CPENT Cloud And Hybrid Infrastructure Security Practice Question
A penetration tester is evaluating a Kubernetes environment and discovers that the Kubernetes dashboard is deployed with cluster-admin privileges and is exposed to the internet via a NodePort service without authentication. How can this be exploited?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
An external attacker can access the dashboard web interface without credentials and deploy malicious pods with host-level access, resulting in complete cluster compromise.
An unauthenticated Kubernetes dashboard exposed via NodePort allows an attacker to execute arbitrary commands, deploy malicious pods, and take over the entire cluster.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The dashboard exposes the cloud provider root account password in plain text logs.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud credentials are not exposed in the Kubernetes dashboard UI.
- ✗
The attacker can harvest Kerberos ticket-granting tickets from the dashboard cache.
Why it's wrong here
Kubernetes does not utilize Kerberos ticket-granting tickets.
- ✓
An external attacker can access the dashboard web interface without credentials and deploy malicious pods with host-level access, resulting in complete cluster compromise.
Why this is correct
Exposed unauthenticated Kubernetes dashboards allow full administrative control.
- ✗
The attacker can perform a buffer overflow against the etcd TLS listener via the dashboard port.
Why it's wrong here
The dashboard is a web UI communicating with the API server, not etcd directly.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official EC-Council exam blueprint
This CPENT practice question is part of Courseiva's free EC-Council certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CPENT exam.