GitHub Actions for Notation

This repository contains the implementation of GitHub Actions for Notation. It provides actions for signing and verifying OCI artifacts with Notation in CI/CD.

The following three actions are available:

• setup: Install Notation
• sign: Sign OCI artifacts with a specified Notation plugin
• verify: Verify signatures with Notation trust store and trust policy

[!NOTE] The Notary Project documentation is available here. You can also find the Notary Project README to learn about the overall Notary Project.

Usage

Signing an image relies on a Notation plugin, such as AWS Signer plugin for Notation, Azure Key Vault for Notation, HashiCorp Vault plugin.

Currently, Azure Key Vault plugin for Notation has been well tested in the Notation Github Actions by the sub-project maintainers. See this doc for hands-on steps if you want to use Notation with the AKV plugin. You can submit test cases and examples for other plugins here.

Notation Setup

- name: setup Notation CLI
  uses: notaryproject/notation-action/setup@v1
  with:
    version: <version_of_official_Notation_CLI_release>
    url: <url_of_customized_Notation_CLI>
    checksum: <SHA256_of_the_customized_Notation_CLI>

Notation Sign

- name: sign releasd artifact with signing plugin
  uses: notaryproject/notation-action/sign@v1
  with:
    plugin_name: <notation_signing_plugin_name>
    plugin_url: <plugin_download_url>
    plugin_checksum: <SHA256_of_the_signing_plugin>
    key_id: <key_identifier_to_sign>
    target_artifact_reference: <list_of_target_artifact_references_in_remote_registry>
    signature_format: <signature_envelope_format>
    plugin_config: <list_of_plugin_defined_configs>
    allow_referrers_api: <boolean_flag_for_referrers_api>

Notation Verify

- name: verify released artifact
  uses: notaryproject/notation-action/verify@v1
  with:
    target_artifact_reference: <list_of_target_artifact_references_in_remote_registry>
    trust_policy: <file_path_to_user_defined_trustpolicy.json>
    trust_store: <dir_to_user_trust_store>
    allow_referrers_api: <boolean_flag_for_referrers_api>

Authentication

To sign and verify an image stored in the private registry with Notation GitHub Actions, you need to authenticate with the registry and KMS (Key Management Service). See the following authentication options for references.

Registry authentication

• Use Docker login GitHub Action.
• Use vendor-based login GitHub Action, such as Amazon ECR "Login" Action for GitHub Actions, GitHub Action for Azure Login or Azure Container Registry Login GitHub Actions.

KMS authentication

If your signing key and certificate are stored in a KMS, make sure to authenticate with the KMS before signing the image in your GitHub Actions workflow.