copa is a CLI tool written in Go and based on BuildKit. It is designed to patch critical security vulnerabilities in container images quickly without requiring a full rebuild of the image. This is particularly useful for vulnerabilities inherited from deep base images or 3rd party images where the user does not control the update cadence.
Key capabilities include:
- Applying targeted updates based on supported scanner reports (e.g., Trivy).
- Performing comprehensive package updates without a report.
- Supporting containers without package managers, including distroless containers (note: wolfi-based images are not supported).
- Creating an additional patch layer rather than rebuilding the entire image, which preserves layer caching and reduces storage/transmission costs.