pdns-auth-fips

Chainguard Container for pdns-auth-fips

PowerDNS Authoritative Server - High-performance DNS server with flexible backend support.

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/pdns-auth-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

The Chainguard pdns-auth-fips image is comparable to the PowerDNS Authoritative Server Docker image. Like all Chainguard images, this container image is minimal and does not include unnecessary components such as a shell or package manager in the production variant, while maintaining full compatibility with PowerDNS functionality.

FIPS Support

The pdns-auth-fips Chainguard Image ships with a validated redistribution of OpenSSL's FIPS provider module, ensuring cryptographic operations meet Federal Information Processing Standards requirements. This makes it suitable for government and regulated environments requiring FIPS-validated cryptography.

Exclusions: The FIPS variant does not include the following due to their dependency on libsodium, which cannot be used in FIPS mode:

• zeromq - ZeroMQ messaging library
• sdig - PowerDNS sdig diagnostic tool

For more information on FIPS support in Chainguard Images, consult the guide on FIPS-enabled Chainguard Images on Chainguard Academy.

Getting Started

PowerDNS Authoritative Server is a high-performance DNS server with support for multiple backends, DNSSEC, and a comprehensive API for management and monitoring. The FIPS variant ensures all cryptographic operations comply with FIPS 140-3 standards.

Docker

Run PowerDNS Authoritative Server with FIPS-validated cryptography using Docker:

docker run --rm --sysctl net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=0 \
  -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp -p 8081:8081 \
  -v $(pwd)/pdns.conf:/etc/pdns.conf:ro \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/pdns-auth-fips:latest

This example assumes you have a pdns.conf file in your current directory. See the Configuration section below for examples.

Note: The --sysctl net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=0 parameter allows binding to privileged ports (ports < 1024, such as port 53) as a non-root user. This is safer than using --cap-add=NET_BIND_SERVICE and is a safe sysctl option. Alternatively, configure PowerDNS to use a non-privileged port (e.g., 5353) which requires no special permissions.

Kubernetes

Deploy PowerDNS Authoritative Server in Kubernetes with ConfigMaps for configuration and zone files:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: pdns-config
data:
  pdns.conf: |
    launch=bind
    bind-config=/etc/pdns/named.conf

    local-address=0.0.0.0
    local-port=53

    socket-dir=/tmp

    api=yes
    api-key=your-secure-api-key
    webserver=yes
    webserver-address=0.0.0.0
    webserver-port=8081

    log-dns-queries=yes
    loglevel=5
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: pdns-zones
data:
  named.conf: |
    zone "example.com" {
      type master;
      file "/etc/pdns/zones/example.com.zone";
    };
  example.com.zone: |
    $TTL 3600
    $ORIGIN example.com.
    @       IN      SOA     ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. (
                            2024010101      ; Serial
                            3600            ; Refresh
                            1800            ; Retry
                            604800          ; Expire
                            86400 )         ; Minimum TTL
    @       IN      NS      ns1.example.com.
    ns1     IN      A       192.168.1.10
    www     IN      A       192.168.1.20
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: pdns-auth-fips
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: pdns-auth-fips
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: pdns-auth-fips
    spec:
      securityContext:
        sysctls:
        - name: "net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start"
          value: "0"
      containers:
      - name: pdns-auth
        image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/pdns-auth-fips:latest
        ports:
        - name: dns-udp
          containerPort: 53
          protocol: UDP
        - name: dns-tcp
          containerPort: 53
          protocol: TCP
        - name: api
          containerPort: 8081
          protocol: TCP
        volumeMounts:
        - name: config
          mountPath: /etc/pdns.conf
          subPath: pdns.conf
        - name: zones
          mountPath: /etc/pdns/named.conf
          subPath: named.conf
        - name: zones
          mountPath: /etc/pdns/zones/example.com.zone
          subPath: example.com.zone
        livenessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /api/v1/servers/localhost
            port: 8081
            httpHeaders:
            - name: X-API-Key
              value: your-secure-api-key
          initialDelaySeconds: 10
          periodSeconds: 10
        readinessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /api/v1/servers/localhost
            port: 8081
            httpHeaders:
            - name: X-API-Key
              value: your-secure-api-key
          initialDelaySeconds: 5
          periodSeconds: 5
      volumes:
      - name: config
        configMap:
          name: pdns-config
      - name: zones
        configMap:
          name: pdns-zones

Apply the configuration:

kubectl apply -f pdns-deployment.yaml

Verify the deployment is running:

kubectl get pods -l app=pdns-auth-fips

Test DNS queries:

kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- pdnsutil list-zones

Configuration

Basic Configuration Example

Here's a basic pdns.conf file for the BIND backend with API enabled:

# Backend Configuration
launch=bind
bind-config=/etc/pdns/named.conf

# Network Settings
local-address=0.0.0.0
local-port=53

# API Configuration
api=yes
api-key=your-secure-api-key-here
webserver=yes
webserver-address=0.0.0.0
webserver-port=8081
webserver-allow-from=0.0.0.0/0

# Logging
log-dns-queries=yes
loglevel=5

Zone File Example

Create a named.conf file to define your zones:

zone "example.com" {
  type master;
  file "/etc/pdns/zones/example.com.zone";
};

And a corresponding zone file (example.com.zone):

$TTL 3600
$ORIGIN example.com.
@       IN      SOA     ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. (
                        2024010101      ; Serial
                        3600            ; Refresh
                        1800            ; Retry
                        604800          ; Expire
                        86400 )         ; Minimum TTL
@       IN      NS      ns1.example.com.
ns1     IN      A       192.168.1.10
www     IN      A       192.168.1.20

Other Backend Options

PowerDNS supports various backends including:

• PostgreSQL: High-performance SQL backend with encryption support
• MySQL/MariaDB: Popular SQL backend option with TLS connections
• SQLite: Lightweight embedded database
• LDAP: Directory service integration
• GeoIP: Geographic load balancing

Consult the PowerDNS documentation for backend-specific configuration.

Documentation and Resources

• PowerDNS Authoritative Server Documentation
• PowerDNS API Reference
• Getting Started with PowerDNS
• Backend Configuration Guide
• Chainguard FIPS Images Guide
• Chainguard Images Overview

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard's free tier of Starter container images are built with Wolfi, our minimal Linux undistro.

All other Chainguard Containers are built with Chainguard OS, Chainguard's minimal Linux operating system 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 development, or -dev, variant.

In all other cases, including Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest or with a specific version number, the container images include only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they include additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to copy artifacts from the -dev variant into a more minimal production image.

Need additional packages?

To improve security, Chainguard Containers include only essential dependencies. Need more packages? Chainguard customers can use Custom Assembly to add packages, either through the Console, chainctl, or API.

To use Custom Assembly in the Chainguard Console: navigate to the image you'd like to customize in your Organization's list of images, and click on the Customize image button at the top of the page.

Learn More

Refer to our Chainguard Containers documentation on Chainguard Academy. Chainguard also offers VMs and Libraries — contact us for access.

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.