Use PCI-DSS v4.0 policy constraints

Policy Controller comes with a default library of constraint templates that can be used with the PCI-DSS v4.0 bundle to evaluate the compliance of your cluster resources against some aspects of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) v4.0.

This page contains instructions for manually applying a policy bundle. Alternatively, you can apply policy bundles directly.

This page is for IT administrators and Operators who want to ensure that all resources running within the cloud platform meet organizational compliance requirements by providing and maintaining automation to audit or enforce. To learn more about common roles and example tasks that we reference in Google Cloud content, see Common GKE user roles and tasks.

PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle constraints

Constraint Name Constraint Description Control IDs
pci-dss-v4.0-require-apps-annotations Requires that all apps in the cluster have a network-controls/date annotation. 2.2.5
pci-dss-v4.0-require-av-daemonset Requires the presence of an Anti-Virus DaemonSet. 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.3.5
pci-dss-v4.0-require-binauthz Requires the Binary Authorization Validating Admission Webhook. 2.2.1, 2.2.4, 6.2.3, 6.3.1, 6.3.2
pci-dss-v4.0-require-cloudarmor-backendconfig Enforces Google Cloud Armor configuration on BackendConfig resources. 6.4.1, 6.4.2
pci-dss-v4.0-require-config-management Requires that Config Management is running with Drift Prevention enabled and at least one RootSync object on the cluster. 1.2.8, 2.2.6, 5.3.5, 6.3.2, 6.5.1
pci-dss-v4.0-require-default-deny-network-policies Requires that every namespace defined in the cluster have a default deny NetworkPolicy for egress. 1.3.2, 1.4.4
pci-dss-v4.0-require-managed-by-label Requires all apps have a valid app.kubernetes.io/managed-by label. 1.2.8, 2.2.6, 5.3.5, 6.3.2, 6.5.1
pci-dss-v4.0-require-namespace-network-policies Requires that every Namespace defined in the cluster has a NetworkPolicy. 1.2.5, 1.2.6, 1.4.1, 1.4.4
pci-dss-v4.0-require-peer-authentication-strict-mtls Ensures PeerAuthentications cannot overwrite strict mTLS. 2.2.7, 4.2.1, 8.3.2
pci-dss-v4.0-require-valid-network-ranges Restricts CIDR ranges permitted for use with ingress and egress. 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.4.2, 1.4.4
pci-dss-v4.0-resources-have-required-labels Requires all apps to contain a specified label to meet firewall requirements. 1.2.7
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-cluster-admin-role Restricts the use of the cluster-admin role. 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.2.5, 8.2.4
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-creation-with-default-serviceaccount Restricts the creation of resources using a default service account. Has no effect during audit. 2.2.2
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-default-namespace Restricts pods from using the default namespace. 2.2.3
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-ingress Restricts the creation of Ingress objects. 1.3.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.4
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-node-image Ensures consistent and correct time on Nodes by allowing only Container-Optimized OS or Ubuntu as the OS image. 10.6.1, 10.6.2, 10.6.3
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-pods-exec Restricts the use of pods/exec in Roles and ClusterRoles. 8.6.1
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-rbac-subjects Restricts the use of names in RBAC subjects to permitted values. 7.3.2, 8.2.1, 8.2.2, 8.2.4
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-role-wildcards Restricts the use of wildcards in Roles and ClusterRoles. 7.3.3, 8.2.4
pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-storageclass Restricts StorageClass to a list of StorageClass which encrypt by default. 3.3.2, 3.3.3

Before you begin

  1. Install and initialize the Google Cloud CLI, which provides the gcloud and kubectl commands used in these instructions. If you use Cloud Shell, Google Cloud CLI comes pre-installed.
  2. Install Policy Controller v1.16.0 or higher on your cluster with the default library of constraint templates. You must also enable support for referential constraints as this bundle contains referential constraints.

Configure Policy Controller for referential constraints

  1. Save the following YAML manifest to a file as policycontroller-config.yaml. The manifest configures Policy Controller to watch specific kinds of objects.

    apiVersion:config.gatekeeper.sh/v1alpha1
kind:Config
metadata:
name:config
namespace:"gatekeeper-system"
spec:
sync:
syncOnly:
-group:"networking.k8s.io"
version:"v1"
kind:"NetworkPolicy"
-group:"admissionregistration.k8s.io"
version:"v1"
kind:"ValidatingWebhookConfiguration"
-group:"storage.k8s.io"
version:"v1"
kind:"StorageClass"

  2. Apply the policycontroller-config.yaml manifest:

    kubectlapply-fpolicycontroller-config.yaml

Configure your cluster's workload for PCI-DSS v4.0

  1. All apps (ReplicaSet, Deployment, StatefulSet, DaemonSet) must include a network-controls/date annotation with the schema ofYYYY-MM-DD.
  2. An antivirus solution is required. The default is the presence of a daemonset named clamav in the clamav Namespace, however the daemonset's name and namespace can be customized to your implementation in the pci-dss-v4.0-require-av-daemonset constraint.
  3. Enablement and configuration of Binary Authorization is required in pci-dss-v4.0-require-binauthz.
  4. All BackendConfig must be configured for CloudArmor.
  5. The presence and enablement of Config Sync is required.
  6. Every Namespace defined in the cluster have a default deny NetworkPolicy for egress, permitted exceptions can be specific in pci-dss-v4.0-require-namespace-network-policies.
  7. The use of Config Sync for configmanagement.gke.io is required by default, however the permitted app.kubernetes.io/managed-by value can be customized in the pci-dss-v4.0-enforce-managed-by-configmanagement-label constraint.
  8. Every Namespace defined in the cluster must have a NetworkPolicy.
  9. If using Cloud Service Mesh, ASM PeerAuthentication must use strict mTLS spec.mtls.mode: STRICT.
  10. Only permitted IP ranges can be used for Ingress and Express, these can be specified in pci-dss-v4.0-require-valid-network-ranges.
  11. All apps (ReplicaSet, Deployment, StatefulSet, and DaemonSet) must include a pci-dss-firewall-audit label with the schema of pci-dss-[0-9]{4}q[1-4].
  12. The use of the cluster-admin ClusterRole is not permitted.
  13. Resources cannot be created using the default service account.
  14. The default Namespace cannot be used for pods.
  15. Only permitted Ingress objects (Ingress, Gateway, and Service types of NodePort and LoadBalancer) can be created, these can be specified in pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-ingress.
  16. All nodes must use Container-Optimized OS or Ubuntu for their image for consistent time.
  17. The use of the wildcard character or the pods/exec permission in Roles and ClusterRoles is not permitted.
  18. Only permitted subjects can be used in RBAC bindings, your domain name(s) can be specified in pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-rbac-subjects.
  19. The use of encrypt by default StorageClass is required in pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-storageclass.

Audit PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle

Policy Controller lets you enforce policies for your Kubernetes cluster. To help test your workloads and their compliance with regard to the PCI-DSS v4.0 policies outlined in the preceding table, you can deploy these constraints in "audit" mode to reveal violations and more importantly give yourself a chance to fix them before enforcing on your Kubernetes cluster.

You can apply these policies with spec.enforcementAction set to dryrun using kubectl, kpt, or Config Sync.

kubectl

  1. (Optional) Preview the policy constraints with kubectl:

    kubectl kustomize https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gke-policy-library.git/anthos-bundles/pci-dss-v4.0

  2. Apply the policy constraints with kubectl:

    kubectl apply -k https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gke-policy-library.git/anthos-bundles/pci-dss-v4.0

    The output is the following:

    asmpeerauthnstrictmtls.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-peer-authentication-strict-mtls created
k8sblockallingress.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-ingress created
k8sblockcreationwithdefaultserviceaccount.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-creation-with-default-serviceaccount created
k8senforcecloudarmorbackendconfig.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-cloudarmor-backendconfig created
k8senforceconfigmanagement.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-config-management created
k8sprohibitrolewildcardaccess.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-role-wildcards created
k8srequirebinauthz.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-binauthz created
k8srequirecosnodeimage.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-node-image created
k8srequiredaemonsets.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-av-daemonset created
k8srequiredefaultdenyegresspolicy.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-default-deny-network-policies created
k8srequirenamespacenetworkpolicies.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-namespace-network-policies created
k8srequirevalidrangesfornetworks.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-valid-network-ranges created
k8srequiredannotations.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-apps-annotations created
k8srequiredlabels.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-managed-by-label created
k8srequiredlabels.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-resources-have-required-labels created
k8srestrictnamespaces.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-default-namespace created
k8srestrictrbacsubjects.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-rbac-subjects created
k8srestrictrolebindings.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-cluster-admin-role created
k8srestrictrolerules.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-pods-exec created
k8sstorageclass.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-storageclass created

  3. Verify that policy constraints have been installed and check if violations exist across the cluster:

    kubectl get constraints -l policycontroller.gke.io/bundleName=pci-dss-v4.0

    The output is similar to the following:

    NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
asmpeerauthnstrictmtls.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-peer-authentication-strict-mtls dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8sblockallingress.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-ingress dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8sblockcreationwithdefaultserviceaccount.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-creation-with-default-serviceaccount dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8senforcecloudarmorbackendconfig.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-cloudarmor-backendconfig dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8senforceconfigmanagement.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-config-management dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8sprohibitrolewildcardaccess.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-role-wildcards dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequirebinauthz.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-binauthz dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequirecosnodeimage.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-node-image dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequiredaemonsets.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-av-daemonset dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequiredannotations.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-apps-annotations dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequiredefaultdenyegresspolicy.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-default-deny-network-policies dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequiredlabels.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-managed-by-label dryrun 0
k8srequiredlabels.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-resources-have-required-labels dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequirenamespacenetworkpolicies.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-namespace-network-policies dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srequirevalidrangesfornetworks.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-require-valid-network-ranges dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srestrictnamespaces.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-default-namespace dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srestrictrbacsubjects.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-rbac-subjects dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srestrictrolebindings.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-cluster-admin-role dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8srestrictrolerules.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-pods-exec dryrun 0
NAME ENFORCEMENT-ACTION TOTAL-VIOLATIONS
k8sstorageclass.constraints.gatekeeper.sh/pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-storageclass dryrun 0

kpt

  1. Install and setup kpt. kpt is used in these instructions to customize and deploy Kubernetes resources.

  2. Download the PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle from GitHub using kpt:

    kpt pkg get https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gke-policy-library.git/anthos-bundles/pci-dss-v4.0

  3. Run the set-enforcement-action kpt function to set the policies' enforcement action to dryrun:

    kpt fn eval pci-dss-v4.0 -i gcr.io/kpt-fn/set-enforcement-action:v0.1 \
 -- enforcementAction=dryrun

  4. Initialize the working directory with kpt, which creates a resource to track changes:

    cd pci-dss-v4.0
kpt live init

  5. Apply the policy constraints with kpt:

    kpt live apply

  6. Verify that policy constraints have been installed and check if violations exist across the cluster:

    kpt live status --output table --poll-until current

    A status of CURRENT confirms successful installation of the constraints.

Config Sync

  1. Install and setup kpt. kpt is used in these instructions to customize and deploy Kubernetes resources.

Operators using Config Sync to deploy policies to their clusters can use the following instructions:

  1. Change into the sync directory for Config Sync:

    cd SYNC_ROOT_DIR

    To create or append .gitignore with resourcegroup.yaml: 

    echo resourcegroup.yaml >> .gitignore

  2. Create a dedicated policies directory:

    mkdir -p policies

  3. Download the PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle from GitHub using kpt:

    kpt pkg get https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gke-policy-library.git/anthos-bundles/pci-dss-v4.0 policies/pci-dss-v4.0

  4. Run the set-enforcement-action kpt function to set the policies' enforcement action to dryrun:

    kpt fn eval policies/pci-dss-v4.0 -i gcr.io/kpt-fn/set-enforcement-action:v0.1 -- enforcementAction=dryrun

  5. (Optional) Preview the policy constraints to be created:

    kpt live init policies/pci-dss-v4.0
kpt live apply --dry-run policies/pci-dss-v4.0

  6. If your sync directory for Config Sync uses Kustomize, add policies/pci-dss-v4.0 to your root kustomization.yaml. Otherwise remove the policies/pci-dss-v4.0/kustomization.yaml file:

    rm SYNC_ROOT_DIR/policies/pci-dss-v4.0/kustomization.yaml

  7. Push changes to the Config Sync repository:

    git add SYNC_ROOT_DIR/policies/pci-dss-v4.0
git commit -m 'Adding PCI-DSS v4.0 policy audit enforcement'
git push

  8. Verify the status of the installation:

    watch gcloud beta container fleet config-management status --project PROJECT_ID

    A status of SYNCED confirms the installation of the policies.

View policy violations

Once the policy constraints are installed in audit mode, violations on the cluster can be viewed in the UI using the Policy Controller Dashboard.

You can also use kubectl to view violations on the cluster using the following command:

kubectl get constraint -l policycontroller.gke.io/bundleName=pci-dss-v4.0 -o json | jq -cC '.items[]| [.metadata.name,.status.totalViolations]'

If violations are present, a listing of the violation messages per constraint can be viewed with:

kubectl get constraint -l policycontroller.gke.io/bundleName=pci-dss-v4.0 -o json | jq -C '.items[]| select(.status.totalViolations>0)| [.metadata.name,.status.violations[]?]'

Change PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle enforcement action

Once you've reviewed policy violations on your cluster, you can consider changing the enforcement mode so the Admission Controller will either warn on or even deny block non-compliant resource from getting applied to the cluster.

kubectl

  1. Use kubectl to set the policies' enforcement action to warn:

    kubectl get constraint -l policycontroller.gke.io/bundleName=pci-dss-v4.0 -o name | xargs -I {} kubectl patch {} --type='json' -p='[{"op":"replace","path":"/spec/enforcementAction","value":"warn"}]'

  2. Verify that policy constraints enforcement action have been updated:

    kubectl get constraint -l policycontroller.gke.io/bundleName=pci-dss-v4.0

kpt

  1. Run the set-enforcement-action kpt function to set the policies' enforcement action to warn:

    kpt fn eval -i gcr.io/kpt-fn/set-enforcement-action:v0.1 -- enforcementAction=warn

  2. Apply the policy constraints:

    kpt live apply

Config Sync

Operators using Config Sync to deploy policies to their clusters can use the following instructions:

  1. Change into the sync directory for Config Sync:

    cd SYNC_ROOT_DIR

  2. Run the set-enforcement-action kpt function to set the policies' enforcement action to warn:

    kpt fn eval policies/pci-dss-v4.0 -i gcr.io/kpt-fn/set-enforcement-action:v0.1 -- enforcementAction=warn

  3. Push changes to the Config Sync repository:

    git add SYNC_ROOT_DIR/policies/pci-dss-v4.0
git commit -m 'Adding PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle warn enforcement'
git push

  4. Verify the status of the installation:

    nomos status

    The cluster should display a status of SYNCED with the installed policies.

Test policy enforcement

Create a non-compliant resource on the cluster using the following command:

cat<<EOF|kubectlapply-f-
apiVersion:v1
kind:Pod
metadata:
namespace:default
name:wp-non-compliant
labels:
app:wordpress
spec:
containers:
-image:wordpress
name:wordpress
ports:
-containerPort:80
name:wordpress
EOF

The admission controller should produce a warning listing out the policy violations that this resource violates, as shown in the following example:

Warning: [pci-dss-v4.0-restrict-default-namespace] <default> namespace is restricted
pod/wp-non-compliant created

Remove PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle

If needed, the PCI-DSS v4.0 policy bundle can be removed from the cluster.

kubectl

  • Use kubectl to remove the policies:

    kubectl delete constraint -l policycontroller.gke.io/bundleName=pci-dss-v4.0

kpt

  • Remove the policies:

    kpt live destroy

Config Sync

Operators using Config Sync to deploy policies to their clusters can use the following instructions:

  1. Push changes to the Config Sync repository:

    git rm -r SYNC_ROOT_DIR/policies/pci-dss-v4.0
git commit -m 'Removing PCI-DSS v4.0 policies'
git push

  2. Verify the status:

    nomos status

    The cluster should display a status of SYNCED with the resources removed.

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Last updated 2025年10月24日 UTC.