How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you’ve mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

Start an Istioctl image

The Istioctl image provides the istoctl binary for managing Istio installations. It is designed as a client-side CLI tool.

Replace <tag> with the image variant you want to use.

kubectl run istioctl --image=dhi.io/istioctl:<tag> \
  --rm -it --restart=Never -- --help

Common Istioctl use cases

Generate Istio installation manifests

Use istioctl to generate Istio manifests for review before installation:

kubectl run istioctl --image=dhi.io/istioctl:<tag> \
  --rm -it --restart=Never -- manifest generate

Docker Official Images vs. Docker Hardened Images

Key differences specific to the Istioctl DHI:

• Security hardening: Runs as a nonroot user by default
• Minimal tooling: No shell or package manager in runtime images
• SBOM included: Built-in software bill of materials for vulnerability tracking

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Runtime variants run as a nonroot user without a shell or package manager.

To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate to the Docker Hardened Istioctl image, update your image references:

image: dhi.io/istioctl:<tag>

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as a nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to that user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as a nonroot user can access them.

To view the user for an image variant, select the Tags tab for this repository.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

To see if a shell is available in an image variant and which one, select the Tags tab for this repository.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images.

To view the Entrypoint or CMD defined for an image variant, select the Tags tab for this repository, select a tag, and then select the Specifications tab.