Private Registry Deployment and Hardening

Private Registry Deployment and Hardening

Private registry deployment provides control over image storage and distribution. Self-hosted registries enable air-gapped environments and data sovereignty compliance. However, private registries require careful hardening to match cloud provider security. Storage backend security, network isolation, and high availability all need consideration.

Storage backend selection impacts both performance and security. Object storage provides scalability but requires secure configuration. Filesystem storage simplifies deployment but limits scalability. Encrypted storage protects at-rest data but impacts performance. Organizations must evaluate storage options based on security requirements and operational constraints.

# Example: Docker Registry configuration with security hardening
version: 0.1
log:
  level: info
  formatter: json
  fields:
    service: registry
    environment: production

storage:
  s3:
    region: us-east-1
    bucket: secure-registry-storage
    encrypt: true
    secure: true
    chunksize: 5242880
    rootdirectory: /registry
    serverside_encryption:
      type: aws:kms
      key_id: arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789:key/registry-key

auth:
  htpasswd:
    realm: Registry Realm
    path: /auth/htpasswd

middleware:
  registry:
    - name: cloudfront
      options:
        baseurl: https://registry.company.com/
        privatekey: /keys/cloudfront-key.pem
        keypairid: APKAEXAMPLE
        duration: 3000s
        ipfilteredby: aws
  
  repository:
    - name: redirect
      options:
        baseurl: https://registry.company.com/

  storage:
    - name: cloudfront
      options:
        baseurl: https://cdn.company.com/

health:
  storagedriver:
    enabled: true
    interval: 10s
    threshold: 3
  
  tcp:
    - addr: redis:6379
      timeout: 3s
      interval: 10s
      threshold: 3

redis:
  addr: redis:6379
  password: ${REDIS_PASSWORD}
  db: 0
  dialtimeout: 10ms
  readtimeout: 10ms
  writetimeout: 10ms
  pool:
    maxidle: 16
    maxactive: 64
    idletimeout: 300s

http:
  addr: :5000
  net: tcp
  prefix: /v2
  host: https://registry.company.com
  secret: ${REGISTRY_HTTP_SECRET}
  tls:
    certificate: /certs/registry.crt
    key: /certs/registry.key
    minimumtls: tls1.2
    ciphersuites:
      - TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
      - TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  headers:
    X-Content-Type-Options: [nosniff]
    X-Frame-Options: [DENY]
    Strict-Transport-Security: [max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains]

Network security for private registries requires defense in depth. TLS encryption protects image transfers from tampering. Network segmentation isolates registries from general traffic. Web application firewalls filter malicious requests. Rate limiting prevents denial of service attacks. Load balancers provide high availability while maintaining security boundaries.