kvm-device-plugin

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for kvm-device-plugin

Generic device plugin for Kubernetes configured to expose /dev/kvm as a schedulable resource, enabling secure virtualization access without requiring privileged mode.

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/kvm-device-plugin:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

What is KVM Device Plugin?

This is a generic device plugin configured specifically for KVM that exposes /dev/kvm as a schedulable Kubernetes resource (squat.ai/kvm), allowing containers to use KVM acceleration without requiring privileged: true. This significantly improves security by reducing the attack surface while still enabling VM-based workloads.

Usage

Deploy as a DaemonSet in your Kubernetes cluster:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  name: kvm-device-plugin-daemonset
  namespace: kube-system
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      name: kvm-device-plugin-ds
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        name: kvm-device-plugin-ds
    spec:
      hostNetwork: true
      containers:
      - image: cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/kvm-device-plugin:latest
        name: kvm-device-plugin-ctr
        securityContext:
          allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
          runAsNonRoot: true
          runAsUser: 65532
          runAsGroup: 65532
          readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
          capabilities:
            drop: ["ALL"]
        volumeMounts:
        - name: device-plugin
          mountPath: /var/lib/kubelet/device-plugins
        - name: dev
          mountPath: /dev
        - name: tmp
          mountPath: /tmp
      volumes:
      - name: device-plugin
        hostPath:
          path: /var/lib/kubelet/device-plugins
      - name: dev
        hostPath:
          path: /dev
      - name: tmp
        emptyDir: {}
      nodeSelector:
        node.kubernetes.io/instance-type: # Add node selector for KVM-capable nodes

Then pods can request KVM access:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: vm-workload
    image: my-vm-runner:latest
    resources:
      requests:
        squat.ai/kvm: "1"
      limits:
        squat.ai/kvm: "1"

Security

This image:

• Runs as a non-root user (UID/GID 65532)
• Uses minimal Wolfi-based packages
• No unnecessary capabilities or privileges
• Read-only root filesystem compatible

Source

This image uses the generic-device-plugin configured specifically for KVM device access. This approach provides better security and maintainability compared to KVM-specific device plugins.

• Upstream Project: squat/generic-device-plugin
• Configuration: Pre-configured for /dev/kvm device access
• Image Source: Built from Wolfi packages

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard Containers are minimal container images that are secure by default.

In many cases, the Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest contain only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager. Chainguard Containers are built with Wolfi, our Linux undistro designed to produce container images that meet the requirements of a more secure software supply chain.

The main features of Chainguard Containers include:

• Minimal design, without unnecessary software bloat
• Daily builds to ensure container images are up-to-date with available security patches
• High quality build-time SBOMs attesting to the provenance of all artifacts within the image
• Verifiable signatures provided by Sigstore
• Reproducible builds with Cosign and apko (read more about reproducibility)

For cases where you need container images with shells and package managers to build or debug, most Chainguard Containers come paired with a -dev variant.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they feature additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to leverage the -dev variants, copying application artifacts into a final minimal container that offers a reduced attack surface that won’t allow package installations or logins.

Learn More

To better understand how to work with Chainguard Containers, please visit Chainguard Academy and Chainguard Courses.

In addition to Containers, Chainguard offers VMs and Libraries. Contact Chainguard to access additional products.

Trademarks

This software listing is packaged by Chainguard. The trademarks set forth in this offering are owned by their respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by such companies.