Kubernetes and Cloud Native Security Associate (KCSA) free question 1 / 10 · Domain 1: Overview of Cloud Native Security
A platform team is adopting the layered security model from the Kubernetes documentation page on the 4C model of cloud native security (release-1.28). Which four layers make up that model?
- Cloud, Controllers, Containers, and Code
- Compute, Clusters, Containers, and Code
- Cloud, Clusters, Controls, and Code
- Cloud, Clusters, Containers, and Code
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: D
Why this is correct
The Kubernetes documentation page on the 4C model of cloud native security (release-1.28 source) opens its model with the sentence: "The 4C's of Cloud Native security are Cloud, Clusters, Containers, and Code." The four layers are nested. Cloud (or co-located servers, or the corporate datacenter) is the outermost layer, the cluster runs on it, containers run in the cluster, and application code runs in the containers. The page presents this as a way of thinking about security in layers and notes that the layered approach augments the defense in depth approach. Each layer has its own section on the page with recommendations, so knowing the four names also tells you where the page files a given recommendation.
Why the other options are wrong
"Cloud, Clusters, Controls, and Code" … Controls are what the page recommends inside each layer, such as the rows of its infrastructure security table or its code security table. They are not a layer of their own; the third layer of the model is Containers, which the page covers in its own section.
"Compute, Clusters, Containers, and Code" … Compute is not the outermost layer of the model. The page names the outermost layer Cloud and explains that it stands for the cloud, co-located servers, or the corporate datacenter, on which the cluster runs.
"Cloud, Controllers, Containers, and Code" … Controllers are components that run inside a cluster, so the page treats them under the Cluster layer, which covers the configurable cluster components and the applications running in the cluster. The second layer is Clusters, not Controllers.
Remember the order, outside to inside
Cloud, then Cluster, then Container, then Code. Any option that swaps in a different word (controls, compute, controllers) changes one of the four names the page defines.