Cosign

Overview

QCecuring integrates with Cosign to provide centralized key management and policy enforcement for container image signing in cloud-native and Kubernetes environments. This integration enables DevOps teams to sign and verify container images using keys managed and protected by QCecuring, ensuring supply chain security while maintaining operational agility.

Key capabilities

• Centralized management of signing keys used by Cosign for container images.
• Policy-driven controls for which pipelines and teams can sign which images.
• Automated key rotation and lifecycle management for Cosign signing keys.
• Integration with CI/CD pipelines for seamless container signing workflows.
• Complete audit trails for all container signing operations.
• Support for keyless signing and traditional key-based signing approaches.

Typical use cases

• Organizations implementing software supply chain security (SLSA framework).
• Kubernetes environments requiring signed container images for admission control.
• DevOps teams adopting Sigstore ecosystem for artifact signing and verification.
• Enterprises standardizing container image signing across multiple registries.
• Cloud-native applications requiring cryptographic proof of image provenance.

High-level integration flow

1. Configure Cosign integration in QCecuring with signing key profiles and policies.
2. Generate or import signing keys into QCecuring for use with Cosign operations.
3. CI/CD pipelines request container signing operations through QCecuring APIs.
4. QCecuring validates requests against policies and brokers Cosign signing operations.
5. Signed container images are pushed to registries with cryptographic signatures.
6. Verification workflows validate signatures using public keys managed by QCecuring.
7. All signing events are logged with metadata including image digests and timestamps.

Benefits

• Supply chain security: Cryptographically verify container image authenticity.
• Policy enforcement: Control which teams can sign which container images.
• Key protection: Secure signing keys with centralized management and rotation.
• CI/CD integration: Seamless integration with existing container build pipelines.
• Compliance: Maintain audit trails for container signing operations.
• Scalability: Handle high-volume signing operations across distributed environments.