Enhance Amazon EKS network security posture with DNS and admin network policies

Enhance Amazon EKS network security posture with DNS and admin network policies Amazon EKS enhanced network policies Admin network policies DNS-based network policies Implementation across EKS deployment models Use cases 1. Enforcing cluster-level security with Admin network policies 2. Securing access to AWS services in multi-tenant environments 3. Hybrid cloud integration Implementation best practices Building baseline security with deny-by-default rules Using label-based segmentation Combining DNS policies with traditional network policies Monitoring and audit Considerations Understanding policy evaluation order Applying the principle of least privilege Validating your DNS policies Interaction with Amazon Route 53 DNS firewall Conclusion About the authors Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the availability of DNS-based and Admin network policies for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Auto mode and Admin network policies for both EKS Auto mode and EKS on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), providing enhanced capabilities to secure network traffic both within your clusters and to external endpoints. These new policy types enable you to implement stable, domain-based access controls for external services while centrally managing security policies across multiple namespaces, reducing operational complexity and strengthening your overall security posture. In this post, we explore practical use cases that demonstrate how these policies solve real-world challenges and remove the need to rely on third-party software across different deployment scenarios, from securing access to external services to hybrid cloud integration and multi-tenant environments. Application modernization drives demand for sophisticated network security that simplifies operations at scale. Modern containerized applications require granular control over external endpoint access, enabling teams to precisely manage which cluster-external services (such as AWS services, on-premises systems, and third-party APIs) their workloads can reach. Teams want to move beyond IP-based filtering to DNS-based access control, leveraging stable domain names rather than constantly changing IP addresses for more predictable and maintainable security policies. Organizations also need centralized policy management capabilities that enforce consistent security standards across multiple namespaces and workloads, ensuring uniform protection without requiring individual teams to implement policies independently. As these environments grow, there’s an increasing focus on operational simplicity, reducing the administrative overhead of managing network-level security while maintaining strong defensive postures that scale effectively with business growth. Admin network policies provide centralized, cluster-wide network access control that spans multiple namespaces.