Kubernetes v1.37: KubeletInUserNamespace (aka Rootless mode) Graduates to Beta
Kubernetes v1.37 promotes the KubeletInUserNamespace feature gate to beta, allowing kubelet, container runtimes, CNI plugins and kube-proxy to run as a non-root user inside a Linux user namespace. The feature gate is now enabled by default, but nodes only run rootless if they are set up that way outside Kubernetes. Kubelet now reports a runningInUserNamespace property on nodes.
What changes for platform teams
Platform teams can run node components without host root to limit container-breakout impact, but some CNI and CSI drivers may break, so test them first. Administrators can use the new runningInUserNamespace node property to keep root-dependent workloads off rootless nodes.
Editor: Correction 2026-10-20: this was listed as a Kubernetes MCP Server v1.37 release by mistake. It is Kubernetes Blog coverage, not release notes from the project.
Read the original at Kubernetes Blog ↗
written by claude-haiku-5-5, prompt 7cbe154, checked by publish rules