Which Kubernetes security feature was deprecated in version 1.21 and removed in version 1.25?

Which Kubernetes security feature was deprecated in version 1.21 and removed in version 1.25?

• A. Pod Security Policies
• B. Pod Security Standards
• C. NetworkPolicy
• D. SecurityContext

Answer: (A)

Pod Security Policies were the feature that defined cluster-wide policies for what pods can do. They required admins to create PSP objects and bind them with RBAC, which proved hard to manage, with complex rules and tricky maintenance across clusters. Because of these operational challenges and limited adoption, Kubernetes deprecated PSP in version 1.21, signaling that it would be removed in a future release. In version 1.25, PSP was removed entirely. The recommended approach moved to Pod Security Admission together with Pod Security Standards, providing a simpler, namespace-scoped way to enforce security baselines (Privileged, Baseline, Restricted) without the overhead of PSPs. The other options don’t fit this timeline: NetworkPolicy governs network traffic, SecurityContext is about pod/container security settings, and Pod Security Standards are the policy levels used by the newer admission controller, not the deprecated feature itself.

Pod Security Policies were the feature that defined cluster-wide policies for what pods can do. They required admins to create PSP objects and bind them with RBAC, which proved hard to manage, with complex rules and tricky maintenance across clusters. Because of these operational challenges and limited adoption, Kubernetes deprecated PSP in version 1.21, signaling that it would be removed in a future release. In version 1.25, PSP was removed entirely. The recommended approach moved to Pod Security Admission together with Pod Security Standards, providing a simpler, namespace-scoped way to enforce security baselines (Privileged, Baseline, Restricted) without the overhead of PSPs. The other options don’t fit this timeline: NetworkPolicy governs network traffic, SecurityContext is about pod/container security settings, and Pod Security Standards are the policy levels used by the newer admission controller, not the deprecated feature itself.