How to insert or append iptables rules in a k8s cluster in initContainers?

I’m trying to automatically forward incoming traffic in a multi-container pod. For example, here’s my setup:

DigitalOcean k8s cluster: service test-service:80 -> pod:2000 test-pod-container1: listen http port 2000 test-pod-container2: listen http port 3000 initContainers:

• iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 2000 -j DNAT --to 3000
• iptables -I FORWARD -p tcp --dport 3000 ACCEPT

So, the pod has 2 containers, the first with an insecure web server on port 2000 and the second with an insecure web server on port 3000. I want to use something like iptables to adjust routing for anything inbound to the first http server:2000 to redirect to the second http server:3000 so that the first web server never gets hit. And, I don’t want to modify the service to point to 3000.

I’m able to get iptables to run in priveleged mode on a DO k8s cluster and add the rules but there are no other rules present. So, is this a security issue or what am I doing wrong?

What I’m after is similar to this: https://venilnoronha.io/hand-crafting-a-sidecar-proxy-and-demystifying-istio

Thanks in advance, Grant