Kyverno vs Tetragon

Kyverno is a free, open-source policy engine for defining and enforcing policy as code in Kubernetes. Its stable policy types can validate, mutate, generate or delete resources, and verify container image signatures and attestations. The Kyverno CLI can test policies against Kubernetes resource manifests in CI before they are applied to a live cluster. Documentation describes use with Helm, YAML manifests, GitHub Actions and GitOps tools such as ArgoCD. Kyverno is installed in a Kubernetes cluster; Helm is recommended for production, and YAML manifests are also available. A standard installation requires an admission controller, while background, reports and cleanup controllers are optional. Production installations should use high availability mode. The project supports CEL-based policy types and describes applying Kubernetes-style policies outside Kubernetes as part of its mission. Its webhooks default to fail-closed, so matching requests can fail if the API server cannot reach Kyverno. The project documents Cosign signatures for images and manifests, and lists CLI binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows.

Tetragon is a Kubernetes-aware security observability and runtime enforcement tool for Linux, container, and Kubernetes workloads. It uses eBPF to monitor activity, filter events, and enforce policies in the kernel in real time. Process reports can include executed binaries, command-line arguments, user IDs, parent processes, and start times. Tetragon also monitors file access and changes, and can block unauthorized file operations at the kernel level. Kubernetes policies can filter activity by namespace, pod labels, and container fields, with support for containerd and CRI-O. Network visibility ties events to processes and workloads and tracks connections, socket lifecycle, and bytes sent or received. The tool also monitors credential changes, kernel module activity, and eBPF program loads and interactions. Findings are available as JSON logs or through gRPC. Installation options include Helm on Kubernetes, released Linux packages, and a container image. Tetragon is a Cilium sub-project and a CNCF project, and is available as an open-source project with no paid plans listed.