SECURITY AUDIT OF LIGHTWEIGHT KUBERNETES CLUSTERS USING MULTICHAIN-BASED TRUST MECHANISMS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2663-4023.2026.32.1097Keywords:
blockchain integration, lightweight distributions, kubernetes, security audit, multichain, containers, cloud-native securityAbstract
The study focuses on the problem of improving the reliability and effectiveness of security auditing in lightweight Kubernetes clusters, which are widely used in edge computing, IoT infrastructures, and resource-constrained environments. Due to the dynamic nature of containerized platforms and the limited capabilities of traditional centralized logging solutions, ensuring data integrity, immutability, and trustworthiness of security audit logs remains a significant challenge. This study aimed to develop and substantiate a security auditing approach for lightweight Kubernetes clusters based on trust mechanisms implemented through a multichain blockchain architecture, enabling reliable storage, verification, and subsequent analysis of audit data. The objectives of the research included: analyzing modern approaches to Kubernetes security auditing; identifying security limitations of lightweight Kubernetes distributions (such as k3s and microk8s); developing a functional model of the audit process using an IDEF0 diagram; describing component interactions through a Sequence diagram; designing an experimental testbed with Multichain integration; and evaluating system performance using key audit and trust metrics. The methods used are system analysis, functional modeling with IDEF0, UML-based Sequence diagram modeling, experimental evaluation on a test Kubernetes cluster, cryptographic hashing and digital signature techniques, and comparative analysis of centralized versus decentralized audit log storage approaches. The following results were obtained: an architecture for security auditing using multichain technology was designed; conditional performance metrics for log collection, analysis, and trusted record generation were defined; data integrity verification reached 100%; and the response time of self-healing mechanisms was reduced to a few seconds, demonstrating the feasibility of near real-time audit validation. Scientific novelty lies in the integration of lightweight Kubernetes infrastructures with decentralized trust mechanisms based on multichain technology for security auditing, which reduces dependence on centralized logging systems and increases resilience against audit log tampering. Conclusions confirm the effectiveness of the proposed blockchain-based approach for auditing lightweight Kubernetes clusters and outline prospects for further research, including scalability improvements and the integration of intelligent incident detection mechanisms.
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