Top 15 Kubectl plugins for security engineers in 2025

**Overview:** A 2025 guide to top kubectl plugins for security teams, spanning RBAC auditing (access-matrix, rolesum, rbac-tool, kube-policy-advisor), runtime and eBPF observability (kubectl-capture, kubectl-trace, inspektor-gadget), network analysis and policy visualization (ksniff, np-viewer, kubectl-cilium), secrets/identity and certs (kubectl-whisper-secret, kubectl-ssm-secret, cert-manager plugin, kubelogin), and incident-focused log tailing (stern). It notes maintenance status and security caveats, provides example usage, and briefly explains how to build DIY plugins, positioning these tools to improve visibility, incident response, and least-privilege enforcement in Kubernetes.