[Copilot]

Kubeconfig exec credential plugins start local processes, and the Java client had no way to restrict them. This adds an application-controlled policy, like kubernetes-client/csharp#1930. Its semantics follow kubectl's kuberc credential plugin policy and client-go's matching logic.

Policy (ExecCredentialPluginPolicy)

• Policies: ALLOW_ALL (the default, so behaviour is unchanged), DENY_ALL, and allowlist(...).
• Allowlist matching (from client-go exec.go): an entry matches if it is exactly equal to the cleaned plugin command, or if both resolve through PATH (LookPath-style) to the same executable.
  • Symlinks and globs are not resolved.
  • Relative PATH directories are skipped, matching Go's ErrDot.
  • Windows PATHEXT is handled.
• What runs under an allowlist: the resolved path that passed the check, not a fresh PATH lookup at process start.
• Validation (matches ValidatePluginPolicy):
  • the allowlist must not be missing or empty;
  • entries must not be empty and must be clean paths (./foo is rejected);
  • an allowlist with a non-Allowlist policy is rejected;
  • unknown policy names are rejected.

kuberc loading

• fromKubeRc(Reader | File) parses a kubectl.config.k8s.io/* Preference document. It accepts name as the deprecated alias for command and rejects entries that set both.
• fromDefaultKubeRc() finds the file the way kubectl does:
  • KUBECTL_KUBERC=false or KUBERC=off disables kuberc, which means allow all.
  • An explicit $KUBERC file must exist and be valid.
  • A missing ~/.kube/kuberc is ignored. One that isn't valid YAML is ignored with a warning, as kubectl does. One that parses but has an invalid policy is a hard error.
• kuberc is not read automatically; applications opt in. client-go doesn't read kuberc either.

Enforcement

• KubeConfig.setExecCredentialPluginPolicy(...). The check runs in runExec before the process starts, after the existing kubeconfig-relative path resolution.
• Denials throw ExecCredentialPluginDeniedException, a RuntimeException with getCommand(). The exception propagates out of getCredentials(), so it fires both when the client is built and on token refresh through KubeconfigAuthentication.
• New overloads ClientBuilder.standard(policy) and ClientBuilder.standard(persistConfig, policy).

ApiClient client = ClientBuilder.standard(ExecCredentialPluginPolicy.DENY_ALL).build();

ApiClient client = ClientBuilder.standard(
    ExecCredentialPluginPolicy.allowlist("kubelogin", "/usr/local/bin/my-plugin")).build();

// Same policy kubectl would use
ApiClient client = ClientBuilder.standard(ExecCredentialPluginPolicy.fromDefaultKubeRc()).build();

Review notes

• Differs from the C# PR: in allowlist mode, kubeconfig env entries are still passed to the plugin. Rejecting them would not match kubectl and would break common plugins (for example ones that rely on AWS_PROFILE). The README describes the policy as defense in depth, not a sandbox.
• Fails open: a default kuberc that isn't valid YAML results in allow-all. This matches kubectl, but it is an easy place to fail closed instead if preferred.

[kubernetes-prow]

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• ✅ login: brendandburns / name: Brendan Burns (43686d6, 746424b, 8e51306, 977653c)

[brendandburns]

@copilot please rebase this PR.

[Copilot]

@copilot please rebase this PR.

I merged master into this branch (dce90e2) instead of rebasing, because a rebase would need a force push, which I can't do. The branch now has the latest master. The merge had no conflicts, and all 459 util tests pass with Maven.