About Minimus Hardened Images

Minimus Hardened images provide secure by default configurations that comply with CIS Benchmarks. The CIS Benchmark for MariaDB is a consensus-based security hardening guide that is aligned with industry standards and defines recommended configuration settings, access controls, and operational practices to reduce the attack surface. Review the compliance report to see the special audit report.

Notes:

• The image’s default configuration file enforces many CIS Mongo hardening controls. Exercise caution when overriding this file, as custom configurations may inadvertently weaken or negate CIS compliance.
• Full CIS benchmark compliance requires additional post-deployment runtime validations that are out of scope for Minimus.

Try It Out

Take the Minimus MariaDB Hardened image for a test run. The image's CIS password policy requires a strong root password with a minimum of 14 characters:

docker run -d --name minimus-mariadb-hardened \
  -e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD='ChangeMe-Now#2026!' \
  reg.mini.dev/mariadb-hardened

Open an interactive shell in your running container:

docker exec -it minimus-mariadb-hardened sh

Then log into the database:

mariadb -u root -p

Submit the password you set when you ran the container. Once logged in you should see MariaDB status messages such as:

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 4
Server version: 11.4.x-MariaDB MariaDB Server

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

Verify that CIS hardening is active

Run these from the MariaDB shell to confirm the hardening plugins are loaded and locked:

SELECT PLUGIN_NAME, PLUGIN_STATUS, LOAD_OPTION
FROM information_schema.plugins
WHERE PLUGIN_NAME IN (
  'simple_password_check',
  'cracklib_password_check',
  'password_reuse_check',
  'server_audit'
);

Every row should report PLUGIN_STATUS = ACTIVE and LOAD_OPTION = FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT.

Then verify the most-visible server settings:

SHOW VARIABLES WHERE Variable_name IN (
  'tls_version', 'local_infile', 'secure_file_priv',
  'symbolic_links', 'sql_mode', 'log_warnings',
  'default_password_lifetime', 'max_connections', 'max_user_connections'
);

You should see tls_version = TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3, local_infile = OFF, sql_mode containing STRICT_ALL_TABLES, and so on.

The audit log lands at /var/lib/mysql/server_audit.log (inside the persistent volume). Tail it to verify audit logging is enabled (CIS 6.4):

docker exec minimus-mariadb-hardened tail -f /var/lib/mysql/server_audit.log

Run MariaDB Hardened with Docker Compose

The hardened image accepts the regular MariaDB initialization environment variables, including:

• MARIADB_USER and MARIADB_PASSWORD — create a new user and set its password.
• MARIADB_DATABASE — create a new empty database.
• MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD_FILE — read the root password from a file (recommended over an inline env var).

services:
  db:
    image: reg.mini.dev/mariadb-hardened
    environment:
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/mariadb_root
      MARIADB_DATABASE: app
      MARIADB_USER: appuser
      MARIADB_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/mariadb_app
    secrets:
      - mariadb_root
      - mariadb_app
    volumes:
      - mariadb-data:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  mariadb-data:

secrets:
  mariadb_root:
    file: ./secrets/mariadb_root
  mariadb_app:
    file: ./secrets/mariadb_app

Password constraints: Every password set against this image — root, application user, healthcheck — must be at least 14 characters, pass cracklib strength checks, and cannot be reused. You'll need to avoid setting the same password twice on the same user as CIS 7.7 (password_reuse_check) will refuse it.

Technical Considerations

The MariaDB-Hardened image provided by Minimus is a slim, security-hardened alternative to the public image from Docker Hub. The images are largely interchangeable, with a few differences as noted below.

Terms & Info

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.

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.