NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes from the nginx/kubernetes-ingress project. Provides a production-grade Ingress controller based on NGINX, with support for Kubernetes Ingress resources and NGINX custom resources (VirtualServer, VirtualServerRoute, TransportServer) when enabled.
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/nginx-ingress:<tag><your-namespace>/dhi-nginx-ingress:<tag>For the examples, you must first use docker login registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.
NGINX Ingress Controller (nginx-ingress) is designed to run inside a Kubernetes cluster. Most users deploy it via the
upstream Helm chart and override only the controller image repository and tag.
Upstream documentation: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx-ingress-controller/
NGINX Ingress Controller is typically started as a Kubernetes Deployment/DaemonSet/StatefulSet, not with docker run.
However, docker run can be useful for quick validation.
Print the version (example tag shown):
$ docker run --rm registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/nginx-ingress:<tag> --version
Print help:
$ docker run --rm registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/nginx-ingress:<tag> --help
The upstream chart for this controller is published from the nginx/kubernetes-ingress repository. You can point the
chart at the DHI image by overriding the controller image repository and tag.
$ helm install nginx-ingress oci://ghcr.io/nginx/charts/nginx-ingress \
--namespace nginx-ingress --create-namespace \
--set controller.image.repository=registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/nginx-ingress \
--set controller.image.tag=<tag>
If your cluster cannot pull directly from registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io, mirror the image to your own registry/namespace and set:
controller.image.repository=<your-registry>/<your-namespace>/nginx-ingresscontroller.image.tag=<tag>Use Helm to deploy NGINX Ingress Controller and configure it using chart values, Kubernetes resources (Ingress, ConfigMaps), and (optionally) NGINX custom resources.
See the upstream Helm install documentation: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx-ingress-controller/install/helm/
Ghost hardened images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.
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 tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a
multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:
FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These
variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure
cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants. The NGINX Ingress Controller FIPS variant
runs in lenient FIPS mode (GODEBUG=fips140=on) because the Kubernetes client-go library it uses negotiates X25519
for TLS 1.3 to the API server, which is not a FIPS-approved curve.
To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.
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 | This image binds to ports 80 and 443 as the nonroot user (UID 101). The nginx, nginx-debug, and nginx-ingress binaries are granted cap_net_bind_service via file capabilities, so no port remapping or additional privileges are required. |
| 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.