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Installing Kubescape

The Kubescape command-line client is a single binary. Because the software is updated frequently, we recommend you install Kubescape with the package manager appropriate for your system.

When Kubescape runs, it will check for a more recent version.

Cross-platform

Script install

Supported platforms

This script is supported on Linux (x86_64 and arm64), macOS (Intel or Apple Silicon) and bash on Windows (x86_64).

You can automatically download and install Kubescape using our installer script. We encourage you to read it before executing it.

If run as root, the script will install the kubescape binary in /usr/local/bin. If run as a user, it will put the binary in /.kubescape/bin.

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubescape/kubescape/master/install.sh | /bin/bash

krew

Krew is the plugin manager for the kubectl command-line tool. Kubescape can be installed as a kubectl plugin.

First, install Krew using the appropriate method for your platform. Then, install Kubescape:

kubectl krew update
kubectl krew install kubescape

To invoke Kubescape when installed with krew, use kubectl kubescape instead of kubescape.

Windows

Supported platforms

Kubescape is supported on Windows x64.

PowerShell

Similar to the bash installation script, you can install Kubescape using PowerShell on Windows: 

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubescape/kubescape/master/install.ps1 | iex

If you get an error message, you may need to change the execution policy:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -scope CurrentUser

Note

The installation script requires PowerShell v5.0 or higher.

Chocolatey

Chocolatey is a package manager for Windows. To install Kubescape using Chocolatey, open a PowerShell terminal and run:

choco install kubescape

Note

Packaging for Chocolatey is community supported and may not always be up-to-date with the latest Kubescape release.

Scoop

Scoop is a command-line installer for Windows. To install Kubescape using Scoop, open a PowerShell terminal and run:

scoop install kubescape

Note

Packaging for Scoop is community supported and may not always be up-to-date with the latest Kubescape release.

macOS

Homebrew

Kubescape is available in the official Homebrew repository or through a Kubescape tap. The version from the official repository does not include support for scanning Git repositories, due to an upstream packaging issue.

To install Kubescape from the official repository:

brew install kubescape

To get Git support, install the Kubescape tap and the kubescape-cli package:

brew tap kubescape/tap
brew install kubescape-cli

Linux

Ubuntu

The Kubescape maintainers build each release and upload the packages to a personal package archive (PPA).

To install Kubescape with apt:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubescape/kubescape
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kubescape

Kubescape can also be installed from the Snap Store.

Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora and other RPM-based distributions, and Debian

The Kubescape maintainers build each release and upload the packages to the openSUSE Build Service (OBS), which builds packages in RPM and deb format for many different distributions and platforms.

Installation instructions for each distribution are available on the OBS page.

openSUSE

Kubescape is packaged for the Zypper package manager.

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install kubescape

Note

Packaging for openSUSE is supported by the openSUSE community and may not always be up-to-date with the latest Kubescape release.

Arch

Kubescape is available in the Arch Linux User Repository (AUR). To download and compile Kubescape on Arch Linux:

yay -S kubescape

If you would like to save some time and do not want to compile, you can install kubescape-bin instead:

yay -S kubescape-bin

Note

Packaging for kubescape-bin is supported by the AUR community and may not always be up-to-date with the latest Kubescape release.

NixOS, or using nix on Windows or Linux

You can use nix on Linux or macOS.

To try it out in an ephemeral shell, run nix-shell -p kubescape.

To install Kubescape on NixOS, add the following configuration to your /etc/nixos/configuration.nix file:

  # your other config ...
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    # your other packages ...
    kubescape
  ];

Alternatively, if using Home Manager:

  # your other config ...
  home.packages = with pkgs; [
    # your other packages ...
    kubescape
  ];

Or, to install your profile (not recommended): 

nix-env --install -A nixpkgs.kubescape

Note

Packaging for Nix is community supported and may not always be up-to-date with the latest Kubescape release. If you are having trouble, please reach out to NixOS support.

Offline/air-gapped environment support

When it runs, Kubescape downloads artifacts (frameworks, controls and configurations) from the control library or from a configured provider.

You can download these files manually, so that Kubescape can run offline, or in an "air-gapped" environment.

Download all artifacts

  1. Download the controls and save them in the local directory. If no path is specified, they will be saved in ~/.kubescape.

    kubescape download artifacts --output path/to/local/dir

  2. Copy the downloaded artifacts to the offline system.

  3. Scan using the downloaded artifacts:

    kubescape scan --use-artifacts-from path/to/local/dir

Download a single artifact

You can also download a single artifact, and scan with the --use-from flag:

  1. Download and save in a file. If no file name is specified, the artifact will be saved as ~/.kubescape/<framework name>.json.

    kubescape download framework nsa --output /path/nsa.json

  2. Copy the downloaded artifacts to the offline system.

  3. Scan using the downloaded framework:

    kubescape scan framework nsa --use-from /path/nsa.json

Next steps