kates-fips

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for kates-fips

Minimal FIPS-enabled image for Kates, a Kafka performance and resilience testing platform.

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/kates-fips:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

Compatibility Notes

The kates-fips image tracks the JVM build of upstream ghcr.io/bmscomp/kates, published as the versioned, unsuffixed release tags (not the :latest or -native tags, which are the GraalVM native build). It preserves the java -jar quarkus-run.jar entrypoint, /app working directory, UID 100/GID 101 account, and bundled CLI. JAVA_HOME uses the Chainguard path /usr/lib/jvm/default-jvm instead of upstream's /opt/java/openjdk, and it does not prepopulate /home/kates/.kates.yaml; the CLI creates its context file when needed.

Kafka TLS stores must use BCFKS. Kates extracts native compression and FIPS entropy libraries at runtime, so deployments with a read-only root filesystem must provide a writable, executable /tmp.

This image defines no HEALTHCHECK and ships no curl (only BusyBox wget), unlike upstream's HEALTHCHECK curl -f http://localhost:8080/q/health/live. Compose service_healthy setups that assume it will not work as-is; define your own probe, for example test: ["CMD", "wget", "-qO-", "http://localhost:8080/q/health/live"].

FIPS Support

This FIPS-compliant image routes cryptography through FIPS-validated modules:

• Java through Bouncy Castle FIPS - the JVM loads the BCFIPS provider (--module-path=/usr/share/java/bouncycastle-fips) with javax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=FIPS.
• Go CLI through OpenSSL FIPS - the bundled kates CLI links the validated OpenSSL FIPS provider.
• Approved algorithms only - cryptographic operations are restricted to FIPS-approved algorithms.
• BCFKS Kafka TLS - Kafka keystores and truststores use the BCFKS format.

Verify the JVM loads BCFIPS first with java -XshowSettings:security:providers -version. For more on FIPS support in Chainguard container images, consult the guide on FIPS-enabled Chainguard Containers on Chainguard Academy.

Prerequisites

Kates requires PostgreSQL and a Kafka cluster. FIPS Kafka TLS deployments also require BCFKS truststores and keystores. See the upstream deployment guide and Chainguard FIPS guidance before production deployment.

Getting Started

Create a Docker network and start PostgreSQL:

docker network create kates-network
docker run -d --name kates-postgres --network kates-network \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=kates \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=kates \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=change-this-database-password-123456 \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/postgres-fips:latest

Start the FIPS image with writable temporary storage. KATES_KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=127.0.0.1:1 deliberately points at an unreachable broker so the API comes up for a quick smoke check without a Kafka cluster; point it at a real broker for Kafka features:

docker run -d --name kates-fips --network kates-network -p 8080:8080 \
  --read-only --tmpfs /tmp:rw,exec,nosuid \
  -e KATES_API_KEY=change-me \
  -e QUARKUS_DATASOURCE_USERNAME=kates \
  -e QUARKUS_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD=change-this-database-password-123456 \
  -e QUARKUS_DATASOURCE_JDBC_URL=jdbc:postgresql://kates-postgres:5432/kates \
  -e KATES_KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=127.0.0.1:1 \
  -e KATES_KAFKA_SECURITY_PROTOCOL=PLAINTEXT \
  -e KATES_CHAOS_ORPHAN_RECOVERY_ENABLED=false \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/kates-fips:latest

Confirm the authenticated API is available:

curl -fsS --retry 30 --retry-all-errors --retry-delay 2 \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer change-me' \
  http://localhost:8080/api/tests/types

Configuration

When deploying with the upstream Helm chart, preserve the BCFIPS module path in jvm.options because the chart writes that value to JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS:

git clone --branch main --depth 1 https://github.com/bmscomp/kates.git
cat > values.yaml <<'EOF'
image:
  repository: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/kates-fips
  tag: latest
jvm:
  options: >-
    --module-path=/usr/share/java/bouncycastle-fips
    -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=FIPS
    -Xms512m -Xmx2560m -XX:+UseZGC -XX:+ZGenerational
kafka:
  bootstrapServers: kafka.kafka.svc:9093
  security:
    protocol: SASL_SSL
  sasl:
    enabled: true
    mechanism: SCRAM-SHA-512
    username: kates-backend
    secretName: kates-backend
    secretKey: password
  ssl:
    enabled: true
    truststore:
      secretName: kates-kafka-truststore
      key: truststore.bcfks
      password: changeit
networkPolicy:
  kafka:
    port: 9093
postgresql:
  enabled: true
  image:
    repository: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/postgres-fips
  auth:
    password: change-this-database-password-123456
initContainers:
  waitForPostgres:
    image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/netcat
EOF
kubectl create namespace kates
kubectl create secret generic kates-kafka-truststore --namespace kates \
  --from-file=truststore.bcfks=/path/to/truststore.bcfks
kubectl create secret generic kates-backend --namespace kates \
  --from-literal=password=change-this-kafka-password-123456
helm install kates ./kates/charts/kates --namespace kates \
  --create-namespace --values values.yaml

The FIPS package defaults Kafka store types to BCFKS. The upstream chart ships non-blocking /q/health/* probe defaults, so no probe overrides are needed with this image.

Documentation and Resources

• Kates documentation
• Kates REST API reference
• Upstream Kates Helm chart
• Chainguard FIPS-enabled containers

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard's free tier of Starter container images are built with Wolfi, our minimal Linux undistro.

All other Chainguard Containers are built with Chainguard OS, Chainguard's minimal Linux operating system designed to produce container images that meet the requirements of a more secure software supply chain.

The main features of Chainguard Containers include:

• Minimal design, without unnecessary software bloat
• Daily builds to ensure container images are up-to-date with available security patches
• High quality build-time SBOMs attesting to the provenance of all artifacts within the image
• Verifiable signatures provided by Sigstore
• Reproducible builds with Cosign and apko (read more about reproducibility)

For cases where you need container images with shells and package managers to build or debug, most Chainguard Containers come paired with a development, or -dev, variant.

In all other cases, including Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest or with a specific version number, the container images include only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they include additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to copy artifacts from the -dev variant into a more minimal production image.

Need additional packages?

To improve security, Chainguard Containers include only essential dependencies. Need more packages? Chainguard customers can use Custom Assembly to add packages, either through the Console, chainctl, or API.

To use Custom Assembly in the Chainguard Console: navigate to the image you'd like to customize in your Organization's list of images, and click on the Customize image button at the top of the page.

Learn More

Refer to our Chainguard Containers documentation on Chainguard Academy. Chainguard also offers VMs and Libraries — contact us for access.

Trademarks

This software listing is packaged by Chainguard. The trademarks set forth in this offering are owned by their respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by such companies.