FIPS mode with RHEL RPM-based installations

Using FIPS with MicroShift requires enabling the cryptographic module self-checks in your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) installation. After the host operating system has been configured to start with the FIPS modules, MicroShift containers are automatically enabled to run in FIPS mode.

  • When RHEL is started in FIPS mode, MicroShift core components use the RHEL cryptographic libraries that have been submitted to NIST for FIPS 140-2/140-3 validation on only the x86_64 architectures.

  • You must enable FIPS mode when you install RHEL 9 on the machines that you plan to use as worker machines.

    Important

    Because FIPS must be enabled before the operating system that your node uses starts for the first time, you cannot enable FIPS after you deploy a node.

  • MicroShift uses a FIPS-compatible Golang compiler.

  • FIPS is supported in the CRI-O container runtime.

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