nerdctl supports encryption and decryption using OCIcrypt (aka imgcrypt for containerd).

Use openssl to create a private key (mykey.pem) and the corresponding public key (mypubkey.pem):

openssl genrsa -out mykey.pem
openssl rsa -in mykey.pem -pubout -out mypubkey.pem

Use nerdctl image encrypt to create an encrypted image:

nerdctl image encrypt --recipient=jwe:mypubkey.pem --platform=linux/amd64,linux/arm64 foo example.com/foo:encrypted
nerdctl push example.com/foo:encrypted

⚠️ CAUTION: This command only encrypts image layers, but does NOT encrypt container configuration such as Env and Cmd. To see non-encrypted information, run nerdctl image inspect --mode=native --platform=PLATFORM example.com/foo:encrypted .

Put the private key files to /etc/containerd/ocicrypt/keys (for rootless ~/.config/containerd/ocicrypt/keys).

version = 2

[stream_processors]
  [stream_processors."io.containerd.ocicrypt.decoder.v1.tar.gzip"]
    accepts = ["application/vnd.oci.image.layer.v1.tar+gzip+encrypted"]
    returns = "application/vnd.oci.image.layer.v1.tar+gzip"
    path = "ctd-decoder"
    args = ["--decryption-keys-path", "/etc/containerd/ocicrypt/keys"]
  [stream_processors."io.containerd.ocicrypt.decoder.v1.tar"]
    accepts = ["application/vnd.oci.image.layer.v1.tar+encrypted"]
    returns = "application/vnd.oci.image.layer.v1.tar"
    path = "ctd-decoder"
    args = ["--decryption-keys-path", "/etc/containerd/ocicrypt/keys"]

# NOTE: On rootless, ~/.config/containerd is mounted as /etc/containerd in the namespace.

No flag is needed for running encrypted images with nerdctl run, as long as the private key is stored in /etc/containerd/ocicrypt/keys (for rootless ~/.config/containerd/ocicrypt/keys).

Just run nerdctl run example.com/encrypted-image.

To decrypt an image without running a container, use nerdctl image decrypt command:

nerdctl pull --unpack=false example.com/foo:encrypted
nerdctl image decrypt --key=mykey.pem example.com/foo:encrypted foo:decrypted

(Undocumented yet)

(Undocumented yet)

(Undocumented yet)

• https://github.com/containerd/imgcrypt (High-level library for containerd, using containers/ocicrypt)
• https://github.com/containers/ocicrypt (Low-level library, used by containerd/imgcrypt)
• opencontainers/image-spec#775 (Proposal for OCI Image Spec)
• https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/main/docs/cri/decryption.md (configuration guide)
  • The plugins."io.containerd.grpc.v1.cri" section does not apply to nerdctl, as nerdctl does not use CRI