Chainguard Container for jre

Minimalist Wolfi-based Java JRE image using OpenJDK. Used for running Java applications.

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/jre:latest

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

Compatibility Notes

Like most available alternatives, Chainguard's JRE image is built directly from the OpenJDK project. The Chainguard JRE image has few-to-zero CVEs and does not run as the root user.

Getting Started

A JRE is the standard runtime for a Java application and is used for running an already developed and packaged Java application. Generally, you will combine your application with the Chainguard JRE image and Docker or a build tool like Maven or Gradle

Using Jib to build a JRE-based application image

Using Maven or Gradle, you can compile and package your application. Jib is a tool from Google Container Tools which builds optimized Docker and OCI images for Java applications. It's available as a plugin for both Maven and Gradle, as well as a Java library.

The Jib GitHub repository includes a useful example application that works with Maven or Gradle.

Using Helm to Deploy your Java Application

Using Helm to deploy your JRE-based application image is relatively straightforward using either this Kubernetes Service Helm Chart or this Service Helm Chart from ArtifactHub.

Documentation and Resources

• (Video) How to Migrate a Java Application to Chainguard Images
• (Video) Building Minimal Images for Applications with Runtimes
• (Learning Lab) Chainguard's Java Image Learning Lab
• (Blog) Building minimal and low CVE images for Java

The latest builds of Chainguard's JRE image pass the TCK for OpenJDK Java 21.0.3 and Java 22.0.1 as provided by OpenJDK Community TCK License Agreement (OCTLA) and are Java Compatibility Kit (JCK) conformant.

Get this image as a Chainguard VM

This image is also available as a Chainguard VM, available to deploy on Amazon AWS EC2, Google Cloud Compute Engine, Microsoft Azure and On-Prem through VMware, KVM and QEMU virtualization. Complete our registration form to get access to Chainguard VMs and try it out for yourself.

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.