Minimus is shutting down its hardened container image registry, with a 60-day maintenance window ending October 22, 2026, after which images stop receiving updates and unpatched CVEs accumulate. Docker is offering free migration assistance to affected Minimus customers, positioning Docker Hardened Images (DHI) as a drop-in replacement compatible with Alpine and Debian Dockerfiles. Docker outlines its migration guide, checklist, worked examples, and an AI assistant (Gordon) to help with the swap, while touting DHI's 4,000+ image catalog, near-zero CVEs, SBOMs, SLSA Build Level 3 provenance, and cryptographic signatures.
Questions this post answers
When does the Minimus container image registry shut down and what happens to images after that?
The Minimus registry goes offline on October 22, 2026, following a 60-day maintenance window during which images still receive upstream updates. Images already pulled will keep running after that date, but no further updates will ship and any new CVE discovered afterward stays unpatched, so teams running Minimus images in production need a migration plan before then. Track migration deadlines like this one and plan container upgrades ahead of time on daily.dev.
How do I migrate from Minimus images to Docker Hardened Images?
Migration is largely a drop-in swap rather than a rebuild, since for most services the only change needed is updating the FROM line in the Dockerfile, because Docker Hardened Images are compatible with Alpine and Debian. Docker provides a migration guide, a checklist to track each image through the swap and verification, worked examples, and an AI assistant called Gordon that runs the first migration pass. Developers evaluating container base image migrations can follow ongoing coverage on daily.dev.
What security guarantees do Docker Hardened Images provide compared to standard public images?
Docker Hardened Images ship with near-zero CVEs, full unsuppressed CVE visibility, a complete SBOM, SLSA Build Level 3 provenance, and cryptographic signatures. Teams moving from standard public images see up to 95% CVE reduction and up to 90% attack-surface reduction, with paid tiers adding SLA-backed remediation, FIPS and STIG variants, and up to five years of coverage past end of life. Compare hardened image options and container security trade-offs by following updates on daily.dev.
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