Vulnerability scanner
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Updated at April 18, 2025
Vulnerability scanner is a service that enables you to:
- Statically analyze a Docker image for vulnerabilities in components, libraries, and dependencies used in the Docker image.
- Compare Docker image contents with the CVE vulnerability databases.
Vulnerability scanner only works with Docker images from Container Registry. Users can only scan Docker images they have permissions to.
For scanning, a Docker image is unpacked, and a search is performed for installed package versions (deb). The package versions identified are then checked against a database of known vulnerabilities.
Currently, Docker images are available and built for the following supported operating systems:
- Alpine 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, 3.14, 3.15, 3.16, 3.17, 3.19, 3.20
- Amazon 2 (Karoo)
- CentOS 5, 6, 7, 8
- Debian 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
- Redhat 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.8, 9.0, 9.1
- Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, 20.10, 21.04, 21.10, 22.04, 24.06
Note
Scanning Docker images for vulnerabilities is charged.
Types of scanning
You can scan Docker images pushed to a registry for vulnerabilities:
- Manually: A scan is run by the user.
- On push: Docker images are scanned automatically on push.
- On schedule: Docker images are scanned automatically according to a user-defined schedule.