Operationalizing Helm Chart Security: A Topology-Aware Framework for Enterprise Kubernetes Environments

Sireesha Devalla

Abstract: The rapid industrial adoption of Kubernetes has revolutionized application deployment and scalability, but it has also amplified configuration-driven security risks. Helm, the de facto package manager for Kubernetes, automates application delivery through Charts that encapsulate infrastructure, dependencies, and runtime parameters. However, misconfigurations and insecure dependencies within these Charts often propagate hidden vulnerabilities across production environments. This paper introduces a topology-aware framework designed to operationalize Helm Chart security assessment for enterprise use. The proposed approach automatically extracts the topological structure of a Chart-mapping services, dependencies, and access relationships-and enriches this model with security attributes aligned to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Using this enriched graph, the framework computes composite risk scores, identifies multi-step attack paths, and generates actionable insights for DevSecOps teams to integrate into continuous deployment pipelines. An empirical evaluation was conducted across multiple open-source and enterprise Helm repositories, revealing that over 70 % of Charts contained exploitable configuration weaknesses or risky inter-service privileges. The results demonstrate the framework?s potential to reduce manual auditing efforts, enhance early-stage threat visibility, and prioritize remediation based on attack feasibility. This work bridges the gap between research and industrial application by embedding security-by-design principles directly into automated Kubernetes deployment lifecycles.

Keywords: Kubernetes, Helm Charts, Microservices Security, DevSecOps, Configuration Analysis, Topology-Aware Framework, Attack Path Modeling, MITRE ATT&CK, Risk Assessment, Cloud-Native Security, Continuous Deployment, Enterprise Automation

How to Cite?: Sireesha Devalla, "Operationalizing Helm Chart Security: A Topology-Aware Framework for Enterprise Kubernetes Environments", Volume 13 Issue 6, June 2024, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 1967-1974, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR24628103829, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR24628103829