Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Announcing General Availability of Bitnami Premium

Today the Bitnami team, part of VMware Tanzu, is thrilled to make two announcements. The first is that Bitnami Premium, a new commercial upgrade to the Bitnami Application Catalog containers and Helm charts, is now Generally Available. Second, we are kicking off a new endeavor with Arrow Electronics to facilitate a streamlined Bitnami Premium purchase and support experience.

A new commercial version of Bitnami open source containers and Helm charts

Enterprises that love Bitnami can now purchase a Bitnami Premium subscription from Arrow Electronics and consume the containers and Helm charts right in Docker Hub. Bitnami Premium users will get access to private Docker Hub repositories with the same containers and Helm charts they are used to, plus new commercial features including:
  • Enterprise support for all 500+ Bitnami Premium packages
  • All LTS branches of all Bitnami application packages maintained up-to-date
  • Unlimited pulls of all Bitnami Premium containers and Helm charts from Docker Hub
  • Secure software supply chain metadata including Software Bills of Material (SBOMs), SLSA 3 pipeline validation with in-toto attestations, Notation and Cosign signatures, Build-time CVE and anti-virus scan reports, and more.

Alongside the launch of Bitnami Premium, we are making some changes to how we deliver the Bitnami Application Catalog:

  • Unlimited pulls from Docker Hub will no longer be available. Free Bitnami Application Catalog containers and charts will be subject to the same limits as any other Docker Hub repos starting December 16th, 2024 January 6th, 2025. Pulls of Bitnami Premium containers and Helm charts will not count towards your  Docker Hub pull limits or overages.
    UPDATE: We’ve received a lot of feedback from the community on the impact of this update. We have decided to shift to a gradual implementation, starting with a 3-hour test December 16th, followed by a 12-hour test on December 19th. The permanent change is now scheduled for January 6th, 2025.
  • Long-term-support (LTS) branches of the software we package will no longer be maintained in the free Bitnami Application Catalog. To continue receiving updates for LTS branches of packages, you will have to upgrade to Bitnami Premium.
  • We are improving Bitnami Application Catalog users’ supply chain security through additional integrity checks in our Helm chart installation process. These checks enable users to be aware when they are using containers that were not created and tested by Bitnami.
These changes enable us to deliver a premium Bitnami experience to our enterprise users who will benefit from support and security metadata, but who do not need the extensive customization that is core to our other commercial offering called Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC). We are committed to continue delivering free Bitnami Application Catalog content to our community of developers and other open source project maintainers over the long term. 

Read on to learn more about Bitnami Premium and the coming changes to the free Bitnami Application Catalog content.

New goodness in Bitnami Premium

Bitnami Premium is a new version of the content packaged by Bitnami that is sold through Arrow Electronics. You can connect to an Arrow salesperson if you have any questions or want to purchase access. Once you buy Bitnami Premium, you will be given access to the Bitnami Premium registries in Docker Hub. You can then return to Docker Hub where you will have access to the Bitnami Premium containers, Helm charts, and software supply chain metadata from the new /bitnamiprem and /bitnamichartsprem orgs. These private repos are what enable you to pull without limits or caps. You will also see containers for all LTS branches continuously maintained up-to-date: for example, you will see PostgreSQL containers for versions 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17; while in the free Bitnami catalog, you will only find version 17.

A middle ground between free Bitnami Application Catalog and Tanzu Application Catalog customized packages.

In Bitnami Premium, all of the applications are built on Debian just as they are in the free Bitnami library. You get the entire library of containers and Helm charts kept up-to-date with the latest changes anywhere in each app from the OS to the application code itself. You can consume the content through Docker Hub where you’ve already been pulling it to date. However, in the Bitnami Premium registries, you will also find important software supply chain security metadata delivered as OCI artifacts alongside the containers and Helm charts. This metadata is useful for enterprises that need third-party open source software to be compliant with policies around auditability, supply chain integrity, and time to remediation of vulnerabilities.
  • Supply chain security and integrity: Bitnami Premium containers and Helm charts are built on an SLSA 3 pipeline, with attestations and signatures serving as proof that the software you’re deploying in your clusters is what you expect and has not been tampered with. 
  • Software bills of material (SBOMs): At both the Helm chart and container levels, SBOMs give you fine-grained insight into the contents of every package. This will make it far easier to continuously validate the integrity of software supply chains and to track and triage vulnerabilities as they are discovered and patched.
  • Build time CVE scans, anti-virus scans, and more: also included with Bitnami Premium content are Trivy CVE scan results and ClamAV scan results that satisfy requirements for, among other things, doing business with the US Federal government. You will also find the results of Bitnami’s automated functional tests that run as part of every artifact update, trigger information that specifies why the latest update was released, and more. 
Bitnami Premium differs from Tanzu Application Catalog in that, just like our free Bitnami content, it is a one-size-fits-all library of containers and Helm charts all built on Debian. Tanzu Application Catalog gives you the ability to customize your artifacts along many different dimensions. Some of the key differences include:
  • Private delivery: TAC containers and Helm charts are delivered directly to your private registries, or are hosted in a private registry maintained by us that you can pull from. 
  • Choose a Linux distro or use your own “golden image”: TAC gives you the ability to choose among four supported Linux distros: Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat UBI, or VMware’s own PhotonOS. All of the software packages on these distributions are maintained up-to-date and are tested to work in multiple Kubernetes environments as part of the release process. You can also use your own golden image: we’ll build and maintain the artifacts on top of it. For customers that need it, PhotonOS includes FIPS OpenSSL, is STIG-compliant, and includes zero/minimal CVES with VEX statements to triage any remaining ones.
  • App-specific customization: With TAC, you can inject your own customizations such as user settings, certificates, or plugins into our SLSA 3 pipeline, so the artifacts you receive are truly promotable to production environments.
  • Software knowledge graph: This keeps track of all your software dependencies at the individual package level. It continuously scans them for vulnerabilities, and organizes them into a searchable graph database so you can see in real-time which versions of which apps are affected and patched. It also includes useful information such as open source licenses, package management ecosystem data, and more.
  • UI and API: TAC includes access to a user interface where you can add and remove applications from your catalog, and interact with the software knowledge graph to see at-a-glance details about your software. The TAC API enables you to build information from the software knowledge graph into your pipelines to ensure you are keeping your applications up-to-date with the latest patched applications.
For a side-by-side comparison between Bitnami Application Catalog, Bitnami Premium, and Tanzu Application Catalog, check out this feature matrix.

Continuing our long tradition of partnerships

Since Bitnami’s beginning over a decade ago, our many partnerships have propelled us to be a leading publisher of open source software. Bitnami cloud images drive billions of compute hours annually for our hyperscale cloud partners, for example, and our containers and Helm charts are pulled hundreds of millions of times per month from our partners at Docker Hub.

We now begin our newest endeavor with Arrow Electronics. Arrow is a global leader in IT distribution. Arrow is known for its ability to help businesses navigate the complexities of modern IT landscapes, providing the tools, technology, and expertise needed to drive digital transformation and operational efficiency.

Arrow will sell Bitnami Premium access through its website. Bitnami users interested in purchasing Bitnami Premium will find a streamlined process to pay, share their Docker Hub user identification, and gain access to the private Bitnami Premium repos in Docker Hub. Bitnami Premium customers can add and remove users through Arrow's support team, as well as submit tickets for enterprise support jointly delivered by the software packaging experts at Arrow and Bitnami.



What changes are coming for the free Bitnami library?


Pull limits for free Bitnami content


Beginning December 16th, 2024, the Bitnami Application Catalog will use standard Docker Hub pull rate limits for Bitnami apps. Enterprise customers will be able to access the full Bitnami library in Bitnami Premium, purchased through the Arrow and consumed right in Docker Hub, with no rate limits or restrictions. Note that we are not changing any licenses for our packages, meaning that projects can continue to bundle our Helm charts and containers in their own application packages.


Long Term Support version updates


Many open source projects we publish packages for have multiple LTS versions supported by their communities. Currently, Bitnami maintains all of these LTS versions up-to-date. Starting December 10th, 2024, we will only continue updating the latest version available for apps in the free Bitnami Application Catalog. This will enable OSS projects and individual/small businesses to continue using the latest versions of Bitnami applications. Bitnami Premium customers who need to continue pulling up-to-date versions of LTS branches can access them in the Bitnami Premium repo in Docker Hub.


Supply chain integrity check in Bitnami Helm charts


Bitnami has invested hundreds of thousands of developer hours in constructing a world-leading pipeline to build, monitor, update, and test open source software in multiple Kubernetes environments. For these Helm charts to perform as intended and to leverage the many built-in security features, they need to deploy the Bitnami containers they were designed to work with. Therefore, we are adding new checks in the deployment process to ensure that the containers they were designed to deploy are the ones being deployed. 

Keep an eye out for more updates

We are excited to deliver an enhanced experience for Bitnami Premium users, but this is just the beginning. We will continue to build on the value that all of our Bitnami community members, both free and paid, realize through our many years of experience publishing high-quality open source software packages for the world’s developers.

Keep abreast of our blog for new updates and features, and be sure to check to follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Bitnami Helm charts moving to OCI

In January 2022, we announced the general availability of Helm charts in OCI registries, coinciding with the release of Helm version 3.8.0. In January 2023, Bitnami began populating and distributing the largest and most up-to-date Open-Source catalog of Helm charts in OCI format in Docker Hub

Since then, the adoption of the Bitnami Helm charts in OCI format has proliferated. Because charts stored in container registries follow OCI standards, developers can use many of the same tools for Helm charts that they use with container images. This makes integrating Helm into automated pipelines easier and uses modern infrastructure-as-code and deployment techniques like GitOps.

We would like to go further and help the Helm community to continue adopting the OCI distribution format. Starting November the 18th, 2024, Bitnami Helm charts will default to OCI. All the charts will remain Open Source and publicly available at https://hub.docker.com/u/bitnamicharts.

Why OCI Format?

1. Standardization and Interoperability

The OCI format offers a standardized way to package and distribute container images and related artifacts. This standardization fosters interoperability across different tools and platforms, making it easier for developers and operators to collaborate. By adopting OCI, Helm charts can seamlessly integrate with existing container ecosystems, enhancing compatibility with tools like Docker and container registries.

2. Enhanced Security

The OCI format promotes best practices for image signing and verification, allowing users to validate the integrity of their deployments. By adopting OCI, the Bitnami Helm charts leverage these security features. This ensures that the charts we publish are trustworthy and resilient against vulnerabilities.

3. Improved Distribution

With OCI-compliant registries becoming increasingly prevalent, moving to the OCI format allows for more efficient distribution of Helm charts. Users can store and manage Helm charts alongside container images in a single repository, simplifying workflows and reducing the complexity of multi-repository management.

4. Future-Proofing Our Ecosystem

The cloud-native landscape is dynamic, with new technologies and practices constantly emerging. By transitioning to the OCI format, Bitnami Helm charts are delivered in a way that sets developers up for success in this ever-changing environment.


The move to OCI format is more than just a technical shift; it’s an opportunity for the Helm community to enhance its capabilities, improve security, and simplify our workflows.

What will happen to the current index.yaml stored at charts.bitnami.com?


In order to guarantee a smoother transition, the index.yaml will continue existing as an OCI artifact in Docker Hub. Any users who still use the helm repo add command can continue using this approach to maintain backward compatibility. The Helm tooling manages this in a transparent manner.

The index.yaml will change the “URL” option to point to the new OCI versions of Helm charts:

   urls:

-    - https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami/airflow-18.3.2.tgz

+   - oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts/airflow:18.3.2


Users should not see any change for deploying Helm charts. The requirement is to use a Helm CLI greater than 3.8.0 to deploy them.

What will happen to the Bitnami Helm charts in tgz format?

The Bitnami Helm charts in tgz format will no longer be updated. Previous versions since 2023 are available at Docker Hub and it is easy to get the tgz format via Helm command:


    $ helm pull oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts/airflow –version 18.3.2


Older versions will continue to be available at the same URL for 6 months to ensure a smooth transition. Do not hesitate to contact us for any questions or suggestions at https://github.com/bitnami/charts/issues.


Thursday, September 26, 2024

Bitnami applications unaffected by recently announced CUPS server vulnerabilities

Several critical vulnerabilities for UNIX systems targeting the CUPS server were discovered and disclosed today. The researcher who discovered them published a technical report at https://www.evilsocket.net/2024/09/26/Attacking-UNIX-systems-via-CUPS-Part-I/


The vulnerabilities are listed below:

- CVE-2024-47176 | cups-browsed <= 2.0.1 binds on UDP INADDR_ANY:631 trusting any packet from any source to trigger a Get-Printer-Attributes IPP request to an attacker controlled URL.

- CVE-2024-47076 | libcupsfilters <= 2.1b1 cfGetPrinterAttributes5 does not validate or sanitize the IPP attributes returned from an IPP server, providing attacker controlled data to the rest of the CUPS system.

- CVE-2024-47175 | libppd <= 2.1b1 ppdCreatePPDFromIPP2 does not validate or sanitize the IPP attributes when writing them to a temporary PPD file, allowing the injection of attacker controlled data in the resulting PPD.

- CVE-2024-47177 | cups-filters <= 2.0.1 foomatic-rip allows arbitrary command execution via the FoomaticRIPCommandLine PPD parameter.


The impact is very high because a possible attacker can replace a printer resulting in arbitrary remote command execution (RCE).

Are Bitnami applications affected? Are Tanzu Application Catalog applications affected? No. 

No applications packaged by Bitnami or our enterprise version VMware Tanzu Application Catalog are affected: none of our containers, Helm charts, OVAs or Cloud Images ship the CUPS server or packages. For OVAs and Cloud Images, even the server is not installed by default, the firewall does not expose the CUPS default port.