Does Runtime Topology Context Improve LLM-Generated Kubernetes Security Patches?
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Abstract (arXiv)
Kubernetes is central to the cloud-native ecosystem, orchestrating containerised workloads. Recent work suggests that large language models (LLMs) can automate cluster security remediation, generating configuration patches from Kubernetes Security Posture Management (KSPM) findings without human authoring. Such systems, however, prompt the model with each finding in isolation from the live service call graph, assuming general hardening knowledge suffices. This assumption breaks down whenever a patch must preserve a runtime service dependency invisible to the model: an otherwise compliant fix then carries a destructive functional blast radius, crashing downstream callers or silently severing call edges across the cluster. Whether live cluster context improves patch correctness has not been measured under controlled conditions across multiple dependency classes. We introduce KuTIE (Kubernetes Topology Intelligence Engine), which builds a live cluster context from Istio call edges, Trivy KSPM findings, and the service-account bindings a workload reads, and conditions LLM patch generation on it. It is evaluated on VulnCare, a purpose-built 36-deployment, four-namespace healthcare cluster with 31 injectable findings across seven dependency classes, each labelled by topology dependence against cluster ground truth. Across 248 trials, topology context raises topology-dependent patch correctness from 11.1% to 78.0% (Delta = 0.669), a gap that holds for every model and for six of seven classes, from credential and network-policy (Delta = 0.95) to role-based access control (Delta = 0.31); a topology-independent control exhibits no such effect (Delta = 0.0), isolating the result from generic prompt enrichment. Supplying the live service-call graph and the service-account bindings it exposes thus improves remediation of topology-dependent findings well beyond scanner-only context.
Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 15 of its 32 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Jul 2026.
Builds on
15 of 32 references.
References · 15
- 2024GenKubeSec: LLM-Based Kubernetes Misconfiguration Detection, Localization, Reasoning, and Remediationcited by 11
- 2025MicroRemed: Benchmarking LLMs in Microservices Remediationcited by 10
- 2025LLMSecConfig: An LLM-Based Approach for Fixing Software Container Misconfigurationscited by 9
- 2021KGSecConfig: A Knowledge Graph Based Approach for Secured Container Orchestrator Configurationcited by 5
- 2025How Safe Are AI-Generated Patches? A Large-scale Study on Security Risks in LLM and Agentic Automated Program Repair on SWE-benchcited by 5
- 2024AttacKG+:Boosting Attack Knowledge Graph Construction with Large Language Modelscited by 4
- 2025KubeIntellect: A Modular LLM-Orchestrated Agent Framework for End-to-End Kubernetes Managementcited by 4
- 2025Red Teaming Program Repair Agents: When Correct Patches can Hide Vulnerabilitiescited by 4
- 2023Graphene: Infrastructure Security Posture Analysis with AI-generated Attack Graphscited by 3
- 2023Risk Assessment Graphs: Utilizing Attack Graphs for Risk Assessmentcited by 2
- 2025KubeFence: Security Hardening of the Kubernetes Attack Surfacecited by 2
- 2026A Systematic Study of LLM-Based Architectures for Automated Patchingcited by 2
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.
1 paper.