k3s-fips

Fips

Infra

Stig

Updated 23 hours ago

K3s-FIPS Overview

Secure your stack with a FIPS-validated, hardened K3s image freshly-built by Minimus. Minimus images always include the most up-to-date package version for all packages and dependencies contained in the image.

K3s is a lightweight, certified Kubernetes distribution built by Rancher. It packages the API server, controller manager, scheduler, kubelet, containerd, and a set of bundled components (CoreDNS, Traefik, a local-path storage provisioner, and an embedded service load balancer) into a single binary under 100MB, making it well-suited for edge, IoT, CI, and development use cases. Use this image when you need to meet the requirements for FIPS-validated cryptographic protection.

FIPS 140-3 Certification

This image is FIPS-validated to ensure its cryptographic operations meet the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) required for secure government and regulated environments. Its core cryptographic modules are validated under the NIST Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) and comply with the FIPS 140-3 standard.

To verify that the FIPS 140-3 provider is configured and active, follow the instructions in the FIPS compliance tab.

Try It Out

K3s manages containers, cgroups, and networking directly on the host, so it needs to run in a privileged container:

docker rm k3s-server
docker run -d \
  --name k3s-server \
  --privileged \
  -p 6443:6443 \
  -v k3s-data:/var/lib/rancher/k3s \
  reg.mini.dev/k3s-fips server --kubelet-arg="fail-cgroupv1=false"

Wait a few seconds for the control plane to initialize, then verify the node is ready:

docker exec k3s-server k3s kubectl get nodes

cgroup v2 Requirement

Recent versions of kubelet refuse to start on a host still running cgroup v1, failing with:

Error: failed to validate kubelet configuration, error: kubelet is configured to not run on a host using cgroup v1. cgroup v1 support is unsupported and will be removed in a future release

Most current Linux distributions and Docker Desktop installs default to cgroup v2, but if your Docker host is still on cgroup v1, either migrate the host to cgroup v2 or pass the kubelet escape hatch as an extra server argument: --kubelet-arg="fail-cgroupv1=false"

This flag is a deprecated compatibility shim and will be removed in a future k3s/kubelet release, so treat it as a stopgap rather than a long-term fix.

Technical Considerations

The K3s-FIPS image provided by Minimus is a FIPS-validated, slim, security-hardened alternative to the public image. The images are largely interchangeable, with a few differences as noted below.

K3s-FIPS built by Minimus:

Runs as root to support required functions in alignment with the public image.
Drill down on the version specification tab to see the default user, entrypoint, volumes, environment variables, etc.

The Payoff

A hardened, minimal image that will remain more secure for the long run and accrue vulnerabilities at a slower rate.

See the risk reduction dashboard for a detailed CVE comparison over the past 30 days.
Review the compliance report to see the default hardening and security configurations for the image.

Terms & Info

Trademark

This catalog is published by Minimus. All product names, logos, and marks, other than those belonging to Minimus, shown are owned by their respective rights holders and appear here only to identify the open source software each image contains. Minimus claims no ownership of those marks and implies no affiliation with, endorsement by, certification by, or sponsorship by any rights holder.

Disclaimer

Images are provided "as-is" without warranty of any kind. "Hardened" refers to the security configuration applied at the time of build and does not constitute a guarantee of ongoing security or absence of vulnerabilities. The free tier is provided without support, SLA, or guaranteed patching timelines. Security updates may be applied to paid subscriptions before or instead of free tier images. By pulling or using any image you agree to our Terms of Use.