static
Developer toolsA very minimal image that is most useful in the context of running binary executables, such as those built from Rust and Golang.
A very minimal image that is most useful in the context of running binary executables, such as those built from Rust and Golang.
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.
Use this image in the final stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile where a binary executable is built. In your Dockerfile,
writing something along the lines of the following will compile and run a simple Rust project. Replace <tag> with the
image variant you want to run.
################################################################################
# Create a stage for building the application.
FROM registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/rust:<tag> AS build
WORKDIR /build
RUN --mount=type=bind,source=src,target=src \
--mount=type=bind,source=Cargo.toml,target=Cargo.toml \
--mount=type=bind,source=Cargo.lock,target=Cargo.lock \
--mount=type=cache,target=/app/target/ \
--mount=type=cache,target=/usr/local/cargo/git/db \
--mount=type=cache,target=/usr/local/cargo/registry/ \
cargo build --locked --release
################################################################################
# Create a new stage for running the application that contains the minimal
# runtime dependencies for the application.
FROM registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/static:<tag> AS final
# Copy the executable from the "build" stage.
COPY --from=build /build/target/release/docker-rust-hello server
# Configure rocket to listen on all interfaces.
ENV ROCKET_ADDRESS=0.0.0.0
# Expose the port that the application listens on.
EXPOSE 8000
# What the container should run when it is started.
CMD ["./server"]
You can then build and run the Docker image:
$ docker build -t my-rust-app .
$ docker run --rm -p 3000:8000 --name my-running-app my-rust-app
The static image is a minimal runtime-only image designed specifically for running statically-linked binary executables. All variants of this image:
FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. These variants ship the OpenSSL FIPS provider, validated
under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations, so applications running on top of the
image can load FIPS-validated cryptographic modules. FIPS variants are available only on flavors that include a C
runtime: Debian with glibc and Alpine with musl. The pure no-libc flavors (Alpine and Debian) have no FIPS
variant because the OpenSSL FIPS provider requires a C runtime. Use one of the following tags for FIPS workloads:
registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/static:<version>-glibc-debian13-fipsregistry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/static:<version>-glibc-debian12-fipsregistry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/static:<version>-musl-alpine3.23-fipsregistry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/static:<version>-musl-alpine3.22-fipsTo 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.
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, even if you map it to a lower port on
the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and
docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.
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.