Use CA certificates with Docker

Table of contents

Caution

Best practices should be followed when using Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) CA certificates in production containers. If compromised, attackers could intercept sensitive data, spoof a trusted service, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks. Consult your security team before you proceed.

If your company uses a proxy that inspects HTTPS traffic, you might need to add the required root certificates to your host machine and your Docker containers or images. This is because Docker and its containers, when pulling images or making network requests, need to trust the proxy’s certificates.

On the host, adding the root certificate ensures that any Docker commands (like docker pull) work without issues. For containers, you'll need to add the root certificate to the container's trust store either during the build process or at runtime. This ensures that applications running inside the containers can communicate through the proxy without encountering security warnings or connection failures.

Add CA certificate to the host

The following sections describe how to install CA certificates on your macOS or Windows host. For Linux, refer to the documentation for your distribution.

macOS

  1. Download the CA certificate for your MITM proxy software.
  2. Open the Keychain Access app.
  3. In Keychain Access, select System, then switch to the Certificates tab.
  4. Drag-and-drop the downloaded certificate into the list of certificates. Enter your password if prompted.
  5. Find the newly added certificate, double-click it, and expand the Trust section.
  6. Set Always Trust for the certificate. Enter your password if prompted.
  7. Start Docker Desktop and verify that docker pull works, assuming Docker Desktop is configured to use the MITM proxy.

Windows

Choose whether you want to install the certificate using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or your web browser.

  1. Download CA certificate for the MITM proxy software.
  2. Open the Microsoft Management Console (mmc.exe).
  3. Add the Certificates Snap-In in the MMC.
    1. Select File → Add/Remove Snap-in, and then select Certificates → Add >.
    2. Select Computer Account and then Next.
    3. Select Local computer and then select Finish.
  4. Import the CA certificate:
    1. From the MMC, expand Certificates (Local Computer).
    2. Expand the Trusted Root Certification Authorities section.
    3. Right-click Certificates and select All Tasks and Import….
    4. Follow the prompts to import your CA certificate.
  5. Select Finish and then Close.
  6. Start Docker Desktop and verify that docker pull succeeds (assuming Docker Desktop is already configured to use the MITM proxy server).

Note

Depending on the SDK and/or runtime/framework in use, further steps may be required beyond adding the CA certificate to the operating system's trust store.

  1. Download the CA certificate for your MITM proxy software.
  2. Open your web browser, go to Settings and open Manage certificates
  3. Select the Trusted Root Certification Authorities tab.
  4. Select Import, then browse for the downloaded CA certificate.
  5. Select Open, then choose Place all certificates in the following store.
  6. Ensure Trusted Root Certification Authorities is selected and select Next.
  7. Select Finish and then Close.
  8. Start Docker Desktop and verify that docker pull succeeds (assuming Docker Desktop is already configured to use the MITM proxy server).

Add CA certificates to Linux images and containers

If you need to run containerized workloads that rely on internal or custom certificates, such as in environments with corporate proxies or secure services, you must ensure that the containers trust these certificates. Without adding the necessary CA certificates, applications inside your containers may encounter failed requests or security warnings when attempting to connect to HTTPS endpoints.

By adding CA certificates to images at build time, you ensure that any containers started from the image will trust the specified certificates. This is particularly important for applications that require seamless access to internal APIs, databases, or other services during production.

In cases where rebuilding the image isn't feasible, you can instead add certificates to containers directly. However, certificates added at runtime won’t persist if the container is destroyed or recreated, so this method is typically used for temporary fixes or testing scenarios.

Add certificates to images

Note

The following commands are for an Ubuntu base image. If your build uses a different Linux distribution, use equivalent commands for package management (apt-get, update-ca-certificates, and so on).

To add ca certificate to a container image when you're building it, add the following instructions to your Dockerfile.

# Install the ca-certificate package
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y ca-certificates
# Copy the CA certificate from the context to the build container
COPY your_certificate.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/
# Update the CA certificates in the container
RUN update-ca-certificates

Add certificates to containers

Note

The following commands are for an Ubuntu-based container. If your container uses a different Linux distribution, use equivalent commands for package management (apt-get, update-ca-certificates, and so on).

To add a CA certificate to a running Linux container:

  1. Download the CA certificate for your MITM proxy software.

  2. If the certificate is in a format other than .crt, convert it to .crt format:

    Example command
    $ openssl x509 -in cacert.der -inform DER -out myca.crt

  3. Copy the certificate into the running container:

    $ docker cp myca.crt <containerid>:/tmp

  4. Attach to the container:

    $ docker exec -it <containerid> sh

  5. Ensure the ca-certificates package is installed (required for updating certificates):

    # apt-get update && apt-get install -y ca-certificates

  6. Copy the certificate to the correct location for CA certificates:

    # cp /tmp/myca.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/root_cert.crt

  7. Update the CA certificates:

    # update-ca-certificates
    Example output
    Updating certificates in /etc/ssl/certs...
rehash: warning: skipping ca-certificates.crt, it does not contain exactly one certificate or CRL
1 added, 0 removed; done.

  8. Verify that the container can communicate via the MITM proxy:

    # curl https://example.com
    Example output
    <!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example Domain</title>
...