How does Binary Authorization work with container signing?

Binary Authorization uses a chain of trust: you create attestors backed by Cloud KMS keys or PGP keys, your CI/CD pipeline creates attestations (signatures) for container image digests after passing quality gates, and the Binary Authorization admission controller verifies these attestations at deploy time. Each attestation is linked to a specific image digest (sha256), not a tag, so even if someone re-tags a malicious image, it will not have a valid attestation.

Can I use Binary Authorization with Cloud Run?

Yes. Binary Authorization supports both GKE and Cloud Run. For Cloud Run, you enable the policy on a per-project or per-service basis. The same attestor and attestation workflow applies — your CI/CD pipeline signs the image digest, and Cloud Run verifies the attestation before allowing the revision to serve traffic.

GCP Binary Authorization Policy Builder

IAM & SecurityGCP

Build Binary Authorization admission policies with attestor requirements, cluster rules, and image allowlists.

Binary Authorization Configuration

Build Binary Authorization admission policies with attestor requirements, cluster rules, and image allowlists.

Required Fields

namedefaultAdmissionRule.evaluationModedefaultAdmissionRule.enforcementMode

{
  "name": "projects/my-project-id/policy",
  "globalPolicyEvaluationMode": "ENABLE",
  "defaultAdmissionRule": {
    "evaluationMode": "REQUIRE_ATTESTATION",
    "enforcementMode": "ENFORCED_BLOCK_AND_AUDIT_LOG",
    "requireAttestationsBy": [
      "projects/my-project-id/attestors/build-attestor",
      "projects/my-project-id/attestors/security-scan-attestor"
    ]
  },
  "clusterAdmissionRules": {
    "us-central1-a.prod-cluster": {
      "evaluationMode": "REQUIRE_ATTESTATION",
      "enforcementMode": "ENFORCED_BLOCK_AND_AUDIT_LOG",
      "requireAttestationsBy": [
        "projects/my-project-id/attestors/build-attestor",
        "projects/my-project-id/attestors/security-scan-attestor",
        "projects/my-project-id/attestors/qa-attestor"
      ]
    },
    "us-central1-a.dev-cluster": {
      "evaluationMode": "ALWAYS_ALLOW",
      "enforcementMode": "DRYRUN_AUDIT_LOG_ONLY"
    }
  },
  "admissionWhitelistPatterns": [
    {
      "namePattern": "gcr.io/google_containers/*"
    },
    {
      "namePattern": "us-docker.pkg.dev/my-project-id/approved-images/*"
    }
  ]
}

Generated Output

Output will appear here...

About This Tool

Binary Authorization is a deploy-time security control for GKE and Cloud Run that ensures only trusted container images run in your environments. It works by requiring attestations — cryptographic signatures from authorities you define — before a container image is admitted. This builder helps you configure Binary Authorization policies including default rules, cluster-specific rules, attestor definitions, and exemption patterns, generating the policy YAML and gcloud commands needed for enforcement.

When to Use This Tool

•Enforcing that only images signed by your CI/CD pipeline's attestor can deploy to production GKE clusters
•Creating a policy that requires attestations from both a vulnerability-scan attestor and a QA-approval attestor before production deployment
•Configuring dry-run mode to audit which deployments would be blocked without actually enforcing the policy
•Defining exemption image patterns for system containers like GKE-managed istio-proxy or kube-system images

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Binary Authorization work with container signing?: Binary Authorization uses a chain of trust: you create attestors backed by Cloud KMS keys or PGP keys, your CI/CD pipeline creates attestations (signatures) for container image digests after passing quality gates, and the Binary Authorization admission controller verifies these attestations at deploy time. Each attestation is linked to a specific image digest (sha256), not a tag, so even if someone re-tags a malicious image, it will not have a valid attestation.
Can I use Binary Authorization with Cloud Run?: Yes. Binary Authorization supports both GKE and Cloud Run. For Cloud Run, you enable the policy on a per-project or per-service basis. The same attestor and attestation workflow applies — your CI/CD pipeline signs the image digest, and Cloud Run verifies the attestation before allowing the revision to serve traffic.

Related Learning Guides

Artifact Registry Guide20 min read

Disclaimer: This tool runs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to our servers. Always verify outputs before using them in production. AWS, Azure, and GCP are trademarks of their respective owners.

GCP Binary Authorization Policy Builder

IAM & SecurityGCP

Build Binary Authorization admission policies with attestor requirements, cluster rules, and image allowlists.

Binary Authorization Configuration

Build Binary Authorization admission policies with attestor requirements, cluster rules, and image allowlists.

Required Fields

namedefaultAdmissionRule.evaluationModedefaultAdmissionRule.enforcementMode

Generated Output

Output will appear here...

About This Tool

When to Use This Tool

•Enforcing that only images signed by your CI/CD pipeline's attestor can deploy to production GKE clusters
•Creating a policy that requires attestations from both a vulnerability-scan attestor and a QA-approval attestor before production deployment
•Configuring dry-run mode to audit which deployments would be blocked without actually enforcing the policy
•Defining exemption image patterns for system containers like GKE-managed istio-proxy or kube-system images

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Binary Authorization work with container signing?: Binary Authorization uses a chain of trust: you create attestors backed by Cloud KMS keys or PGP keys, your CI/CD pipeline creates attestations (signatures) for container image digests after passing quality gates, and the Binary Authorization admission controller verifies these attestations at deploy time. Each attestation is linked to a specific image digest (sha256), not a tag, so even if someone re-tags a malicious image, it will not have a valid attestation.
Can I use Binary Authorization with Cloud Run?: Yes. Binary Authorization supports both GKE and Cloud Run. For Cloud Run, you enable the policy on a per-project or per-service basis. The same attestor and attestation workflow applies — your CI/CD pipeline signs the image digest, and Cloud Run verifies the attestation before allowing the revision to serve traffic.

Related Learning Guides

Artifact Registry Guide20 min read