spiffe-helper

Infra

Updated 5 days ago

Spiffe-Helper Overview

Secure your stack with a hardened Spiffe-Helper 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.

Spiffe-Helper simplifies SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework For Everyone) integration by automatically fetching, rotating, and managing X.509 certificates and SVIDs (SPIFFE Verifiable Identity Documents) via a local SPIFFE Workload API endpoint. This equips applications with seamless mTLS authentication and authorization for zero-trust environments, entirely eliminating the need for developers to write custom security logic.

Try It Out

Spiffe-Helper requires a running SPIRE agent exposing its Workload API socket. The example below assumes a socket at /run/spire/sockets/agent.sock.

For a quick test, print the version information:

docker run --rm reg.mini.dev/spiffe-helper -version

Step 1 - Create a Configuration File

Save the following as helper.conf. This tells the helper where to find the Workload API socket and where to write the fetched SVIDs:

agent_address         = "/run/spire/sockets/agent.sock"
cert_dir              = "/certs"
svid_file_name        = "svid.pem"
svid_key_file_name    = "svid_key.pem"
svid_bundle_file_name = "svid_bundle.pem"
daemon_mode           = true

Step 2 - Run Spiffe-Helper

Mount the Workload API socket, config file, and a writable certs directory. Before running, replace:

/path/to/helper.conf — absolute path to the helper.conf file created in the previous step
/path/to/certs — absolute path to a writable directory where SVIDs will be written, it must be writable by the container user

docker run --rm \
  -v /run/spire/sockets:/run/spire/sockets \
  -v /path/to/helper.conf:/etc/spiffe-helper/helper.conf:ro \
  -v /path/to/certs:/certs \
  reg.mini.dev/spiffe-helper -config /etc/spiffe-helper/helper.conf

The helper writes svid.pem, svid_key.pem, and svid_bundle.pem to /path/to/certs on the host and rotates them automatically as they near expiry.

Technical Considerations

The Spiffe-Helper 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.

Spiffe-Helper 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, listening ports, 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

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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.