How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

Most Snyk commands require authentication. Provide an API token through the SNYK_TOKEN environment variable when running the container.

Start a Snyk DHI container

Replace <tag> with the image variant you want to run.

# Check the Snyk CLI version
$ docker run --rm dhi.io/snyk:<tag> --version

Common Snyk DHI use cases

Test a project for vulnerabilities

Mount your project and pass your API token:

$ docker run --rm -e SNYK_TOKEN -v "$PWD:/project" -w /project dhi.io/snyk:<tag> test

Scan a container image

$ docker run --rm -e SNYK_TOKEN dhi.io/snyk:<tag> container test alpine:3.20

Run the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server

The Snyk CLI ships an MCP server in the same binary. Start it over stdio so an AI assistant can call Snyk scans as tools:

$ docker run --rm -i -e SNYK_TOKEN dhi.io/snyk:<tag> mcp -t stdio

Use in a CI pipeline (multi-stage Dockerfile)

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM dhi.io/snyk:<tag> AS scan
ARG SNYK_TOKEN
COPY . /project
WORKDIR /project
RUN snyk test --severity-threshold=high

Non-hardened images vs Docker Hardened Images

Image variants

Runtime variants are designed to run Snyk commands in production and CI. These images typically:

• Run as the nonroot user
• Contain only the Snyk CLI and essential dependencies (ca-certificates)
• Require docker debug for any debugging needs

Dev variants include -dev in the variant name and tag. They are build-time images intended for multi-stage Dockerfiles. These variants:

• Run as root user
• Include a shell and system package manager
• Include standard development packages (bash, ca-certificates, coreutils, findutils)
• Should not be used in production

FIPS variants include -fips in the variant name and tag and are published for the Debian-based image only (upstream provides no FIPS build for Alpine). They ship the official Snyk FIPS CLI binary, which provides FIPS 140 validated cryptography through the system OpenSSL and its FIPS provider, both included in the image. FIPS mode is enforced: the binary refuses to start if the FIPS provider is unavailable. Usage is otherwise identical to the corresponding runtime and dev variants. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate from the official snyk/snyk images to Docker Hardened Images, update your deployment configuration and potentially your Dockerfile.

Troubleshooting migration

Authentication

Most Snyk commands require an authenticated session. Pass -e SNYK_TOKEN to the container, or run snyk auth from a dev variant to populate the configuration mounted at the user's home directory.

Permissions

By default, runtime image variants run as the nonroot user. Snyk writes its cache and configuration under the home directory (/home/nonroot). Ensure any mounted project files are accessible to the nonroot user.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10.