Chainguard Container for istio

Istio is a service mesh that extends Kubernetes to provide traffic management, telemetry, security, and policy for complex deployments.

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/istio:latest

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

Istio Images

• cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-install-cni: Installs the CNI plugin required to enable Istio sidecar injection without NET_ADMIN privileges.
• cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-pilot: Manages service discovery, config distribution, and dynamic traffic management.
• cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-proxy: A hardened build of Envoy with Istio-specific extensions and iptables.
• cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-operator: Manages installation and lifecycle of Istio via Kubernetes CRDs.

Installation with Helm

These images can be used by overriding the default image values in the official Istio Helm charts.

First, add the Istio Helm repository:

helm repo add istio https://istio-release.storage.googleapis.com/charts
helm repo update

Then install Istio using a single helm install command. Below is a basic example installing the Istio base, control plane, and CNI plugin.

helm install istio-base istio/base -n istio-system --create-namespace

helm install istiod istio/istiod -n istio-system \
  --set global.proxy.image=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-proxy \
  --set pilot.image=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-pilot

helm install istio-cni istio/cni -n istio-system \
  --set cni.enabled=true \
  --set cni.image=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-install-cni \
  --set cni.cniConfDir="/var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set cni.cniBinDir="/opt/cni/bin"

To use the Istio Operator:

helm install istio-operator istio/operator -n istio-operator-system --create-namespace \
  --set operator.image=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-operator

Installation with Helm Using values.yaml

If you prefer to keep your customisations in a file instead of long --set strings, create a small values.yaml for each chart you install.

Why one file per chart?
The Istio Helm repository publishes separate charts (base, istiod, cni, operator).
Each chart has its own values schema, so you pass the file that matches the chart you’re installing.

istiod-values.yaml

# istiod-values.yaml
global:
  proxy:
    image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-proxy     # Envoy + iptables
pilot:
  image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-pilot       # Control-plane

Install:

helm install istiod istio/istiod \
  -n istio-system -f istiod-values.yaml

istio-cni-values.yaml

# istio-cni-values.yaml
cni:
  enabled: true
  image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-install-cni
  cniConfDir: /var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/etc/cni/net.d
  cniBinDir: /opt/cni/bin

Install:

helm install istio-cni istio/cni \
  -n istio-system -f istio-cni-values.yaml

istio-operator-values.yaml

# istio-operator-values.yaml
operator:
  image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/istio-operator

Install:

helm install istio-operator istio/operator \
  -n istio-operator-system --create-namespace \
  -f istio-operator-values.yaml

Documentation and Resources

You can learn more about Istio by following the official documentation.
If you’re working with the operator, the IstioOperator API reference is useful.
For advanced Helm tuning, consult the installation‑options reference.

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard Containers are minimal container images that are secure by default.

In many cases, the Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest contain only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager. Chainguard Containers are built with Wolfi, our Linux undistro 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 -dev variant.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they feature additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to leverage the -dev variants, copying application artifacts into a final minimal container that offers a reduced attack surface that won’t allow package installations or logins.

Learn More

To better understand how to work with Chainguard Containers, please visit Chainguard Academy and Chainguard Courses.

In addition to Containers, Chainguard offers VMs and Libraries. Contact Chainguard to access additional products.

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.