Java init container missing securityContext breaks restricted Pod Security Standard

[ab0utbla-k]

What happened?

The Java auto-instrumentation init container (opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-java) is created without any securityContext, causing pod creation to fail in namespaces enforcing pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: restricted.

Error

Error creating: pods "app-789564bdf9-c6wm4" is forbidden: violates PodSecurity
"restricted:latest": allowPrivilegeEscalation != false (container
"opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-java" must set
securityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation=false), unrestricted capabilities (container
"opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-java" must set
securityContext.capabilities.drop=["ALL"]), seccompProfile (pod or container
"opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-java" must set
securityContext.seccompProfile.type to "RuntimeDefault" or "Localhost")

Root Cause

In pkg/instrumentation/sdk.go, setInitContainerSecurityContext is commented out for Java due to upstream opentelemetry-operator#2272 (runAsNonRoot conflict with root-based Java agent image). However, this leaves the init container with no securityContext at all, violating the restricted Pod Security Standard.

Other languages (NodeJS, Python, DotNet, Apache) are not affected — they all call setInitContainerSecurityContext.

Expected behavior

The Java init container should receive a minimal restricted-compliant securityContext:

• allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
• capabilities.drop: ["ALL"]
• seccompProfile.type: RuntimeDefault

Without setting runAsNonRoot or runAsUser (to avoid the #2272 conflict).

Environment

• EKS add-on: amazon-cloudwatch-observability
• Namespace PSS: restricted:latest
• Deployment: Pod-level runAsUser: 1001, runAsNonRoot: true, full restricted securityContext on app container

Reproduction

1. Create namespace with pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: restricted
2. Install amazon-cloudwatch-observability EKS add-on
3. Deploy a Java app with instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-java: "true" and restricted-compliant securityContext
4. Observe FailedCreate event on the ReplicaSet

Fix

Submitted in #360.

[mitali-salvi]

Hey @ab0utbla-k Thanks for creating a PR for this issue, I added a couple of comments on the PR, let me know what you think