Artifact Registry Vpc Sc Cmek Binary Authorization

What the solution is

This architecture combines Artifact Registry Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK), VPC Service Controls (VPC SC) perimeters, and Binary Authorization on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to establish an end-to-end secure software supply chain.

How it meets the requirements

• Company-controlled encryption: Configuring Artifact Registry with CMEK ensures that container images and layers are encrypted at rest using a dedicated Cloud KMS key managed by the organization's security team.
• Exfiltration and perimeter protection: Adding the Artifact Registry and Container Security API (containersecurity.googleapis.com) services to a VPC Service Controls perimeter prevents data exfiltration and restricts unauthorized ingress/egress across project boundaries.
• Block non-compliant deployments: Deploying Binary Authorization admission controllers on GKE ensures that images must possess valid cryptographic attestations (such as passing vulnerability scan checks in CI/CD) before they are permitted to run in production.

Key advantages and capabilities

• Comprehensive perimeter isolation: Secures artifact access and vulnerability reporting endpoints without exposing service APIs to public data exfiltration.
• Cryptographic verification: Enforces deploy-time compliance by checking attestations generated during CI vulnerability scanning.
• Centralized key rotation: Allows instant revocation of repository data access by disabling the Cloud KMS key.
• Automated enforcement: Prevents human error or unauthorized deployments via Kubernetes validating admission webhooks.

Why this is optimal

This approach directly addresses storage encryption, network-level data exfiltration boundaries, and deploy-time admission enforcement natively within Google Cloud without requiring third-party runtime agents or unmanaged custom scripts.