Harbor Adapter Clair
Vulnerability scanner software
DevSecOps software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Harbor Adapter Clair and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Completely free
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Agriculture, fishing, and forestry
- Energy and utilities
- Healthcare and life sciences
What is Harbor Adapter Clair
Harbor Adapter Clair is a Harbor registry adapter that integrates the Clair vulnerability scanner with Harbor to scan container images stored in the registry. It is used by platform, DevOps, and security teams to identify known vulnerabilities in container images as part of CI/CD and registry governance workflows. The adapter runs as a service alongside Harbor and communicates scan requests and results between Harbor and a Clair instance. It is typically deployed in Kubernetes environments where Harbor is used as the container registry.
Native Harbor scanning integration
The adapter connects Harbor’s scanning framework to Clair so image scans can be initiated and viewed directly from Harbor. This supports registry-centric workflows where teams want vulnerability results tied to specific image tags and repositories. It reduces the need for separate user interfaces for basic scan consumption. It also aligns with common DevSecOps patterns that place security checks close to artifact storage.
Container-image vulnerability focus
The integration is purpose-built for container image vulnerability scanning rather than broader cloud posture or endpoint protection use cases. It supports scanning images already pushed to the registry, which helps catch issues before promotion to higher environments. This makes it suitable for organizations standardizing on Harbor as the artifact source of truth. It complements CI pipeline scanning by providing a registry-side control point.
Deployable as a service component
Harbor Adapter Clair is deployed as a discrete service, which can simplify operational separation between registry, scanner, and adapter components. Teams can scale or upgrade the scanner and adapter independently from Harbor within compatibility constraints. This modularity fits Kubernetes-based operations and GitOps-style deployments. It also allows organizations to standardize scanning across multiple Harbor projects using a shared scanner backend.
Depends on Clair capabilities
Scan depth, vulnerability source coverage, and supported artifact types are constrained by the Clair version and configuration in use. If teams require features such as advanced policy management, developer IDE integrations, or broader supply-chain controls, they may need additional tools. Results quality also depends on timely vulnerability database updates. The adapter itself does not add new detection logic beyond what Clair provides.
Primarily registry-side scanning
The adapter is oriented around scanning images after they are pushed to Harbor, not necessarily earlier in the developer workflow. Organizations that want shift-left controls (e.g., pre-commit, build-time gating, or dependency-level remediation guidance) may need to integrate separate tooling into CI. Registry-side scanning can also introduce latency if teams rely on scans to gate promotions. This can require careful pipeline and promotion design.
Operational and compatibility overhead
Running Harbor, the adapter, and Clair introduces additional components to deploy, monitor, and secure. Compatibility between Harbor’s scanning adapter API and specific adapter/scanner versions can affect upgrade planning. Troubleshooting often spans multiple services (Harbor core, adapter logs, Clair logs, database). This can increase operational burden compared with more consolidated platforms.
Seller details
Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a project of the Linux Foundation
San Francisco, CA, USA
2015
Non-profit
https://kubernetes.io/
https://x.com/kubernetesio
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloud-native-computing-foundation/
