As Kubernetes and containerized workloads become standard, misconfigurations are a leading cause of security incidents and downtime. Secure configuration management begins with treating infrastructure and workload descriptions as code, using tools like Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and Terraform templates stored in version‑controlled repositories. Policy engines such as Open Policy Agent (OPA) and Kyverno enforce guardrails that block non‑compliant configurations at admission time, covering areas like pod security, network policies, and image provenance. Scanning tools like kube‑bench and kube‑hunter validate clusters against recommended security benchmarks, while secrets management platforms ensure that credentials and sensitive data never land in configuration files. Automated drift detection then alerts teams whenever runtime state diverges from the approved configuration. This practice ensures consistent, auditable, and secure infrastructure across environments, reducing both risk and operational overhead.