cilium hubble proto
API managementProtocol buffer definitions for Hubble, the networking and security observability platform for Cilium
Protocol buffer definitions for Hubble, the networking and security observability platform for Cilium
Pull the latest version of this image from the Ghost registry. Pulling requires authentication — generate a token and run docker login first (see Authentication below).
The Ghost catalog is public to browse, but pulling images requires an account. Generate a pull token below (or from your Account → Tokens page) — you'll get a ready-to-paste docker login command, then docker pull works.
The username is generated automatically (it looks like robot$<project>+<auto-id>, not the name you typed) and is included in the docker login command above. The secret is shown only once when you create the token.
All Ghost images are signed with cosign. Verifying the signature before deployment ensures the image has not been tampered with.
Install cosign via brew install cosign or download from the Sigstore releases page.
Reference this image in your Dockerfile as a base layer:
All examples in this guide use the public image. If you’ve mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.
For example:
registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/<repository>:<tag><your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>For the examples, you must first use docker login registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.
This hardened image provides Protocol Buffer compiler plugins used to generate Go code from proto definitions. The image packages three Go protoc plugins that are compatible with Cilium Hubble's proto definitions.
Included tools in this image:
protoc-gen-go - Protocol buffer compiler plugin for Go (generates message code)protoc-gen-go-grpc - Protocol buffer compiler plugin for Go gRPC (generates service code)protoc-gen-go-json - Protocol buffer compiler plugin for JSON marshaling (maintained fork by mfridman)Plugin versions are pinned to match those used in upstream Cilium's build tooling, ensuring compatibility with Hubble's proto definitions.
The image layout places these binaries under /usr/bin/hubble-proto/, suitable for use in multi-stage builds or as a
tooling container during CI.
Example: Check versions of the included plugins
docker run --rm registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/hubble-proto:<tag> /usr/bin/hubble-proto/protoc-gen-go --version
docker run --rm registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/hubble-proto:<tag> /usr/bin/hubble-proto/protoc-gen-go-grpc --version
docker run --rm registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/hubble-proto:<tag> /usr/bin/hubble-proto/protoc-gen-go-json --version
Note: This image contains only the protoc plugins, not protoc itself. You need to install protoc separately or use
it from another image.
protoc installed| Feature | Non-hardened Hubble Proto | Docker Hardened Hubble Proto |
|---|---|---|
| Base image | Alpine/Ubuntu-based | Debian hardened base |
| Security | Standard utilities | Security patches + metadata |
| Shell access | Shell available | No shell |
| Package manager | apk / apt | No package manager |
| User | Runs as root/nobody | Runs as dedicated non-root user |
| Build process | Pre-compiled binaries | Plugins installed from Go modules |
| Debugging | Shell + tools | Docker Debug or Image Mount |
| SBOM | Not included | SBOM included |
Ghost hardened images for tooling containers like Hubble Proto do not include a shell or package manager by default. Since this image only provides static binaries (protoc plugins), debugging typically involves verifying the plugin versions and testing their functionality.
For debugging issues with the protoc plugins themselves, you can use Docker Debug to attach to a running container:
docker debug <container-name>
Ghost hardened images come in different variants depending on their intended use.
Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either
directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:
Build-time variants typically include dev in the variant name and are intended for use in the first stage of a
multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:
To migrate your application to a Ghost hardened image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Ghost hardened image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.
| Item | Migration note |
|---|---|
| Base image | Replace your base images in your Dockerfile with a Ghost hardened image. |
| Package management | Non-dev images, intended for runtime, don't contain package managers. Use package managers only in images with a dev tag. |
| Non-root user | By default, non-dev images, intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. |
| Multi-stage build | Utilize images with a dev tag for build stages and non-dev images for runtime. For binary executables, use a static image for runtime. |
| TLS certificates | Ghost hardened images contain standard TLS certificates by default. There is no need to install TLS certificates. |
| Ports | Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container. |
| Entry point | Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Inspect entry points for Ghost hardened images and update your Dockerfile if necessary. |
| No shell | By default, non-dev images, intended for runtime, don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy artifacts to the runtime stage. |
The following steps outline the general migration process.
Find hardened images for your app.
A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.
Update the base image in your Dockerfile.
Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For
framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install
packages and dependencies.
For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.
To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your
Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your
final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.
Install additional packages
Ghost hardened images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.
Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the
packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary
artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.
For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to
install packages.
The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.
The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Ghost hardened images is to use Docker Debug to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.
By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.
By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell
commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers
with no shell.
Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect
to inspect entry points for Ghost hardened images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.