Kubernetes: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority

kubectl get pods Unable to connect to the server: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority

Immediate Remediation

bash

kubectl config set-cluster <cluster-name> --certificate-authority=<path-to-ca.crt> --embed-certs=true && kubectl config use-context <context-name>

Root Cause Analysis

The kubeconfig file is missing or has an incorrect certificate authority for the cluster, so the client cannot verify the server's TLS certificate.

Verification & Guardrails

Ensure the CA certificate is the correct one for your cluster; using the wrong CA will still fail.
Do not use --insecure-skip-tls-verify in production as it disables TLS verification.
If you don't have the CA, obtain it from the cluster administrator or from the cluster's kubeconfig file.

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