checkov-fips

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for checkov-fips

Static code and composition analysis tool for infrastructure as code (FIPS)

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/checkov-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 checkov-fips image is a FIPS-mode drop-in replacement for the upstream bridgecrew/checkov container image. Unlike upstream which runs as root, the Chainguard image runs as the nonroot user (uid 65532) — bind-mounted IaC directories must be readable by that user.

FIPS Support

This image ships with the OpenSSL FIPS provider activated via openssl-config-fipshardened. Cryptographic operations performed by Python's hashlib (and any libraries that go through it) are restricted to FIPS-approved algorithms. Key FIPS features include:

• FIPS-validated OpenSSL provider — cryptographic operations use the FIPS module
• Approved algorithms only — non-approved algorithms are rejected at runtime
• FIPS-mode enforcement — the Python interpreter's _hashlib module honors the OpenSSL FIPS configuration

Checkov's hashlib.md5 and hashlib.sha1 call sites are patched to pass usedforsecurity=False so the tool can run under FIPS without aborting on its non-cryptographic hash usage (e.g. cache keys, fingerprinting).

The bundled helm and kustomize binaries used for checkov's helm and kustomize framework scans are FIPS variants (helm-fips, kustomize-fips) built against the FIPS-validated Go toolchain.

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

Getting Started

Scan a directory of Terraform, Kubernetes, Dockerfile, or other supported IaC files:

docker run --rm \
  -v "${PWD}:/work" -w /work \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/checkov-fips:latest \
  -d . --framework terraform

GitHub Actions

The image's entrypoint is the upstream entrypoint.sh, which translates INPUT_* environment variables into checkov CLI flags:

- uses: docker://cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/checkov-fips:latest
  with:
    directory: .
    framework: terraform

Scan Kubernetes resources at runtime

Checkov can be deployed as a Kubernetes Job to scan live cluster resources. The upstream project ships a reference job manifest with the required Namespace, ServiceAccount, and read-only RBAC. Swap the image reference to point at this image:

containers:
  - name: checkov
    image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/checkov-fips:latest

Apply the manifest and read the scan output from the Job's logs:

kubectl apply -f checkov-job.yaml
kubectl logs -n checkov job/checkov

Documentation and Resources

• Checkov documentation
• Checkov on GitHub
• Supported frameworks and checks

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.