Understanding Kubernetes: Part 27 Role and RoleBinding

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📢 If you’ve been following our Kubernetes series 2025, welcome back! For new readers, check out Part 26: Preemption and Priority

Introduction

Kubernetes Role and RoleBinding are essential components of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). They define permissions within a Kubernetes cluster, ensuring that users and applications only have the access they need.

What is a Role?

A Role is a namespaced Kubernetes object that defines a set of permissions within a specific namespace. It grants access to resources such as Pods, ConfigMaps, and Deployments based on verbs (actions) like get, list, create, delete, and update.

Example: Creating a Role

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: pod-reader
  namespace: default
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["pods"]
  verbs: ["get", "list"]

This Role named pod-reader allows users to get and list Pods within the default namespace.

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What is a RoleBinding?

A RoleBinding associates a Role with a user, group, or service account, granting the permissions defined in the Role.

Example: Creating a RoleBinding

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: pod-reader-binding
  namespace: default
subjects:
- kind: User
  name: alice
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
roleRef:
  kind: Role
  name: pod-reader
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

This RoleBinding assigns the pod-reader Role to the user alice in the default namespace.

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Use Cases

1. Restricting Access to Specific Namespaces

• Using Role and RoleBinding ensures that a user or application can access only the required resources within a namespace.

2. Granting Cluster-Wide Permissions

• ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBinding provide necessary access across all namespaces, useful for administrators and monitoring tools.

3. Enforcing Least Privilege Access

• Assigning only necessary permissions ensures security and reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

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Managing Role and RoleBinding

To list Roles in a namespace:

kubectl get roles -n default

To list RoleBindings in a namespace:

kubectl get rolebindings -n default

To list ClusterRoles:

kubectl get clusterroles

To list ClusterRoleBindings:

kubectl get clusterrolebindings

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Conclusion

Role and RoleBinding are key elements of Kubernetes RBAC, ensuring fine-grained access control within a cluster. Understanding and implementing them properly enhances security and maintains operational efficiency.

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In My Previous Role

As a Senior DevOps Engineer, I used Kubernetes Role and RoleBinding to enforce access control:

• Namespace Restrictions: Limited access to specific namespaces for development and production teams.

• Read-Only Access: Created read-only Roles for monitoring tools and auditors.

• Cluster-Wide Permissions: Assigned ClusterRoles for system administrators while keeping developer access restricted.

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