Policy Exceptions

Although Kyverno policies contain multiple methods to provide fine-grained control as to which resources they act upon in the form of match/exclude blocks, preconditions at multiple hierarchies, anchors, and more, all these mechanisms have in common that the resources which they are intended to exclude must occur in the same rule definition. This may be limiting in situations where policies may not be directly editable, or doing so imposes an operational burden.

For example, in organizations where multiple teams must interact with the same cluster, a team responsible for policy authoring and administration may not be the same team responsible for submission of resources. In these cases, it can be advantageous to decouple the policy definition from certain exclusions. Additionally, there are often times where an organization or team must allow certain exceptions which would violate otherwise valid rules but on a one-time basis if the risks are known and acceptable.

Imagine a validate policy exists in Enforce mode which mandates all Pods must not mount host namespaces. A separate team has a legitimate need to run a specific tool in this cluster for a limited time which violates this policy. Normally, the policy would block such a “bad” Pod if the policy was not previously altered in such a way to allow said Pod to run. Rather than making adjustments to the policy, an exception may be granted. Both of these examples are use cases for a PolicyException resource described below.

A PolicyException is a Namespaced Custom Resource which allows a resource(s) to be allowed past a given policy and rule combination. It can be used to exempt any resource from any Kyverno rule type although it is primarily intended for use with validate rules. A PolicyException encapsulates the familiar match/exclude statements used in Policy and ClusterPolicy resources but adds an exceptions{} object to select the policy and rule name(s) used to form the exception. A conditions{} block (optional) uses common expressions similar to those found in preconditions and deny rules to query the contents of the selected resources in order to refine the selection process. The logical flow of how a PolicyException works in tandem with a validate policy is depicted below.

graph TD
  Start --> id1["Validate policy in enforce mode exists"]
  id1 --> id2["User/process sends violating resource"]
  id2 --> Need{"Matching PolicyException exists?"}
  Need -- No --> id3["Resource blocked"]
  Need -- Yes --> id4["Resource allowed"]

An example set of resources is shown below.

A ClusterPolicy exists containing a single validate rule in Enforce mode which requires all Pods must not use any host namespaces via the fields hostPID, hostIPC, or hostNetwork. If any of these fields are defined, they must be set to a value of false.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v2beta1
 2kind: ClusterPolicy
 3metadata:
 4  name: disallow-host-namespaces
 5spec:
 6  background: false
 7  rules:
 8    - name: host-namespaces
 9      match:
10        any:
11        - resources:
12            kinds:
13              - Pod
14      validate:
15        failureAction: Enforce
16        message: >-
17          Sharing the host namespaces is disallowed. The fields spec.hostNetwork,
18          spec.hostIPC, and spec.hostPID must be unset or set to `false`.
19        pattern:
20          spec:
21            =(hostPID): "false"
22            =(hostIPC): "false"
23            =(hostNetwork): "false"

A cluster administrator wishes to grant an exception to a Pod or Deployment named important-tool which will be created in the delta Namespace. A PolicyException resource is created which specifies the policy name and rule name which should be bypassed as well as the resource kind, Namespace, and name which may bypass it.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v2
 2kind: PolicyException
 3metadata:
 4  name: delta-exception
 5  namespace: delta
 6spec:
 7  exceptions:
 8  - policyName: disallow-host-namespaces
 9    ruleNames:
10    - host-namespaces
11    - autogen-host-namespaces
12  match:
13    any:
14    - resources:
15        kinds:
16        - Pod
17        - Deployment
18        namespaces:
19        - delta
20        names:
21        - important-tool*
22  conditions:
23    any:
24    - key: "{{ request.object.metadata.labels.app || '' }}"
25      operator: Equals
26      value: busybox

A Deployment matching the characteristics defined in the PolicyException, shown below, will be allowed creation even though it technically violates the rule’s definition.

 1apiVersion: apps/v1
 2kind: Deployment
 3metadata:
 4  name: important-tool
 5  namespace: delta
 6  labels:
 7    app: busybox
 8spec:
 9  replicas: 1
10  selector:
11    matchLabels:
12      app: busybox
13  template:
14    metadata:
15      labels:
16        app: busybox
17    spec:
18      hostIPC: true
19      containers:
20      - image: busybox:1.35
21        name: busybox
22        command: ["sleep", "1d"]

PolicyExceptions are always Namespaced yet may provide an exception for a cluster-scoped resource as well. There is no correlation between the Namespace in which the PolicyException exists and the Namespace where resources may be excepted.

Exceptions against a ClusterPolicy and those against a (Namespaced) Policy can be disambiguated by specifying the value of the exceptions[].policyName field in the format <namespace>/<policy-name>.

1exceptions:
2- policyName: team-a/disallow-host-namespaces
3  ruleNames:
4  - host-namespaces

PolicyExceptions also support background scanning, enabled by default. An exception which either explicitly defines spec.background=true or does not define the field at all, will influence Policy Reports when the exception is processed, allowing report results to change from a Fail to a Skip result. When background scans are enabled, PolicyExceptions forbid matching on the same types of fields as those forbidden by validate rules including Roles, ClusterRoles, and user information.

Wildcards ("*") are supported in the value of the ruleNames[] field allowing exception from any/all rules in the policy without having to name them explicitly.

Since PolicyExceptions are just another Custom Resource, their use can and should be controlled by a number of different mechanisms to ensure their creation in a cluster is authorized including:

• Kubernetes RBAC
• Specific Namespace for PolicyExceptions (see Container Flags)
• Existing GitOps governance processes
• Kyverno validate rules
• YAML manifest validation

PolicyExceptions may be subjected to Kyverno validate policies which can be used to provide additional guardrails around how they may be crafted. For example, it is considered a best practice to only allow very narrow exceptions to a much broader rule. Given the case shown earlier, only a Pod or Deployment with the name important-tool would be allowed by the exception, not any Pod or Deployment. Kyverno policy can help ensure, both in the cluster and in a CI/CD process via the CLI, that PolicyExceptions conform to your design standards. Below is an example of a sample policy to illustrate how a Kyverno validate rule ensure that a specific name must be used when creating an exception. For other samples, see the policy library.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v2beta1
 2kind: ClusterPolicy
 3metadata:
 4  name: policy-for-exceptions
 5spec:
 6  background: false
 7  rules:
 8  - name: require-match-name
 9    match:
10      any:
11      - resources:
12          kinds:
13          - PolicyException
14    validate:
15      failureAction: Enforce
16      message: >-
17        An exception must explicitly specify a name for a resource match.
18      pattern:
19        spec:
20          match:
21            =(any):
22            - resources:
23                names: "?*"
24            =(all):
25            - resources:
26                names: "?*"

Pod Security Exemptions

Kyverno policies can be used to apply Pod Security Standards profiles and controls via the validate.podSecurity subrule. However, there are cases where certain Pods need to be exempted from these policies. For example, a Pod may need to run as root or require privileged access. In such cases, a PolicyException can be used to define an exemption for the Pod through the podSecurity{} block. It can be used to define controls that are exempted from the policy.

Given the following policy that enforces the latest version of the Pod Security Standards restricted profile in a single rule across the entire cluster.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v1
 2kind: ClusterPolicy
 3metadata:
 4  name: psa
 5spec:
 6  background: true
 7  rules:
 8  - name: restricted
 9    match:
10      any:
11      - resources:
12          kinds:
13          - Pod
14    validate:
15      failureAction: Enforce
16      podSecurity:
17        level: restricted
18        version: latest

In this use case, all Pods in the delta Namespace need to run as a root. A PolicyException can be used to exempt all Pods whose Namespace is delta from the policy by excluding the runAsNonRoot control.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v2
 2kind: PolicyException
 3metadata:
 4  name: pod-security-exception
 5  namespace: policy-exception-ns
 6spec:
 7  exceptions:
 8  - policyName: psa
 9    ruleNames:
10    - restricted
11  match:
12    any:
13    - resources:
14        namespaces:
15        - delta
16  podSecurity:
17    - controlName: "Running as Non-root"

The following Pod satisfies all controls in the restricted profile except the Running as Non-root control but it matches the exception. Hence, it will be successfully created.

 1apiVersion: v1
 2kind: Pod
 3metadata:
 4  name: nginx-pod
 5  namespace: delta
 6spec:
 7  containers:
 8  - name: nginx
 9    image: nginx
10    args:
11    - sleep
12    - 1d
13    securityContext:
14      seccompProfile:
15        type: RuntimeDefault
16      runAsNonRoot: false
17      allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
18      capabilities:
19        drop:
20        - ALL

PolicyExceptions podSecurity{} block has the same functionality as the validate.podSecurity.exclude block in the policy itself. They can be used to exempt controls that can only be defined in the container level fields.

For example, the following PolicyException exempts the containers running either the nginx or redis image from following the Capabilities control.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v2
 2kind: PolicyException
 3metadata:
 4  name: pod-security-exception
 5  namespace: policy-exception-ns
 6spec:
 7  exceptions:
 8  - policyName: psa
 9    ruleNames:
10    - restricted
11  match:
12    any:
13    - resources:
14        namespaces:
15        - delta
16  podSecurity:
17    - controlName: Capabilities
18      images:
19          - nginx*
20          - redis*

There might be a case where it is required to have specific values for the controls in the PodSecurity profile. In such cases, the podSecurity.restrictedField field can be used to define these values for the controls that are exempted from the policy.

For example, service meshes like Istio and Linkerd employ an initContainer that requires some privileges which are very often problematic in security-conscious clusters. Minimally, these initContainers must add two Linux capabilities which allow them to make modifications to the networking stack: NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW. These initContainers may go even further by running as a root user, something which is a big no-no in the world of containers.

In this case, the podSecurity.restrictedField can be used to enforce the entire baseline profile of the Pod Security Standards but only exclude Istio’s and Linkerd’s images from specifically the initContainers list.

The following PolicyException grants an exemption to the initContainers that use Istio or Linkerd images, allowing them to bypass the Capabilities control. This is achieved by permitting the values of NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW in the securityContext.capabilities.add field.

 1apiVersion: kyverno.io/v2
 2kind: PolicyException
 3metadata:
 4  name: pod-security-exception
 5  namespace: policy-exception-ns
 6spec:
 7  exceptions:
 8  - policyName: psa
 9    ruleNames:
10    - baseline
11  match:
12    any:
13    - resources:
14        kinds:
15          - Pod
16  podSecurity:
17    - controlName: Capabilities
18      images:
19        - "*/istio/proxyv2*"
20        - "*/linkerd/proxy-init*"
21      restrictedField: spec.initContainers[*].securityContext.capabilities.add
22      values:
23        - NET_ADMIN
24        - NET_RAW

The following Pod meets all requirements outlined in the baseline profile, except the Capabilities control in the initContainer. However, it matches the exception that permits the configuration of spec.initContainers[*].securityContext.capabilities.add to include NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW. Hence, it will be successfully created.

 1apiVersion: v1
 2kind: Pod
 3metadata:
 4  name: istio-pod
 5spec:
 6  initContainers:
 7  - name: istio-init
 8    image: docker.io/istio/proxyv2:1.20.2
 9    args:
10        - istio-iptables
11        - -p
12        - "15001"
13        - -z
14        - "15006"
15        - -u
16        - "1337"
17        - -m
18        - REDIRECT
19        - -i
20        - '*'
21        - -x
22        - ""
23        - -b
24        - '*'
25        - -d
26        - 15090,15021,15020
27        - --log_output_level=default:info
28    securityContext:
29      allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
30      capabilities:
31        add:
32          - NET_ADMIN
33          - NET_RAW
34        drop:
35          - ALL
36      privileged: false
37      readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
38      runAsGroup: 0
39      runAsNonRoot: false
40      runAsUser: 0
41  containers:
42  - name: busybox
43    image: busybox:1.35
44    args:
45    - sleep
46    - infinity

The following Pod meets all requirements outlined in the baseline profile, except the Capabilities control in the initContainer and it matches the exception but it sets the spec.initContainers[*].securityContext.capabilities.add to SYS_ADMIN which isn’t an allowed value. Hence, it will be rejected.

 1apiVersion: v1
 2kind: Pod
 3metadata:
 4  name: istio-pod
 5spec:
 6  initContainers:
 7  - name: istio-init
 8    image: docker.io/istio/proxyv2:1.20.2
 9    args:
10        - istio-iptables
11        - -p
12        - "15001"
13        - -z
14        - "15006"
15        - -u
16        - "1337"
17        - -m
18        - REDIRECT
19        - -i
20        - '*'
21        - -x
22        - ""
23        - -b
24        - '*'
25        - -d
26        - 15090,15021,15020
27        - --log_output_level=default:info
28    securityContext:
29      allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
30      capabilities:
31        add:
32          - NET_ADMIN
33          - NET_RAW
34          - SYS_ADMIN
35        drop:
36          - ALL
37      privileged: false
38      readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
39      runAsGroup: 0
40      runAsNonRoot: false
41      runAsUser: 0
42  containers:
43  - name: busybox
44    image: busybox:1.35
45    args:
46    - sleep
47    - infinity

PolicyExceptions with CEL Expressions

Since Kyverno 1.14.0, PolicyExceptions, introduced in the new group policies.kyverno.io, support CEL expressions to selectively skip policy enforcement for policy types like ValidatingPolicy and ImageValidatingPolicy in both admission and background modes.

• A CEL expression under matchConditions dynamically matches target resources (e.g., by name, namespace, or labels).
• The policyRefs field specifies the policy name and policy kind being excluded from enforcement.
• If the match condition evaluates to true, the referenced rule is skipped and logged accordingly in PolicyReports.

Using PolicyException with ValidatingPolicy in Admission Mode

The following ValidatingPolicy enforce that all Deployment resources must include the label env=prod. If this condition is not met, the policy denies the request.

 1apiVersion: policies.kyverno.io/v1alpha1
 2kind: ValidatingPolicy
 3metadata:
 4  name: require-prod-label
 5spec:
 6  validationActions:
 7    - Deny
 8  matchConstraints:
 9    resourceRules:
10      - apiGroups: ["apps"]
11        apiVersions: ["v1"]
12        resources: ["deployments"]
13        operations: ["CREATE", "UPDATE"]
14  validations:
15    - expression: >-
16        has(object.metadata.labels) && object.metadata.labels.env == 'prod'
17      messageExpression: "'Deployment must have label env=prod.'"

To exclude a specific Deployment from the above policy enforcement, a PolicyException can be defined. This example uses a CEL expression to match the Deployment named skipped-deployment, allowing it to bypass the validation.

 1apiVersion: policies.kyverno.io/v1alpha1
 2kind: PolicyException
 3metadata:
 4  name: exclude-skipped-deployment
 5  namespace: default
 6spec:
 7  policyRefs:
 8    - name: require-prod-label
 9      kind: ValidatingPolicy
10  matchConditions:
11    - name: skip-by-name
12      expression: "object.metadata.name == 'skipped-deployment'"

When the exception is triggered during a live admission request, Kyverno logs the decision in a PolicyReport. Below is an example showing the policy rule was skipped due to the matching PolicyException.

 1apiVersion: wgpolicyk8s.io/v1alpha2
 2kind: PolicyReport
 3metadata:
 4  namespace: default
 5  labels:
 6    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kyverno
 7  ownerReferences:
 8  - apiVersion: apps/v1
 9    kind: Deployment
10    name: skipped-deployment
11results:
12  - policy: vpol-report-background-sample
13    rule: exception
14    result: skip
15    message: "rule is skipped due to policy exception: default/exclude-skipped-deployment"
16    properties:
17      exceptions: exclude-skipped-deployment
18      process: admission review
19    source: KyvernoValidatingPolicy
20    scored: true
21scope:
22  apiVersion: apps/v1
23  kind: Deployment
24  name: skipped-deployment
25  namespace: default
26summary:
27  pass: 0
28  fail: 0
29  warn: 0
30  error: 0
31  skip: 1

Interpreting PolicyReport Results from PolicyException

• result: skip — indicates the rule was not applied.
• process: admission review — confirms the evaluation occurred during a live admission request.
• exceptions: exclude-skipped-deployment — references the applied PolicyException.

Just like in admission mode, PolicyException also functions in background mode and supports other policy type ImageValidatingPolicy.

Using PolicyException with ImageValidatingPolicy in Background Mode

In this example, a Pod named skipped-pod meets the match criteria of the policy. It is located in the default namespace, includes the label prod: true, and references an unsigned image from ghcr.io. as result,this image should fail the background policy evaluation due to missing or invalid attestations and signatures.

 1apiVersion: v1
 2kind: Pod
 3metadata:
 4  name: skipped-pod
 5  namespace: default
 6  labels:
 7    prod: "true"
 8spec:
 9  containers:
10    - name: nginx
11      image: 'ghcr.io/kyverno/test-verify-image:unsigned'

The ImageValidatingPolicy shown below is configured to run only during background scans, not during admission. It targets Pod resources have the label prod: true. When such a resource is encountered, the policy performs three layers of validation: it verifies the image signature using a provided notary certificate, checks for the presence of an SBOM attestation of type CycloneDX, and confirms that the payload format matches the expected structure.

 1apiVersion: policies.kyverno.io/v1alpha1
 2kind: ImageValidatingPolicy
 3metadata:
 4  name: ivpol-sample
 5spec:
 6  webhookConfiguration:
 7    timeoutSeconds: 20
 8  failurePolicy: Ignore
 9  evaluation:
10    admission:
11      enabled: false
12    background:
13      enabled: true
14  validationActions:
15    - Audit
16  matchConstraints:
17    resourceRules:
18      - apiGroups: [""]
19        apiVersions: ["v1"]
20        operations: ["CREATE"]
21        resources: ["pods"]
22  matchConditions:
23    - name: "check-prod-label"
24      expression: >-
25        has(object.metadata.labels) && has(object.metadata.labels.prod) && object.metadata.labels.prod == 'true'
26  matchImageReferences:
27    - glob: ghcr.io/*
28  attestors:
29    - name: notary
30      notary:
31        certs:
32          value: |-
33            -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
34            MIIDTTCCAjWgAwIBAgIJAPI+zAzn4s0xMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMEwxCzAJB
35            ...
36            -----END CERTIFICATE-----
37  attestations:
38    - name: sbom
39      referrer:
40        type: sbom/cyclone-dx
41  validations:
42    - expression: >-
43        images.containers.map(image, verifyImageSignatures(image, [attestors.notary])).all(e, e > 0)
44      message: failed to verify image with notary cert
45    - expression: >-
46        images.containers.map(image, verifyAttestationSignatures(image, attestations.sbom, [attestors.notary])).all(e, e > 0)
47      message: failed to verify attestation with notary cert
48    - expression: >-
49        images.containers.map(image, extractPayload(image, attestations.sbom).bomFormat == 'CycloneDX').all(e, e)
50      message: sbom is not a cyclone dx sbom

This PolicyException is defined to exempt this pod from enforcement. The exception uses a CEL expression—object.metadata.name == 'skipped-pod'to identify the specific resource. It links to the ImageValidatingPolicy named ivpol-sample, and when the background controller processes the pod, it detects that the exception applies. As a result, none of the image validation rules are executed for this resource.

 1apiVersion: policies.kyverno.io/v1alpha1
 2kind: PolicyException
 3metadata:
 4  name: check-name
 5spec:
 6  policyRefs:
 7    - name: ivpol-sample
 8      kind: ImageValidatingPolicy
 9  matchConditions:
10    - name: "check-name"
11      expression: "object.metadata.name == 'skipped-pod'"

Kyverno background controller evaluates the pod. It detects that the resource matches the PolicyException and Kyverno logs the decision in a PolicyReport

 1apiVersion: wgpolicyk8s.io/v1alpha2
 2kind: PolicyReport
 3metadata:
 4  namespace: default
 5  labels:
 6    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kyverno
 7  ownerReferences:
 8    - apiVersion: v1
 9      kind: Pod
10      name: skipped-pod
11results:
12  - policy: ivpol-sample
13    rule: exception
14    result: skip
15    message: "rule is skipped due to policy exception: "
16    properties:
17      exceptions: check-name
18      process: background scan
19    source: KyvernoImageValidatingPolicy
20    scored: true
21scope:
22  apiVersion: v1
23  kind: Pod
24  name: skipped-pod
25  namespace: default
26summary:
27  pass: 0
28  fail: 0
29  warn: 0
30  error: 0
31  skip: 1

Interpreting PolicyReport Results from PolicyException

• result: skip — indicates the rule was not applied.
• process: background scan — confirms the evaluation occurred during a background policy check.
• exceptions: check-name — references the applied PolicyException.

This enables fine-grained, declarative exemptions without modifying the core policy logic, keeping your security posture strong while allowing flexibility for exceptional cases.