Manage OCI Artifacts and Supply Chain Artifacts with ORAS

  • Article

Azure container registry (ACR) helps you manage both the Open container initiative (OCI) artifacts and supply chain artifacts. This article guides you how to use ACR for managing OCI artifacts and supply chain artifacts effectively. Learn to store, manage, and retrieve both OCI artifacts and a graph of supply chain artifacts, including signatures, software bill of materials (SBOM), security scan results, and other types.

This article is divided into two main sections:

Prerequisites

  • Azure container registry - Create a container registry in your Azure subscription. For example, use the Azure portal or the Azure CLI.
  • Azure CLI - Version 2.29.1 or later is required. See Install Azure CLI for installation and/or upgrade.
  • ORAS CLI - Version v1.1.0 or later version is required. See: ORAS installation.
  • Docker (Optional) - To complete the walkthrough, a container image is referenced. You can use Docker installed locally to build and push a container image, or use acr build to build remotely in Azure.
    While Docker Desktop isn't required, the oras cli utilizes the Docker desktop credential store for storing credentials. If Docker Desktop is installed, it must be running for oras login.

Configure the registry

To configure your environment for easy command execution, follow these steps:

  1. Set the ACR_NAME variable to your registry name.
  2. Set the REGISTRY variable to $ACR_NAME.azurecr.cn.
  3. Set the REPO variable to your repository name.
  4. Set the TAG variable to your desired tag.
  5. Set the IMAGE variable to $REGISTRY/${REPO}:$TAG.

Set environment variables

Configure a registry name, login credentials, a repository name, and tag to push and pull artifacts. The following example uses the net-monitor repository name and v1 tag. Replace with your own repository name and tag.

ACR_NAME=myregistry
REGISTRY=$ACR_NAME.azurecr.cn
REPO=net-monitor
TAG=v1
IMAGE=$REGISTRY/${REPO}:$TAG

Sign in to a registry

Authenticate with the ACR, for allowing you to pull and push container images.

az cloud set -n AzureChinaCloud
az login  
# az cloud set -n AzureCloud   //means return to Public Azure.
az acr login -n $REGISTRY

If Docker isn't available, you can utilize the AD token provided for authentication. Authenticate with your individual Microsoft Entra identity using an AD token. Always use "000..." for the USER_NAME as the token is parsed through the PASSWORD variable.

# Login to Azure
az cloud set -n AzureChinaCloud
az login
# az cloud set -n AzureCloud   //means return to Public Azure.

Sign in with ORAS

Provide the credentials to oras login.

oras login $REGISTRY \
    --username $USER_NAME \
    --password $PASSWORD

This setup enables you to seamlessly push and pull artifacts to and from your Azure Container Registry. Adjust the variables as needed for your specific configuration.

Push and Pull OCI Artifacts with ORAS

You can use an Azure container registry to store and manage Open Container Initiative (OCI) artifacts as well as Docker and OCI container images.

To demonstrate this capability, this section shows how to use the OCI Registry as Storage (ORAS) CLI to push and pull OCI artifacts to/from an Azure container registry. You can manage various OCI artifacts in an Azure container registry using different command-line tools appropriate to each artifact.

Note

ACR and ORAS support multiple authentication options for users and system automation. This article uses individual identity, using an Azure token. For more authentication options see Authenticate with an Azure container registry.

Push an artifact

A single file artifact that has no subject parent can be anything from a container image, a helm chart, a readme file for the repository. Reference artifacts can be anything from a signature, software bill of materials, scan reports, or other evolving types. Reference artifacts, described in Attach, push, and pull supply chain artifacts are artifacts that refer to another artifact.

Push a Single-File Artifact

For this example, create content that represents a markdown file:

echo 'Readme Content' > readme.md

The following step pushes the readme.md file to <myregistry>.azurecr.cn/samples/artifact:readme.

  • The registry is identified with the fully qualified registry name <myregistry>.azurecr.cn (all lowercase), followed by the namespace and repo: /samples/artifact.
  • The artifact is tagged :readme, to identify it uniquely from other artifacts listed in the repo (:latest, :v1, :v1.0.1).
  • Setting --artifact-type readme/example differentiates the artifact from a container image, which uses application/vnd.oci.image.config.v1+json.
  • The ./readme.md identifies the file uploaded, and the :application/markdown represents the IANA mediaType of the file.
    For more information, see OCI Artifact Authors Guidance.

Use the oras push command to push the file to your registry.

Linux, WSL2 or macOS

oras push $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme \
    --artifact-type readme/example \
    ./readme.md:application/markdown

Windows

.\oras.exe push $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme ^
    --artifact-type readme/example ^
    .\readme.md:application/markdown

Output for a successful push is similar to the following output:

Uploading 2fdeac43552b readme.md
Uploaded  2fdeac43552b readme.md
Pushed <myregistry>.azurecr.cn/samples/artifact:readme
Digest: sha256:e2d60d1b171f08bd10e2ed171d56092e39c7bac1
aec5d9dcf7748dd702682d53

Push a multi-file artifact

When OCI artifacts are pushed to a registry with ORAS, each file reference is pushed as a blob. To push separate blobs, reference the files individually, or collection of files by referencing a directory.
For more information how to push a collection of files, see Pushing artifacts with multiple files.

Create some documentation for the repository:

echo 'Readme Content' > readme.md
mkdir details/
echo 'Detailed Content' > details/readme-details.md
echo 'More detailed Content' > details/readme-more-details.md

Push the multi-file artifact:

Linux, WSL2 or macOS

oras push $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme \
    --artifact-type readme/example\
    ./readme.md:application/markdown\
    ./details

Windows

.\oras.exe push $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme ^
    --artifact-type readme/example ^
    .\readme.md:application/markdown ^
    .\details

Discover the manifest

To view the manifest created as a result of oras push, use oras manifest fetch:

oras manifest fetch --pretty $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme

The output is similar to:

{
  "mediaType": "application/vnd.oci.artifact.manifest.v1+json",
  "artifactType": "readme/example",
  "blobs": [
    {
      "mediaType": "application/markdown",
      "digest": "sha256:2fdeac43552b71eb9db534137714c7bad86b53a93c56ca96d4850c9b41b777fc",
      "size": 15,
      "annotations": {
        "org.opencontainers.image.title": "readme.md"
      }
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "application/vnd.oci.image.layer.v1.tar+gzip",
      "digest": "sha256:0d6c7434a34f6854f971487621426332e6c0fda08040b9e6cc8a93f354cee0b1",
      "size": 189,
      "annotations": {
        "io.deis.oras.content.digest": "sha256:11eceb2e7ac3183ec9109003a7389468ec73ad5ceaec0c4edad0c1b664c5593a",
        "io.deis.oras.content.unpack": "true",
        "org.opencontainers.image.title": "details"
      }
    }
  ],
  "annotations": {
    "org.opencontainers.artifact.created": "2023-01-10T14:44:06Z"
  }
}

Pull an artifact

Create a clean directory for downloading.

mkdir ./download

Run the oras pull command to pull the artifact from your registry.

oras pull -o ./download $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme

View the pulled files

tree ./download

Remove the artifact (optional)

To remove the artifact from your registry, use the oras manifest delete command.

 oras manifest delete $REGISTRY/samples/artifact:readme

Attach, push, and pull supply chain artifacts with ORAS

To demonstrate this capability, this article shows how to use the OCI Registry as Storage (ORAS) CLI to push, discover, and pull a graph of supply chain artifacts to an Azure container registry. Storing individual (subject) OCI Artifacts are covered in Push and pull OCI artifacts.

To store a graph of artifacts, a reference to a subject artifact is defined using the OCI image manifest, which is part of the prerelease OCI 1.1 Distribution specification.

Push a container image

To associate a graph of artifacts with a container image using the Azure CLI:

You can build and push a container image, or skip this step if $IMAGE references an existing image in the registry.

az acr build -r $ACR_NAME -t $IMAGE https://github.com/wabbit-networks/net-monitor.git#main

Attaching a Signature

echo '{"artifact": "'${IMAGE}'", "signature": "jayden hancock"}' > signature.json

Attach a signature to the registry, as a reference to the container image

The oras attach command creates a reference between the file (./signature.json) to the $IMAGE. The --artifact-type provides for differentiating artifacts, similar to file extensions that enable different file types. One or more files can be attached by specifying [file]:[mediaType].

oras attach $IMAGE \
    --artifact-type signature/example \
    ./signature.json:application/json

For more information on oras attach, see ORAS documentation.

Attach a multi-file artifact as a reference

When OCI artifacts are pushed to a registry with ORAS, each file reference is pushed as a blob. To push separate blobs, reference the files individually, or collection of files by referencing a directory.
For more information how to push a collection of files, see Pushing artifacts with multiple files.

Discovering artifact references

The OCI v1.1 Specification defines a referrers API for discovering references to a subject artifact. The oras discover command can show the list of references to the container image.

Using oras discover, view the graph of artifacts now stored in the registry.

oras discover -o tree $IMAGE

The output shows the beginning of a graph of artifacts, where the signature and docs are viewed as children of the container image.

myregistry.azurecr.cn/net-monitor:v1
├── signature/example
│   └── sha256:555ea91f39e7fb30c06f3b7aa483663f067f2950dcb...
└── readme/example
    └── sha256:1a118663d1085e229ff1b2d4d89b5f6d67911f22e55...

Creating Artifacts graphs

The OCI v1.1 Specification enables deep graphs, enabling signed software bill of materials (SBOM) and other artifact types.

Here's how to create and attach an SBOM to the registry:

Create a sample SBOM

echo '{"version": "0.0.0.0", "artifact": "'${IMAGE}'", "contents": "good"}' > sbom.json

Attach a sample SBOM to the image in the registry

Linux, WSL2 or macOS

oras attach $IMAGE \
  --artifact-type sbom/example \
  ./sbom.json:application/json

Windows

.\oras.exe attach $IMAGE ^
    --artifact-type sbom/example ^
    ./sbom.json:application/json

Sign the SBOM

Important

Azure recommends using a secure crypto signing tool, like Notation to sign the image and generate a signature for signing SBOMs.

Artifacts that are pushed as references, typically don't have tags as they're considered part of the subject artifact. To push a signature to an artifact that is a child of another artifact, use the oras discover with --artifact-type filtering to find the digest. This example uses a simple JSON signature for demonstration purposes.

SBOM_DIGEST=$(oras discover -o json \
                --artifact-type sbom/example \
                $IMAGE | jq -r ".manifests[0].digest")

Create a signature of an SBOM.

echo '{"artifact": "'$IMAGE@$SBOM_DIGEST'", "signature": "jayden hancock"}' > sbom-signature.json

Attach the SBOM signature

oras attach $IMAGE@$SBOM_DIGEST \
  --artifact-type 'signature/example' \
  ./sbom-signature.json:application/json

View the graph

oras discover -o tree $IMAGE

Generates the following output:

myregistry.azurecr.cn/net-monitor:v1
├── sbom/example
│   └── sha256:4f1843833c029ecf0524bc214a0df9a5787409fd27bed2160d83f8cc39fedef5
│       └── signature/example
│           └── sha256:3c43b8cb0c941ec165c9f33f197d7f75980a292400d340f1a51c6b325764aa93
├── readme/example
│   └── sha256:5fafd40589e2c980e2864a78818bff51ee641119cf96ebb0d5be83f42aa215af
└── signature/example
    └── sha256:00da2c1c3ceea087b16e70c3f4e80dbce6f5b7625d6c8308ad095f7d3f6107b5

Promoting the Artifact Graph

A typical DevOps workflow promotes artifacts from dev through staging, to the production environment. Secure supply chain workflows promote public content to privately secured environments. In either case you want to promote the signatures, SBOMs, scan results, and other related artifact with the subject artifact to have a complete graph of dependencies.

Using the oras copy command, you can promote a filtered graph of artifacts across registries.

Copy the net-monitor:v1 image, and related artifacts to sample-staging/net-monitor:v1:

TARGET_REPO=$REGISTRY/sample-staging/$REPO
oras copy -r $IMAGE $TARGET_REPO:$TAG

The output of oras copy:

Copying 6bdea3cdc730 sbom-signature.json
Copying 78e159e81c6b sbom.json
Copied  6bdea3cdc730 sbom-signature.json
Copied  78e159e81c6b sbom.json
Copying 7cf1385c7f4d signature.json
Copied  7cf1385c7f4d signature.json
Copying 3e797ecd0697 details
Copying 2fdeac43552b readme.md
Copied  3e797ecd0697 details
Copied  2fdeac43552b readme.md
Copied demo42.myregistry.io/net-monitor:v1 => myregistry.azurecr.cn/sample-staging/net-monitor:v1
Digest: sha256:ff858b2ea3cdf4373cba65d2ca6bcede4da1d620503a547cab5916614080c763

Discover the promoted artifact graph

oras discover -o tree $TARGET_REPO:$TAG

Output of oras discover:

myregistry.azurecr.cn/sample-staging/net-monitor:v1
├── sbom/example
│   └── sha256:4f1843833c029ecf0524bc214a0df9a5787409fd27bed2160d83f8cc39fedef5
│       └── signature/example
│           └── sha256:3c43b8cb0c941ec165c9f33f197d7f75980a292400d340f1a51c6b325764aa93
├── readme/example
│   └── sha256:5fafd40589e2c980e2864a78818bff51ee641119cf96ebb0d5be83f42aa215af
└── signature/example
    └── sha256:00da2c1c3ceea087b16e70c3f4e80dbce6f5b7625d6c8308ad095f7d3f6107b5

Pulling Referenced Artifacts

To pull a specific referenced artifact, the digest of reference is discovered with the oras discover command:

DOC_DIGEST=$(oras discover -o json \
              --artifact-type 'readme/example' \
              $TARGET_REPO:$TAG | jq -r ".manifests[0].digest")

Create a clean directory for downloading

mkdir ./download

Pull the docs into the download directory

oras pull -o ./download $TARGET_REPO@$DOC_DIGEST

View the docs

tree ./download

The output of tree:

./download
├── details
│   ├── readme-details.md
│   └── readme-more-details.md
└── readme.md

View the repository and tag listing

ORAS enables artifact graphs to be pushed, discovered, pulled, and copied without having to assign tags. It also enables a tag listing to focus on the artifacts users think about, as opposed to the signatures and SBOMs that are associated with the container images, helm charts, and other artifacts.

View a list of tags

oras repo tags $REGISTRY/$REPO

Deleting all artifacts in the graph

Support for the OCI v1.1 Specification enables deleting the graph of artifacts associated with the subject artifact. Use the oras manifest delete command to delete the graph of artifacts (signature, SBOM, and the signature of the SBOM).

oras manifest delete -f $REGISTRY/$REPO:$TAG

oras manifest delete -f $REGISTRY/sample-staging/$REPO:$TAG

You can view the list of manifests to confirm the deletion of the subject artifact, and all related artifacts leaving a clean environment.

az acr manifest list-metadata \
  --name $REPO \
  --registry $ACR_NAME -o jsonc

Output:

2023-01-10 18:38:45.366387 Error: repository "net-monitor" is not found.

Summary

In this article, you learned how to use Azure Container Registry to store, manage, and retrieve both OCI artifacts and supply chain artifacts. You used ORAS CLI to push and pull artifacts to/from an Azure Container Registry. You also discovered the manifest of the pushed artifacts and viewed the graph of artifacts attached to the container image.

Next steps

  • Learn about Artifact References, associating signatures, software bill of materials and other reference types.
  • Learn more about the ORAS Project, including how to configure a manifest for an artifact.
  • Visit the OCI Artifacts repo for reference information about new artifact types.