diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index bb5f202e..c42f2de5 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@ RUN \
   --mount=type=cache,target=/cache/gocache \
   --mount=type=cache,target=/cache/gomodcache \
   mkdir out && \
-  export GOCACHE=/cache/gocache GOMODCACHE=/cache/gomodcache CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 && \
+  export GOCACHE=/cache/gocache && \
+  export GOMODCACHE=/cache/gomodcache && \
+  export CGO_ENABLED=0 && \
+  export GOOS=linux && \
+  export GOARCH=amd64 && \
   go build -v -trimpath -ldflags "$(hack/get-ldflags.sh) -w -s" -o /usr/local/bin/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent ./cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/... && \
   go build -v -trimpath -ldflags "$(hack/get-ldflags.sh) -w -s" -o /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server ./cmd/pinniped-server/... && \
   ln -s /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server /usr/local/bin/pinniped-concierge && \
diff --git a/cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/main.go b/cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/main.go
index af96c5f8..78b0fb7f 100644
--- a/cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/main.go
+++ b/cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/main.go
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"time"
 
-	// This side effect import ensures that we use fipsonly crypto during TLS in fips_strict mode.
+	// This side effect import ensures that we use fipsonly crypto in boringcrypto mode.
 	//
 	// Commenting this out because it causes the runtime memory consumption of this binary to increase
 	// from ~1 MB to ~8 MB (as measured when running the sleep subcommand). This binary does not use TLS,
@@ -25,11 +25,8 @@ import (
 	//nolint:godot // This is not sentence, it is a commented out line of import code.
 	// _ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/crypto/ptls"
 
-	// This side effect imports cgo so that runtime/cgo gets linked, when in fips_strict mode.
-	// Without this line, the binary will exit 133 upon startup in fips_strict mode.
-	// It also enables fipsonly tls mode, just to be absolutely sure that the fips code is enabled,
-	// even though it shouldn't be used currently by this binary.
-	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/crypto/fips"
+	// This side effect ensures building with at least go1.19.
+	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/build"
 )
 
 //nolint:gochecknoglobals // these are swapped during unit tests.
diff --git a/cmd/pinniped-server/main.go b/cmd/pinniped-server/main.go
index df2917fb..3dd17233 100644
--- a/cmd/pinniped-server/main.go
+++ b/cmd/pinniped-server/main.go
@@ -15,11 +15,15 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets"
 
 	concierge "go.pinniped.dev/internal/concierge/server"
-	// this side effect import ensures that we use fipsonly crypto in fips_strict mode.
-	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/crypto/ptls"
 	lua "go.pinniped.dev/internal/localuserauthenticator"
 	"go.pinniped.dev/internal/plog"
 	supervisor "go.pinniped.dev/internal/supervisor/server"
+
+	// this side effect import ensures that we use fipsonly crypto in boringcrypto mode.
+	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/crypto/ptls"
+
+	// This side effect ensures building with at least go1.19.
+	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/build"
 )
 
 //nolint:gochecknoglobals // these are swapped during unit tests.
diff --git a/cmd/pinniped/main.go b/cmd/pinniped/main.go
index b4825b1e..63ef7c5f 100644
--- a/cmd/pinniped/main.go
+++ b/cmd/pinniped/main.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright 2020-2022 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
+// Copyright 2020-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
 package main
@@ -9,8 +9,11 @@ import (
 	"github.com/pkg/browser"
 
 	"go.pinniped.dev/cmd/pinniped/cmd"
-	// this side effect import ensures that we use fipsonly crypto in fips_strict mode.
+	// this side effect import ensures that we use fipsonly crypto in boringcrypto mode.
 	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/crypto/ptls"
+
+	// This side effect ensures building with at least go1.19.
+	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/build"
 )
 
 //nolint:gochecknoinits
diff --git a/hack/Dockerfile_fips b/hack/Dockerfile_fips
index bf883a6a..447b1f7d 100644
--- a/hack/Dockerfile_fips
+++ b/hack/Dockerfile_fips
@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@
 # Copyright 2022-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-# this dockerfile is used to produce a binary of Pinniped that uses
-# only fips-allowable ciphers.  Note that this is provided only as
-# an example.  Pinniped has no official support for fips and using
+# This dockerfile is used to produce a binary of Pinniped that uses
+# only FIPS-allowable ciphers.  Note that this is provided only as
+# an example.  Pinniped has no official support for FIPS and using
 # a version built from this dockerfile may have unforseen consquences.
 # Please do not create issues in regards to problems encountered by
 # using this dockerfile.  Using this dockerfile does not convey
-# any type of fips certification.
+# any type of FIPS certification.
 
 # Starting in 1.19, go-boringcrypto has been added to the main Go toolchain,
 # hidden behind a `GOEXPERIMENT=boringcrypto` env var.
@@ -21,37 +21,15 @@ WORKDIR /work
 COPY . .
 ARG GOPROXY
 
-# Build the executable binary (CGO_ENABLED=1 is required for go boring).
-# Even though we need cgo to call the boring crypto C functions, these
-# functions are statically linked into the binary.  We also want to statically
-# link any libc bits hence we pass "-linkmode=external -extldflags -static"
-# to the ldflags directive.  We do not pass "-s" to ldflags because we do
-# not want to strip symbols - those are used to verify if we compiled correctly.
-# We do not pass in GOCACHE (build cache) and GOMODCACHE (module cache)
-# because there have been bugs in the Go compiler caching when using cgo
-# (it will sometimes use cached artifiacts when it should not).  Since we
-# use gcc as the C compiler, the following warning is emitted:
-# /boring/boringssl/build/../crypto/bio/socket_helper.c:55: warning:
-# Using 'getaddrinfo' in statically linked applications requires at
-# runtime the shared libraries from the glibc version used for linking
-# This is referring to the code in
-# https://github.com/google/boringssl/blob/af34f6460f0bf99dc267818f02b2936f60a30de7/crypto/bio/socket_helper.c#L55
-# which calls the getaddrinfo function.  This function, even when statically linked,
-# uses dlopen to dynamically fetch networking config.  It is safe for us to ignore
-# this warning because the go boring cypto code does not create netowrking connections:
-# https://github.com/golang/go/blob/9d6ab825f6fe125f7ce630e103b887e580403802/src/crypto/internal/boring/goboringcrypto.h
-# The osusergo and netgo tags are used to make sure that the Go implementations of these
-# standard library packages are used instead of the libc based versions.
-# We want to have no reliance on any C code other than the boring crypto bits.
-# Setting GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 is a hard requirment for boring crypto:
-# https://github.com/golang/go/blob/9d6ab825f6fe125f7ce630e103b887e580403802/misc/boring/README.md?plain=1#L95
-# Thus trying to compile the pinniped CLI with boring crypto is meaningless
-# since we would not be able to ship windows and macOS binaries.
+# GOEXPERIMENT=boringcrypto will tell both Pinniped source code and Golang to use boringcrypto
 RUN \
   mkdir out && \
-  export CGO_ENABLED=1 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 GOEXPERIMENT=boringcrypto && \
-  go build -tags fips_strict,osusergo,netgo -v -trimpath -ldflags "$(hack/get-ldflags.sh) -w -linkmode=external -extldflags -static" -o /usr/local/bin/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent ./cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/... && \
-  go build -tags fips_strict,osusergo,netgo -v -trimpath -ldflags "$(hack/get-ldflags.sh) -w -linkmode=external -extldflags -static" -o /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server ./cmd/pinniped-server/... && \
+  export CGO_ENABLED=1 && \
+  export GOOS=linux && \
+  export GOARCH=amd64 && \
+  export GOEXPERIMENT=boringcrypto && \
+  go build -tags osusergo,netgo -v -trimpath -ldflags "$(hack/get-ldflags.sh) -w -linkmode=external -extldflags -static" -o /usr/local/bin/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent ./cmd/pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent/... && \
+  go build -tags osusergo,netgo -v -trimpath -ldflags "$(hack/get-ldflags.sh) -w -linkmode=external -extldflags -static" -o /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server ./cmd/pinniped-server/... && \
   ln -s /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server /usr/local/bin/pinniped-concierge && \
   ln -s /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server /usr/local/bin/pinniped-supervisor && \
   ln -s /usr/local/bin/pinniped-server /usr/local/bin/local-user-authenticator
diff --git a/hack/check-copyright-year.sh b/hack/check-copyright-year.sh
index 0870da68..4341f19c 100755
--- a/hack/check-copyright-year.sh
+++ b/hack/check-copyright-year.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,6 @@ if [[ "${#missing_copyright_files[@]}" -gt "0" ]]; then
     for f in "${missing_copyright_files[@]}"; do
         echo "    $f"
     done
-    echo "Try using hack/update-copyright-year.sh to update the copyright automatically in staged files."
+    echo "Try using ./hack/update-copyright-year.sh to update the copyright automatically in staged files."
     exit 1
 fi
diff --git a/internal/build/package.go b/internal/build/package.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..335c1e27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/build/package.go
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+// Copyright 2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+package build
diff --git a/internal/build/requires_1.19.go b/internal/build/requires_1.19.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9772e131
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/build/requires_1.19.go
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+// Copyright 2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+//go:build !go1.19
+
+package build
+
+func init() {
+	// fail unless compiling with 1.19+
+	"requires go1.19 or greater"
+}
diff --git a/internal/crypto/fips/doc.go b/internal/crypto/fips/doc.go
deleted file mode 100644
index e265bb85..00000000
--- a/internal/crypto/fips/doc.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright 2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
-// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-
-// Package fips can be imported to enable fipsonly tls mode when compiling with fips_strict.
-// It will also cause cgo to be explicitly imported when compiling with fips_strict.
-package fips
diff --git a/internal/crypto/fips/fips_strict.go b/internal/crypto/fips/fips_strict.go
deleted file mode 100644
index f9459b62..00000000
--- a/internal/crypto/fips/fips_strict.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright 2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
-// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-
-//go:build fips_strict
-
-package fips
-
-import (
-	"C"                     // explicitly import cgo so that runtime/cgo gets linked into the kube-cert-agent
-	_ "crypto/tls/fipsonly" // restricts all TLS configuration to FIPS-approved settings.
-)
diff --git a/internal/crypto/ptls/boringcrypto.go b/internal/crypto/ptls/boringcrypto.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6d27dc5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/crypto/ptls/boringcrypto.go
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+// Copyright 2022-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+//go:build boringcrypto
+
+package ptls
+
+import (
+	"C"                     // explicitly import cgo
+	_ "crypto/tls/fipsonly" // restricts all TLS configuration to FIPS-approved settings.
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"runtime"
+
+	"go.pinniped.dev/internal/plog"
+)
+
+func init() {
+	switch filepath.Base(os.Args[0]) {
+	case "pinniped-server", "pinniped-supervisor", "pinniped-concierge", "pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent":
+	default:
+		return // do not print FIPS logs if we cannot confirm that we are running a server binary
+	}
+
+	// this init runs before we have parsed our config to determine our log level
+	// thus we must use a log statement that will always print instead of conditionally print
+	plog.Always("using boring crypto in fips only mode", "go version", runtime.Version())
+}
diff --git a/internal/crypto/ptls/default.go b/internal/crypto/ptls/default.go
index 98a70015..a1aa006a 100644
--- a/internal/crypto/ptls/default.go
+++ b/internal/crypto/ptls/default.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2021-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-//go:build !fips_strict
+//go:build !boringcrypto
 
 package ptls
 
diff --git a/internal/crypto/ptls/fips_strict.go b/internal/crypto/ptls/default_boringcrypto.go
similarity index 71%
rename from internal/crypto/ptls/fips_strict.go
rename to internal/crypto/ptls/default_boringcrypto.go
index d5039854..feb53929 100644
--- a/internal/crypto/ptls/fips_strict.go
+++ b/internal/crypto/ptls/default_boringcrypto.go
@@ -1,10 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2022-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-// The configurations here override the usual ptls.Secure, ptls.Default, and ptls.DefaultLDAP
-// configs when Pinniped is built in fips-only mode.
-// All of these are the same because FIPs is already so limited.
-//go:build fips_strict
+//go:build boringcrypto
 
 package ptls
 
@@ -15,17 +12,9 @@ import (
 	"path/filepath"
 	"runtime"
 
-	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options"
-
-	// Cause fipsonly tls mode with this side effect import.
-	_ "go.pinniped.dev/internal/crypto/fips"
 	"go.pinniped.dev/internal/plog"
 )
 
-// Always use TLS 1.2 for FIPs
-const secureServingOptionsMinTLSVersion = "VersionTLS12"
-const SecureTLSConfigMinTLSVersion = tls.VersionTLS12
-
 func init() {
 	switch filepath.Base(os.Args[0]) {
 	case "pinniped-server", "pinniped-supervisor", "pinniped-concierge", "pinniped-concierge-kube-cert-agent":
@@ -52,7 +41,7 @@ func Default(rootCAs *x509.CertPool) *tls.Config {
 		// optional root CAs, nil means use the host's root CA set
 		RootCAs: rootCAs,
 
-		// This is all of the fips-approved ciphers.
+		// This is all the fips-approved ciphers.
 		// The list is hard-coded for convenience of testing.
 		// This is kept in sync with the boring crypto compiler via TestFIPSCipherSuites.
 		CipherSuites: []uint16{
@@ -66,14 +55,6 @@ func Default(rootCAs *x509.CertPool) *tls.Config {
 	}
 }
 
-func Secure(rootCAs *x509.CertPool) *tls.Config {
-	return Default(rootCAs)
-}
-
 func DefaultLDAP(rootCAs *x509.CertPool) *tls.Config {
 	return Default(rootCAs)
 }
-
-func secureServing(opts *options.SecureServingOptionsWithLoopback) {
-	defaultServing(opts)
-}
diff --git a/internal/crypto/ptls/old.go b/internal/crypto/ptls/old.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 0848df7d..00000000
--- a/internal/crypto/ptls/old.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright 2021-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
-// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-
-//go:build !go1.19
-
-package ptls
-
-func init() {
-	// cause compile time failure if an older version of Go is used
-	`Pinniped's TLS configuration makes assumptions about how the Go standard library implementation of TLS works.
-It particular, we rely on the server controlling cipher suite selection.  For these assumptions to hold, Pinniped
-must be compiled with Go 1.19+.  If you are seeing this error message, your attempt to compile Pinniped with an
-older Go compiler was explicitly failed to prevent an unsafe configuration.`
-}
diff --git a/internal/crypto/ptls/secure.go b/internal/crypto/ptls/secure.go
index 68e65b0e..84d3ea17 100644
--- a/internal/crypto/ptls/secure.go
+++ b/internal/crypto/ptls/secure.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2021-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-//go:build !fips_strict
+//go:build !boringcrypto
 
 package ptls
 
diff --git a/internal/crypto/ptls/secure_boringcrypto.go b/internal/crypto/ptls/secure_boringcrypto.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..82ee0a06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/crypto/ptls/secure_boringcrypto.go
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+// Copyright 2021-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+//go:build boringcrypto
+
+package ptls
+
+import (
+	"crypto/tls"
+	"crypto/x509"
+
+	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options"
+)
+
+// secureServingOptionsMinTLSVersion is the minimum tls version in the format
+// expected by SecureServingOptions.MinTLSVersion from
+// k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/options.
+//
+// Always use TLS 1.2 for FIPs.
+const secureServingOptionsMinTLSVersion = "VersionTLS12"
+
+// SecureTLSConfigMinTLSVersion is the minimum tls version in the format expected
+// by tls.Config.
+const SecureTLSConfigMinTLSVersion = tls.VersionTLS12
+
+func Secure(rootCAs *x509.CertPool) *tls.Config {
+	return Default(rootCAs)
+}
+
+func secureServing(opts *options.SecureServingOptionsWithLoopback) {
+	defaultServing(opts)
+}
diff --git a/site/content/docs/reference/fips.md b/site/content/docs/reference/fips.md
index e3391b18..6f603b3e 100644
--- a/site/content/docs/reference/fips.md
+++ b/site/content/docs/reference/fips.md
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ menu:
 By default, the Pinniped supervisor and concierge use ciphers that
 are not supported by FIPS 140-2. If you are deploying Pinniped in an
 environment with FIPS compliance requirements, you will have to build
-the binaries yourself using the `fips_strict` build tag and Golang's
-`go-boringcrypto` fork.
+the binaries yourself using Golang 1.19 and the `GOEXPERIMENT=boringcrypto` build tag.
 
 The Pinniped team provides an [example Dockerfile](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/pinniped/blob/main/hack/Dockerfile_fips)
 demonstrating how you can build Pinniped images in a FIPS compatible way.
diff --git a/test/integration/securetls_fips_test.go b/test/integration/securetls_fips_test.go
index 5a35ab5e..521784c5 100644
--- a/test/integration/securetls_fips_test.go
+++ b/test/integration/securetls_fips_test.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2021-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-//go:build fips_strict
+//go:build boringcrypto
 
 package integration
 
diff --git a/test/testlib/securetls_preference_fips.go b/test/testlib/securetls_preference_fips.go
index 3d76932e..303eb435 100644
--- a/test/testlib/securetls_preference_fips.go
+++ b/test/testlib/securetls_preference_fips.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2022-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-//go:build fips_strict
+//go:build boringcrypto
 
 package testlib
 
diff --git a/test/testlib/securetls_preference_nonfips.go b/test/testlib/securetls_preference_nonfips.go
index 3306a9c1..d1f74400 100644
--- a/test/testlib/securetls_preference_nonfips.go
+++ b/test/testlib/securetls_preference_nonfips.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2022-2023 the Pinniped contributors. All Rights Reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-//go:build !fips_strict
+//go:build !boringcrypto
 
 package testlib