spiffe-helper-fips

Fips

Infra

Stig

Updated 4 days ago

Spiffe-Helper-FIPS Overview

Secure your stack with a FIPS-validated, Spiffe-Helper-FIPS 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.

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

Spiffe-Helper-FIPS 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-fips -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-fips -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-FIPS 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-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, 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

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.