aws-route53-controller-fips

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for aws-route53-controller-fips

A minimal, Wolfi-based, FIPS-enabled image for the AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) service controller for Amazon Route 53 hosted zones, record sets, and health checks.

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/aws-route53-controller-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

Chainguard's aws-route53-controller-fips image is the FIPS-enabled variant of the aws-route53-controller image and a drop-in replacement for it. It is comparable to the route53-controller image published by AWS in functionality: the controller binary is available at /bin/controller, the working directory is / so the Helm chart's relative ./bin/controller command resolves, and the image runs as the nonroot user 1000. The upstream image keeps the project's LICENSE and ATTRIBUTION.md next to the binary in /usr/bin, while this image ships them at the root of the filesystem.

FIPS Support

This variant builds the controller with Chainguard's FIPS Go toolchain, go-msft. Its preferred cryptographic backend is the system OpenSSL library with the Chainguard FIPS Provider for OpenSSL, which the image ships together with the openssl-config-fipshardened configuration that enforces FIPS mode for that provider. If the OpenSSL provider cannot be loaded, the toolchain falls back to the embedded Go FIPS module rather than to non-FIPS cryptography. See Chainguard's FIPS guidance for details about FIPS support in Chainguard Containers.

Set GODEBUG=cgr_verbose=1 to print the backend the controller selected:

docker run --rm -e GODEBUG=cgr_verbose=1 cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-route53-controller-fips:latest --help 2>&1 | head -1

cgr_fips: openssl

When the toolchain falls back, the line reads cgr_fips: openssl attempted, fallback to geomys: followed by the reason instead.

The bundled self-test checks the OpenSSL FIPS provider itself, not which module the controller selected:

docker run --rm --entrypoint openssl-fips-test cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-route53-controller-fips:latest

The output names the Chainguard FIPS Provider for OpenSSL and its CMVP certificate, and ends with Lifecycle assurance satisfied.

Getting Started

The controller is deployed with the official ACK (AWS Controllers for Kubernetes) Helm chart, oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/route53-chart, published in the ACK registry within the Amazon ECR Public Gallery. Installing it creates the controller Deployment, the custom resource definitions, the service account, and the RBAC it needs.

The chart is released in lockstep with the controller, so each chart version deploys the controller of the same version. List the versions available with:

crane ls public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/route53-chart

The controller exits at startup until it has AWS credentials, so give it an IAM identity before installing. On Amazon EKS, annotate the chart's service account with an IAM role that can manage Route 53, as described in the ACK guide to configuring IAM permissions. Outside EKS, set aws.credentials.secretName to a Secret holding an AWS shared credentials file instead. Create a values.yaml pointing the chart at this image and that role, replacing AWS_ACCOUNT_ID and IAM_ROLE_NAME with your own:

cat > values.yaml <<EOF
image:
  repository: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-route53-controller-fips
  tag: latest
aws:
  region: us-east-1
serviceAccount:
  annotations:
    eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::AWS_ACCOUNT_ID:role/IAM_ROLE_NAME
EOF

Then install the chart:

aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | helm registry login --username AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws

helm install ack-route53-controller \
  oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/route53-chart \
  --namespace ack-system --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml --wait

Confirm the controller came up and registered its custom resource definitions:

kubectl rollout status deployment -n ack-system -l app.kubernetes.io/name=route53-chart
kubectl get crd | grep route53.services.k8s.aws

Once running, the controller reconciles Route 53 custom resources. The chart installs CRDs for three Route 53 kinds: HostedZone, RecordSet, and HealthCheck, alongside the two shared ACK kinds FieldExport and IAMRoleSelector. For example, to create a public hosted zone and an A record in it, replacing example.com with a domain you control:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: route53.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: HostedZone
metadata:
  name: example-com
  namespace: ack-system
spec:
  name: example.com.
---
apiVersion: route53.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: RecordSet
metadata:
  name: www
  namespace: ack-system
spec:
  name: www
  hostedZoneRef:
    from:
      name: example-com
  recordType: A
  resourceRecords:
    - value: 192.0.2.10
  ttl: 300
EOF

The record set names its zone through hostedZoneRef, which the controller resolves once the hosted zone exists, and a relative name such as www is placed under the zone's domain. The controller writes the result back onto each resource, so a successful reconcile is visible in its status:

kubectl get hostedzone example-com -n ack-system -o jsonpath='{.status.id}'
kubectl get recordset www -n ack-system -o jsonpath='{.status.status}'

The hosted zone reports its Route 53 ID, such as /hostedzone/Z0123456789ABCDEFGHIJ, and the record set reports INSYNC once Route 53 has applied the change. The name servers to delegate the domain to are in the hosted zone's status.delegationSet.nameServers.

A record that already exists in Route 53 can be brought under the controller instead of recreated. Set services.k8s.aws/adoption-policy to adopt-or-create, and the controller takes over the matching record if it exists or creates it if it does not:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: route53.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: RecordSet
metadata:
  name: api
  namespace: ack-system
  annotations:
    services.k8s.aws/adoption-policy: adopt-or-create
spec:
  name: api
  hostedZoneRef:
    from:
      name: example-com
  recordType: A
  resourceRecords:
    - value: 192.0.2.20
  ttl: 300
EOF

Configuration

The chart's deletionPolicy decides what happens to the AWS resource when its custom resource is deleted. It defaults to delete, which removes the hosted zone, record, or health check along with the Kubernetes object. Set it to retain when the Kubernetes objects are managed by a pipeline that may recreate or prune them, so that deleting a manifest cannot take a production DNS record offline:

cat > values.yaml <<EOF
image:
  repository: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/aws-route53-controller-fips
  tag: latest
aws:
  region: us-east-1
deletionPolicy: retain
leaderElection:
  enabled: true
  namespace: ack-system
serviceAccount:
  annotations:
    eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::AWS_ACCOUNT_ID:role/IAM_ROLE_NAME
EOF

Apply it with the same chart. helm upgrade --install both creates the release and updates an existing one, so the same command works whether or not the controller is already deployed:

helm upgrade --install ack-route53-controller \
  oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/route53-chart \
  --namespace ack-system --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml --wait

Under retain the controller clears its finalizer and leaves the AWS resource in place. A single resource can opt into the same behavior with the services.k8s.aws/deletion-policy: retain annotation, which takes precedence over the chart setting. leaderElection is worth enabling alongside it whenever the Deployment runs more than one replica, so only one controller reconciles at a time.

To see every value the chart accepts, including the resource-specific reconcile settings:

helm show values oci://public.ecr.aws/aws-controllers-k8s/route53-chart

Documentation and Resources

• AWS Route 53 Controller GitHub project
• ACK controller installation with Helm
• ACK deletion policy documentation
• ACK features, including resource adoption
• AWS Controllers for Kubernetes documentation

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