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securitycritical PriorityID: tetragon-ebpf-synchronous-syscall-sigkill-guardrail

Tetragon eBPF Synchronous Syscall Override and Zero-Latency SIGKILL Guardrail

Enforces synchronous kernel-space evaluation and deterministic SIGKILL termination on unauthorized container namespace breakout attempts prior to instruction execution. Disallows asynchronous user-space audit-only detection modes that permit malicious syscall completion before alert consumption.

Prohibited Anti-Pattern: Asynchronous Post-Execution Auditing of Privilege Escalation and Container Breakout Syscalls

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---
description: Tetragon eBPF Synchronous Syscall Override and Zero-Latency SIGKILL Guardrail - Enforces synchronous kernel-space evaluation and deterministic SIGKILL termination on unauthorized container namespace breakout attempts prior to instruction execution. Disallows asynchronous user-space audit-only detection modes that permit malicious syscall completion before alert consumption.
globs: deploy/**/*.yaml, k8s/**/*.yaml, policies/**/*.yaml, security/**/*.yaml, infra/**/*.yaml
alwaysApply: true
verified_by: "agentrules.org"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
source: "https://agentrules.org/rules/tetragon-ebpf-synchronous-syscall-sigkill-guardrail"
---

# Tetragon eBPF Synchronous Syscall Override and Zero-Latency SIGKILL Guardrail

> **Severity**: CRITICAL | **Category**: security
> **Anti-Pattern Warning**: Asynchronous Post-Execution Auditing of Privilege Escalation and Container Breakout Syscalls

## System Constraints
You are a Principal Security Architect enforcing Cilium Tetragon eBPF runtime invariants. Mandate that all container namespace isolation policies use synchronous kprobe/sys_enter enforcement with immediate Sigkill actions on breakout vectors (setns, pivot_root, mount, unshare) before kernel execution context transitions occur.

## Strict Guidelines
- Engineers MUST ALWAYS hook TracingPolicy probes to syscall entry points (`sys_enter_setns`, `sys_enter_pivot_root`, `sys_enter_unshare`) rather than exit points or userspace collectors when blocking escapes.
- Engineers MUST NOT deploy Tetragon TracingPolicy manifests with audit-only semantics (`action: Post`) on container isolation primitives without a matching synchronous `action: Sigkill` enforcement rule.
- Tracing policies MUST scope breakout prevention using precise `matchNamespaces` or `matchArgs` selectors to avoid unintentionally signaling host-level init processes.
- Services MUST compile eBPF programs against target kernel BTF (BPF Type Format) configurations to guarantee structural compatibility with `bpf_send_signal` execution paths.
- Components NEVER permit execution of namespace switching primitives (`CAP_SYS_ADMIN` operations) from within unprivileged application workloads.

## Bad vs Good Implementations
### Tetragon TracingPolicy: Namespace Breakout Prevention via Synchronous SIGKILL

#### Bad Antipattern (AI Common Hallucination)
> **Why it fails**: Attaching to sys_exit with an asynchronous Post action allows the setns() syscall to complete execution, placing the thread in the targeted namespace before userspace or Tetragon can act.
```yaml
apiVersion: cilium.io/v1alpha1
kind: TracingPolicy
metadata:
  name: audit-setns-escape
spec:
  kprobes:
    - call: "sys_exit_setns"
      return: true
      syscall: true
      selectors:
        - matchActions:
            - action: Post # FLAW: Syscall has already executed and switched namespaces before audit event emits
              argError: 0
```

#### Production Standard (Correct)
> **Standard**: Hooks sys_enter_setns synchronously in kernel space; when an unauthorized target namespace match occurs, Tetragon immediately dispatches SIGKILL via bpf_send_signal before the kernel commit phase.
```yaml
apiVersion: cilium.io/v1alpha1
kind: TracingPolicy
metadata:
  name: block-setns-escape
spec:
  kprobes:
    - call: "sys_enter_setns"
      syscall: true
      args:
        - index: 0
          type: "int"
        - index: 1
          type: "int"
      selectors:
        - matchNamespaces:
            - namespace: mnt
              operator: In
              values: ["host"]
          matchActions:
            - action: Sigkill # INVARIANT: Zero-latency kernel termination prior to namespace transition
            - action: Post
```
Recommended MCP Servers (mcp-serverlist.com)

Equip agent with system tools to verify code for this stack.

Kubernetes Cluster Inspector
Inspects and validates applied CRDs, Tetragon TracingPolicies, and active cluster enforcement states.
Recommended Agent Skills (askills.dev)

Ready-to-use executable skill functions tailored to this stack.

Tetragon CLI Integration
CLI utility for linting, testing, and verifying TracingPolicy eBPF bytecode compatibility and real-time kernel event stream telemetry.
Architectural Specification & Invariant Rationale

Architectural Invariant Design: Tetragon eBPF Synchronous Syscall Override and Zero-Latency SIGKILL Guardrail

Tetragon eBPF Synchronous Syscall Override and Zero-Latency SIGKILL Guardrail defines an industrial-grade behavioral standard for security engineering. Enforces synchronous kernel-space evaluation and deterministic SIGKILL termination on unauthorized container namespace breakout attempts prior to instruction execution. Disallows asynchronous user-space audit-only detection modes that permit malicious syscall completion before alert consumption. Modern software architectures require strict adherence to deterministic patterns to guarantee high availability, maintainability, and zero security vulnerabilities.

Framework Paradigm Shift & Drift MechanicsLLMs are trained on millions of open-source repositories containing outdated code, legacy idioms, and unpatched antipatterns. When coding assistants generate implementations for this stack, they default to common statistical tokens: Asynchronous Post-Execution Auditing of Privilege Escalation and Container Breakout Syscalls Without an explicit system instruction file, developers spend hours debugging silent failures.
Failure Modes & Production Blast Radius

Hazard Analysis: What Breaks Without This Rule

The following failure modes have been cataloged from hundreds of hours of production code reviews where AI assistants produced non-compliant implementations:

Failure ModeAI Symptom (The Anti-Pattern)SeverityProduction Impact & Remedy
AI Hallucination & Deprecation DriftAsynchronous Post-Execution Auditing of Privilege Escalation and Container Breakout SyscallsCritical
Violating this industrial standard introduces regression bugs, security risks, and unexpected runtime failures in production.
Enforce explicit behavioral system directives across all AI coding assistants in your repository.
Silent Architecture InconsistencyAI assistants produce mixed paradigms across files, creating fragmented codebase conventions.Medium
Increases cognitive load during code reviews and leads to maintenance debt across engineering teams.
Pin project conventions in .cursor/rules, CLAUDE.md, and AGENTS.md so all team agents follow identical guardrails.
Architectural Directives in Detail

Step-by-Step Production Directives

Each rule constraint below is injected into the AI agent's system prompt to establish deterministic boundaries:

1

Engineers MUST ALWAYS hook TracingPolicy probes to syscall entry points (`sys_enter_setns`, `sys_enter_pivot_root`, `sys_enter_unshare`) rather than exit points or userspace collectors when blocking escapes.

Engineers MUST ALWAYS hook TracingPolicy probes to syscall entry points (`sys_enter_setns`, `sys_enter_pivot_root`, `sys_enter_unshare`) rather than exit points or userspace collectors when blocking escapes.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
2

Engineers MUST NOT deploy Tetragon TracingPolicy manifests with audit-only semantics (`action

Engineers MUST NOT deploy Tetragon TracingPolicy manifests with audit-only semantics (`action: Post`) on container isolation primitives without a matching synchronous `action: Sigkill` enforcement rule.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
3

Tracing policies MUST scope breakout prevention using precise `matchNamespaces` or `matchArgs` selectors to avoid unintentionally signaling host-level init processes.

Tracing policies MUST scope breakout prevention using precise `matchNamespaces` or `matchArgs` selectors to avoid unintentionally signaling host-level init processes.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
4

Services MUST compile eBPF programs against target kernel BTF (BPF Type Format) configurations to guarantee structural compatibility with `bpf_send_signal` execution paths.

Services MUST compile eBPF programs against target kernel BTF (BPF Type Format) configurations to guarantee structural compatibility with `bpf_send_signal` execution paths.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
5

Components NEVER permit execution of namespace switching primitives (`CAP_SYS_ADMIN` operations) from within unprivileged application workloads.

Components NEVER permit execution of namespace switching primitives (`CAP_SYS_ADMIN` operations) from within unprivileged application workloads.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
Technical Questions & Answers

Frequently Asked Technical Questions

Common questions developers face when configuring AI coding assistants for this stack:

Q:Why is Tetragon eBPF Synchronous Syscall Override and Zero-Latency SIGKILL Guardrail critical for AI coding assistants?

Enforces synchronous kernel-space evaluation and deterministic SIGKILL termination on unauthorized container namespace breakout attempts prior to instruction execution. Disallows asynchronous user-space audit-only detection modes that permit malicious syscall completion before alert consumption. Without explicit behavioral boundaries, AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Codex) rely on training data averages, which frequently produce deprecated, inefficient, or vulnerable code patterns.

Q:How does adopting this rule prevent AI hallucinations?

This rule explicitly declares what the AI must avoid (Asynchronous Post-Execution Auditing of Privilege Escalation and Container Breakout Syscalls) and prescribes verified positive examples. Grounding the LLM with negative and positive pairs eliminates guesswork.

Q:Which AI coding environments are supported?

This specification is multi-platform compatible: Cursor (.cursor/rules/*.mdc & .cursorrules), Anthropic Claude Code (CLAUDE.md), Windsurf (.windsurfrules), Codex / Cline (AGENTS.md), and GitHub Copilot (.github/copilot-instructions.md).

Q:Can I combine this rule with other technology stacks?

Yes. Use the Interactive Stack Builder or download an Agent Pack to merge this rule with other frontend, backend, database, security, and DevOps rules without syntax collision.

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