities for improvement.

Download the full 2025 Kubernetes Security Report Refresh to explore:

Trends in Kubernetes version adoption across major cloud providers
Evolving security best practices and feature adoption rates
Actionable guidance to further enhance Kubernetes security and resilience