RBAC Authorization

Last update: January 29 2026

RBAC Authorization - one of the ways to assign roles to users in a Kubernetes cluster.

Allocate user roles

1. Connect the Service Account Token, as without it you will need to re-download kubeconfig after any role change.

2. Assign roles.

   An example manifest that creates two namespaces and two users, each of whom will only be able to manage pods in their namespace:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Namespace
   metadata:
       name: test-one
   ---
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Namespace
   metadata:
       name: test-two
   ---
   apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
   kind: RoleBinding
   metadata:
       name: read-pods-one
       namespace: test-one
   subjects:
   - kind: ServiceAccount
       name: test-sa-one
       apiGroup: ""
   roleRef:
       kind: Role
       name: pod-reader-one
       apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
   ---
   apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
   kind: RoleBinding
   metadata:
       name: read-pods-two
       namespace: test-two
   subjects:
   - kind: ServiceAccount
       name: test-sa-two
       apiGroup: ""
   roleRef:
       kind: Role
       name: pod-reader-two
       apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
   ---
   apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
   kind: Role
   metadata:
       namespace: test-one
       name: pod-reader-one
   rules:
   - apiGroups: [""] # "" indicates the core API group
       resources: ["pods"]
       verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
   ---
   apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
   kind: Role
   metadata:
       namespace: test-two
       name: pod-reader-two
   rules:
   - apiGroups: [""] # "" indicates the core API group
       resources: ["pods"]
       verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
   ---
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: ServiceAccount
   metadata:
       namespace: test-one
       name: test-sa-one
   ---
   apiVersion: v1
   kind: ServiceAccount
   metadata:
       namespace: test-two
       name: test-sa-two

3. Run the manifest.

4. Create tokens:

   kubectl get secret $(kubectl get serviceaccount test-sa-one -o jsonpath='{.secrets[0].name}' --namespace test-one) -o jsonpath='{.data.token}' --namespace test-one | base64 -d
   <long and secure token for test-sa-one>
   
   kubectl get secret $(kubectl get serviceaccount test-sa-two -o jsonpath='{.secrets[0].name}' --namespace test-two) -o jsonpath='{.data.token}' --namespace test-two | base64 -d
   <long and secure token for test-sa-two>

5. Manually add tokens to users in the kubeconfig.yaml file for passwordless authorization:

   users:
   ...
   - name: test-sa-one
     user:
       token: long and secure token test-sa-one
   - name: test-sa-two
     user:
       token: long and secure token test-sa-two
   ...

6. Check the operation of the role assignment:

   kubectl config set-context --current --user=test-sa-two
   Context "admin@kubernetes" modified.
   
   kubectl get pods --namespace test-two
   No resources found in test-two namespace.
   
   kubectl get pods --namespace test-one
   Error from server (Forbidden): pods is forbidden: User "system:serviceaccount:test-two:test-sa-two" cannot list resource "pods" in API group "" in the namespace "test-one"
   ________
   
   kubectl config set-context --current --user=test-sa-one
   Context "admin@kubernetes" modified.
   
   kubectl get pods --namespace test-two
   Error from server (Forbidden): pods is forbidden: User "system:serviceaccount:test-one:test-sa-one" cannot list resource "pods" in API group "" in the namespace "test-two"
   
   kubectl get pods --namespace test-one
   No resources found in test-one namespace.

   The test-sa-two user now has access to pods in the test-two namespace and no access in the test-one namespace. The test-sa-one user is the opposite.